White-Collar Crime Sentencing in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The paper presents criminological perspectives on white-collar crime in general, followed by criminal justice perspectives on investigating white-collar crime, i.e. unlawful acts committed by respected and high-social-status individuals while performing their duties in Russia. Findings of a study conducted in 2018, which comprised official court statistics and case studies from criminal courts, are summarized. The findings imply that the approach to white-collar criminal cases is similar to the one found in the literature on critical criminology (i.e. complexity of white-collar crimes, links between white-collar criminals and other influential people, leniency of criminal courts towards white-collar criminals and procedural reasons for acquitting white-collar offenders). The authors suggest some improvements for the investigation of such crime, as studies on criminal investigation show that the police are quite successful in investigating property and violent crimes, while the development of methods for the investigation of white-collar crime remains challenging. Another implication arising from this study is that social elites influence the adoption of criminal legislation, which is less efficient in terms of formal social control of white-collar criminals.