Challenges in policing financial crime

The lack of literature charting the challenges faced by law enforcement officers (specifically, those in police forces) in disrupting financial crime, pointedly highlights the need for research in an important and generally neglected area; this being the central role that law enforcement plays in destabilising financial crime activities. Police bodies remain under-funded in the context of financial crime investigations and are often directed by management to chase the highest net wealth cases - a direction which may incur adverse effects on policing capabilities. Adopting a broad criminological and socio-legal approach, the discussion of this interdisciplinary chapter will focus on the key challenges faced by police officers at the national and international levels; challenges which are often ignored by policy making bodies, and which impact upon the efficacy of crime control efforts. It is not the purpose of this chapter to detail financial crime typologies, nor analyse the legislative responses in detail. Rather, this chapter aims to stimulate conversations and suggest areas for further research on this topical subject. The authors ultimately observe that law makers must engage with law enforcers when it comes to going after hot money, and greater investment is needed to cover increasing infrastructure costs.