Comparative socio-legal and criminological research is notoriously complex and fraught with difficulties (Harrendorf, 2011; Huisman et al, 2015). This is particularly true of research that relies on official statistics to study comparative trends in crime and punishment. Official statistics are shaped not only by international developments but also by a variety of local factors, including policing, prosecutorial and recording practices, which can vary by jurisdiction. The task is even more challenging in the case of cross-national research involving countries with non-shared (and non-English) languages. Comparative European white-collar crime research is especially difficult due to the variety of languages, cultures and legal systems that exist within the continent. Consequently, comparative researchers cannot always be sure that they are comparing like with like, though attempts have been made to produce standardized cross-national data, including the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics (Aebi et al, 2014/2017). Notwithstanding these difficulties, the fields of comparative socio-legal and criminological research are valuable and thriving disciplines which have the potential to make important contributions to theory and practice. Comparative methodologies allow scholars to escape ethnocentric biases and preconceptions and test the seeming universalism of legal claims and theories in new social, political and economic contexts. Such methods can also highlight global challenges and identify opportunities for collective action to address them. Additionally, comparative research can provide the basis for law reform by illuminating examples of international best practice.
From corporate corruption and the facilitation of money laundering, to food fraud and labour exploitation, European citizens continue to be confronted by serious corporate and white-collar crimes.Presenting an original series of provocative essays, this book offers a European framing of white-collar crime. Experts from different countries foreground what is unique, innovative or different about white-collar and corporate crimes that are so strongly connected to Europe, including the tensions that exist within and between the nation-states of Europe, and within the institutions of the European region.This European voice provides an original contribution to discourses surrounding a form of crime which is underrepresented in current criminological literature.Presenting an original series of provocative essays, this book offers a European framing of white-collar crime. Experts from different countries foreground what is unique, innovative, or different about white-collar and corporate crimes that are so strongly connected to Europe.