Social Harm and the Vagaries of Financial Regulation in the UK
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Middlesex University
United Kingdom
Abstract
The premise of this article is that financial crises, whether they occur as a result of legitimate of illegitimate conduct, cause social harm and victimisation. The 2008 bank crisis is a clear indication of this, as some of the financial operations determining it possessed a criminal nature while some did not. This article is concerned with both typologies, namely with illicit and licit harmful behaviour adopted by financial actors. After some general introductory notes, the first section of the paper focuses on the measures proposed or adopted in response to the 2008 crisis in the UK. This is followed by the presentation of a number of recent cases proving that, despite recent regulatory efforts, large loopholes are still present which allow forms of financial crime to thrive. Some final observations on the difficulties encountered by regulatory attempts complete the paper.
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Author Biography
United Kingdom
Professor Vincenzo Ruggiero is the Director of the Crime and Conflict Centre at Middlesex University, U.K. He has an envious record of distinguished achievement arising from a life-long contribution to criminology, mostly in Europe. Vincenzo’s interest in criminology began in the 1970s as a political activist who, with others, created a magazine devoted to crime and punishment spurned by prisoner’s riots. He later founded a publishing house specializing in prisoners’ writings. The writings were not only political, but included fiction and poetry. The enormity of his influence on European criminology is evidenced by his editorial board memberships – 11 in total, including internationally distinguished journals such as Capital and Class; The Open Criminology Journal; Criminologia; and Critical Criminology. Vincenzo’s contributions to criminology include 23 sole authored books on a range of topics, from Penal Abolitionism; Movements in the City, Conflict in the European Metropolis; Eurodrugs, Drug Use, Markets and Trafficking In Europe; Crime and Literature: Sociology of Deviance and Fiction and his forthcoming book on The Crimes of the Economy. Fourteen of these books are published in Italian. Many of his publications in journals have been published in multiple languages including English. In 2000 Vincenzo was attached to the United Nations crime and drugs office in Vienna, where he coordinated an international research project on transnational organised crime and trafficking in human beings. While attached to the UN he also contributed to the drafting of the UN Convention against organised crime.