Research Report 124: Economic Crime Research Strategy

This document summarises research priorities to support the current (as at February 2021) and future needs of the Government’s Economic Crime Plan. By identifying evidence gaps and priorities, the strategy aims to set out clearly the most important areas for research and analysis in economic crime, improving the evidence base on which policy choices are made and the targeting of resources.

The research priorities have been identified in discussion with a range of stakeholders and relate specifically to the priorities set out in the Economic Crime Plan. This is to ensure that research is focused on the questions most relevant to current policy priorities that will have the greatest impact. Overall, the strategy made the following conclusions.

• A wealth of information is currently held on economic crime and more can jointly be done to improve the evidence base through both primary and secondary research.
• Our understanding of the threat from economic crime is generally poor, though some areas have stronger evidence than others.
• There are cross-cutting gaps in evidence across the economic crime types.