Nicholas Lord

Urban security in Europe: Translating a concept in public criminology

A key challenge for public criminology is the translation between concepts employed in policy discourse and those used by social scientists. Given that concepts constitute social problems and they can have multiple meanings for policy-makers and social scientists, then deliberation about what they signify matters in understanding how these actors can talk to, rather than past, one another in framing policy discourse about crime and revealing alternative policy agendas. This challenge is accentuated in the comparative context of European criminology, which is characterized by competing tendencies to generalize about problems of ‘Freedom, Security and Justice’ and to recognize the variegated problems and cultures of control across Europe. In this context, the presumption of universality can mistranslate concepts of crime and control by obscuring contextual insight, while the presumption of particularity can inhibit cross-cultural dialogue and deliberation. The paper explores this challenge in relation to the concept of ‘urban security’, which is prevalent in the policy discourse on social crime prevention, particularly in Central and Southern Europe. To establish the provenance, prevalence and significance of this concept, the paper discusses findings from a policy Delphi that structured deliberation about the meaning of urban security among criminologists sampled from the European Society of Criminology and policy-makers sampled from the European Crime Prevention Network. It concludes with reflections on the value of deliberative methods, such as the policy Delphi, for the cross-cultural validation of criminological constructs in comparative research.

Responding to transnational corporate bribery using international frameworks for enforcement: Anti-bribery and corruption in the UK and Germany

Transnational corporate bribery is complexly organized at a multi-jurisdictional level. However, enforcement remains at the local, national level where investigators and prosecutors are pressured to respond using frameworks for enforcement created by intergovernmental organizations. These legal frameworks are incorporated into national laws which result in legal convergence between jurisdictions but the ‘functional equivalence’ approach of intergovernmental organizations enables divergence in enforcement practices. This article analyses two theoretically comparable anti-corruption enforcement systems, those of the UK and Germany, to evidence an understanding of policy responses at the operational level. Irrespective of the enforcement system implemented (centralized or decentralized, use of corporate criminal liability or not, among other dimensions), enforcement faces significant structural, legal, procedural, evidential and financial obstacles, even where the will to enforce the law is high. Consequently, criminal law enforcement is currently implausible.

The Dynamics of Food Fraud: the interactions between criminal opportunity and market (dys)functionality in legitimate business

This article conceptualizes ‘food fraud’ by shifting analytical focus away from popular/policy conceptions foregrounding the centrality of organized crime towards understanding the factors that shape the organization of food frauds. We argue that food fraud, rather than being an ‘exogenous’ phenomenon perpetrated by externally organized (transnational) ‘criminal enterprise’, is better understood as an ‘endogenous’ phenomenon within the food system where legitimate occupational actors and organizations are in some way necessarily involved. Criminal opportunities arise under conducive conditions as part of legitimate actors’ routine behaviours. Our contention is that the common definition of food fraud is too prescriptive and fails to allow space to understand the role of different actors and their motivations. We analyse a case study in soft drinks, presenting the necessary role of legitimate, occupational actors within/between legitimate organizational settings and markets, and demonstrate how criminal behaviours can be concealed and disguised within ‘ready-made’ market and business structures.

Organizing the finances for and the finances from transnational corporate bribery

This article analyses the finances for and the finances from corporate bribery in international business transactions and how they are organized. Transnational corporate bribery involves non-criminal commercial enterprises that operate in licit markets but that use corrupt means to win or maintain business contracts in foreign jurisdictions. This article first considers what needs to be financed, how much finance is needed, and how the bribes can be generated and distributed. Second, the article considers the different forms of proceeds that emerge out of the bribery, how offenders must conceal the derivation of funds from these crimes while also retaining control over them, and how they must overcome particular obstacles. Finally, the article discusses responses to the proceeds of bribery and related anti-money laundering provisions, before analysing actual and potential mechanisms for intervening with the finances for and from transnational corporate corruption.

Detecting and investigating transnational corporate bribery in centralised and decentralised enforcement systems: discretion and (de-)prioritisation in the UK and Germany

This article analyses how two contrasting enforcement systems, those of the UK (centralised) and Germany (decentralised), go about detecting and investigating transnational corporate bribery and corruption. Comparing these practices in contrasting systems is a useful empirical focus as both jurisdictions inhabit similar institutional contexts for corporate bribery (e.g. relatively strong western European economies, fellow members of the EU/G8, subject to international conventions) while both are considered ‘active enforcers’ of international bribery conventions, and therefore, being sufficiently involved in policing to have modes of enforcement to analyse. More specifically, the article examines the varied processes of detection and investigation within these differing systems and goes on to analyse how discretion is applied at both stages in the (de-)prioritisation of cases. The article outlines the strengths/limitations and differences/similarities of the two systems in terms of structure and practice, demonstrating how responsible authorities implement detection and investigative practices and why certain cases are focused on. The article argues that whether centralised or decentralised, and whether guided by flexible or rigid legal frameworks, formal and informal practices of discretion lead to legal and operational tensions that result in the accommodation of bribery by state authorities.

Negotiated Justice and Corporate Crime

This book argues that there is a strong normative argument for using the criminal law as a primary response to corporate crime. In practice, however, corporate crimes are rarely dealt with through criminal sanctioning mechanisms. Rather, the preference – for both prosecutors and corporates – appears to be on negotiating out of the criminal process. Reflecting this emphasis on negotiation, this book examines the use of Civil Recovery Orders and Deferred Prosecution Agreements as responses to corporate crime, and discusses a variety of UK case studies. Drawing upon legal and criminological backgrounds, and with an emphasis on the conceptual frameworks of ‘negotiated justice’ and ‘legitimacy’, the authors examine the law, policy and practice of these enforcement responses. They offer an original, theoretically-informed analysis which is accessible to practitioners and researchers.

Calling to Answer

This final chapter reinforces our contention that corporate crime is crime and ought to be dealt with as such. The reality, however, is that this is not the case; indeed, corporate prosecutions (particularly involving larger corporates) are relatively rare. Part of the problem here is the inadequacy of corporate criminal liability laws in the UK. This chapter argues that a criminal law-focused approach serves an important communicative function—calling wrongdoers to account as well as expressing societal condemnation of the activity in question.

Corruption in Commercial Enterprise: Law, Theory and Practice

This chapter takes the typical form of a scientific paper based on an empirical study: Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion. The chapter aims to contribute in several ways to the growing body of knowledge on organizational corruption. The core purpose is to assess the plausibility of a causal relationship between organizational anti-corruption measures, bonus culture and corruption within the context of organizations. To my knowledge, this is the first study to make an attempt at determining if there might be a causal relationship between these variables within an organizational context. Knowledge about the degree to which organizational measures and a bonus culture are responsible for the level of organizational corruption is not only important from a scientific point of view but also has the potential to aid the development of more effective anti-corruption interventions.

Negotiated Justice and Enforcement Legitimacy

This chapter situates our discussion within the conceptual frameworks of ‘negotiated justice’ and ‘legitimacy’. This chapter sets out the framework for understanding the legitimacy of enforcement responses to corporate crime, laying the groundwork for discussion of Civil Recovery Orders (CROs) and Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) in subsequent chapters. This chapter provides an overview of all cases that have used CROs and DPAs to date.

Negotiated Justice and Corporate Crime: An Introduction and Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the book and the contention that ‘accommodation’ of corporate crime—rather than criminal prosecution—is increasingly the ‘new normal’.