Understanding the police response to fraud: the challenges in configuring a response to a low-priority crime on the rise

ABSTRACT

Previous research has demonstrated the comparative lack of priority fraud receives from government and law enforcement in the UK compared to other serious offences, as well as shortcomings in the overall approach to investigation. This paper examines the current state of affairs in the light of changes aimed at addressing these limitations. It incorporates findings from a national survey of police forces, as well as a local survey of police personnel in three forces supplemented by interviews. The findings suggest that the situation has become more complicated. Many police officers interviewed did not feel that the police response in their own area was effective, and that their colleagues often lacked the appropriate skill sets needed. Moreover, forces were not confident they were recruiting the right people to tackle fraud. The paper has important lessons for policing internationally.     

The Political Economy of State Government Subsidy Adoption: The Case of Ethanol

In this study, we examine the factors that determine the adoption of state economic development incentives in the ethanol industry. We compile data on the implementation dates for subsidies/tax credits for all states for the years 1984–2007, a period that covers the complete emergence of the biofuel industry in the United States and that was characterized by the passage of numerous state‐level subsidies and tax breaks aimed at increasing ethanol production. Using Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, we find that states are more likely to adopt ethanol subsidies when corn production is high, when corn prices are low and gasoline prices are high, when a state is affiliated with the National Corn Growers Association, when a check‐off is present, when a state has a high environmental score, and when state government is under the control of Democrats.     

The Dialectics of White-Collar Crime

A bstract TWO perspectives prevail in analyses of the savings and loan industry's crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s: on one hand are claims of individual fraud and greed; on the other are arguments focusing on organizational factors, particularly the deregulated environment in which lax or nonexistant oversight encouraged "collective embezzelment." Both approaches rely on a narrow conceptualization of the concept of white-collar crime that focuses on identification of the static dimensions that differentiate white-collar crime from other crimes. We apply Schlegel and Weis-burd's (1993) notion of white-collar crime as more of an interactive process than a set of unique defining factors by combining a theoretical focus on the state's policy-making process with an analysis of organizational and occupational crime to analyze the role the state may play in creating the structural environment facilitating those behaviors. We analyze the case of Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan Association to examine the behavioral effects of implementing a state policy of deregulation. The case suggests that state policy may not only regulate and restrict behavior, but actually contain defeating incentives that create corporate behaviors contradicting the policy's intention. This points to the limitation of state theory in its focus on de jure policy creation as opposed to de facto policy implementation and its behavioral and structural consequences. Finally, we suggest that organizational crimes may result not only from circumventing or violating laws that must be enforced; they may also derive from contradictions contained in the policies of state projects themselves. As such, organizational crimes and deviant behavior may be better understood as unintended consequences of the dialectics of state projects.     

Property Tax Rate Changes and Rates of Development

Theoretically, unanticipated and anticipated property tax rate increases should reduce and increase, respectively, residential development rates. A discrete-time event history analysis of 224 originally undeveloped parcels presents a first empirical test. Property tax rate changes one year in the future are anticipated; increases strongly increase the probability of development in the current year. Rate increases in the current year reduce the probability of development in the current year but with somewhat less certainty, probably because they are only partially unanticipated. Accordingly, pre-announced property tax increases might accelerate the underlying rate of development as effectively as would tax concessions.     

Do Local Property Taxes Affect New Building Development? Results from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in New Zealand

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - We utilise a quasi-natural experiment in local property tax reform arising from a compulsory amalgamation of several local councils in 2010 in...     

Do Tax Increment Finance Districts Stimulate Growth in Real Estate Values?

We use data on all Wisconsin municipalities during the period 1990–2003 to study the effect of tax increment finance (TIF) on economic development. We use appropriate statistical techniques to measure the impact of TIF and control variables on aggregate property values. We also examine the possibility communities that use TIF are self‐selected. We find little evidence that TIF has led to significant increases in aggregate property values or that TIF increases the total value of residential and manufacturing property within a community. Surprisingly, we find positive impacts for commercial TIF districts.     

School Finance Litigation, Tax and Expenditure Limitations, and Education Spending

Since the early 1970s, litigation in many U.S. states has led to education finance reform. Over the same period, many states have imposed new tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on local governments. The imposition of a TEL may alter how local and state education expenditures change subsequent to court-mandated decreases in spending inequality. Similarly, the effectiveness of TELs in limiting local education expenditures may be influenced by reform. To better evaluate the effects of reform and TELs on education spending, this article considers them jointly and finds that reform has a negative effect on local own-source education expenditures only in the presence of TELs. In the absence of court-ordered reform, TELs decrease own-source expenditure, but the effect is less pronounced than when TELs are present with reform. When both are present, state government spending on education is higher. Also TELs and court-ordered reform independently increase state government spending on education. (JEL H72 , I22 )     

The Effects of Changes in Property Tax Rates and School Spending on Residential and Business Property Value Growth

In this article, we examine the effects of changes in property tax rates and school spending on residential and business property value growth in southeast Michigan. We use panel data for 152 communities in the five counties surrounding Detroit between the years 1983 and 2002, a period during which state government mandated major changes to school finance. Using the mandated changes to identify causality, we find that: (1) residential property values are more responsive to school spending changes than property tax rate changes; (2) business property values are more responsive to tax rate changes than school spending changes; and (3) business property values are more sensitive to changes in tax rates as compared to residential property. We also examine tax competition effects on property value growth, showing that tax competition plays an important role in property value growth in the southeast Michigan region.     

Managing responsiveness to pressures for change in environmental performance

A rapid response to pressures resulting from environmental issues generally benefits the environment and assists the competitiveness of a company. A five-point plan is outlined by which a company may accelerate its response through managing its organizational structure and the phases of its change programme.     

The Impact of State Government Subsidies and Tax Credits in an Emerging Industry: Ethanol Production 1980–2007

This article examines the effects of state economic development incentives in the emerging ethanol industry. We compiled data on ethanol production capacity and subsidies/tax credits for all states for the years 1980–2007, a period that covers the complete emergence of the biofuel industry in the United States. Importantly, this time period was characterized by the passage of several state‐level subsidies and tax breaks aimed at increasing ethanol production. Hence, this panel documents a substantial amount of within‐state variation in policies from which to identify an effect. We find that some incentives directed at ethanol production have a significant effect on a state's production capacity.