We would like to present to our readers an electronic textbook to the innovational study course “The Shadow Economy and Economic Crime”. The creation of the textbook was supported by the Open Society Institute. Support Foundation (the Soros Foundation). Chapters 1-10 are written by Andrei K. Bekryashev, Chapter 11 – by Igor P. Belozyorov. The authors would like to thank a WEB designer Natalia S. Bekryasheva for the excellent original design. The authors are also grateful to a programmer Ivan V. Leonov for the highly professional program realization of our textbook and its quality presentation into the Internet space as well as for the patient attitude to the authors’ desire to make constant improvements to the structure and content of the material.

The subject under consideration is the phenomenon of the contemporary shadow economy and the issues of the criminalization in the sphere of economy. The book gives an account of the prevailing economic crimes and expounds the legal and economic aspects of control over economic crime and providing the security of the economic activity. The suggested material has been “polished” in the course of the academic process and our research work.

The urgency of the issues presented in the electronic textbook needs no special substantiation. The share and influence of the criminal sector of the economy has approached the line, beyond which the society is likely to lose all control over the flow of the social, economic and political processes.

Under these conditions the content and structure of higher legal education, the system of training and re-training law enforcement professionals have to be focused on providing effective crime control in the economic sphere.

The conditions of the criminalized economy increases the need in the complex study of the shadow economy hidden from registration and the illegal economic activity from the point of view of both criminology, forensic science, criminal law and economic sciences.

The academic disciplines and courses of a similar orientation are spontaneously and autonomously introduced in the academic process of a greater number of legal colleges. Therefore, this textbook may be of particular interest for educational institutions of law enforcement agencies and, first of all, for the Interior of the RF and the Federal Tax Police of the RF. Taking into consideration the actual need in the circulation of methodic and informational provision of the courses devoted to the shadow economy and economic crime and the accessibility of the Internet resources for many potential users we suggest a variant of solving the problem by means of creating a commonly available and constantly renewed electronic textbook.

This solution is particularly convenient for regional colleges frequently experiencing a lack of qualified teaching staff and limited informational and methodic opportunities, which impede independent creation of academic courses in the discussed field of knowledge.

The electronic textbook “The Shadow Economy and Economic Crime” can be used in teaching the curriculum of higher legal education, on improvement and refresher courses for law enforcement professionals as well as for training specialists in the economic business security. By the development of this Internet project the authors are making their contribution to the solution of the issues of control, prevention and suppression of the criminal economic activity, the provision of economic security and the improvement of the educational process, first of all at the educational institutions of law enforcement agencies.

The electronic textbook may be used in the development and improvement of the structure and content of both traditional academic disciplines and special inter-disciplinary courses.

The structure and content of the electronic textbook “The Shadow Economy and Economic Crime” is designed to shed light on the most important topics and issues.

The material of the electronic textbook is arranged in a certain sequence. The first topical unit including Chapters 1-3 considers the basic notions and categories (the shadow economy, the criminal economy, economic crime, organized crime and so on). It also expounds the attributes and the most general trends of the development of these phenomena, investigates their determinants, social and economic consequences and expressions. Special attention is paid to the latest tendencies in the development of economic crime. Certain paragraphs particularly contain the issues of economic crimes in the high-tech sphere.

Chapters 5 and 6 give a detailed view of the most important spheres of the shadow and criminal economy: laundering criminal funds as a significant stage of the criminal economic cycle, the illegal use of the offshore territories, and the transnational crime).

Chapters 7-10 make up the topical unit devoted to the issues of the criminalization of the contemporary Russian economy. Alongside the general characteristic of the economic crime tendencies, the chapters consider certain manifestations of it in the key spheres of the national economy with special attention paid to the economic crime in the financial sphere. Chapters 8 and 9 are devoted to that. This unit ends with Chapter 10 devoted to the control over the economic crime in Russia by social means and the means of criminal law.

The last topical unit of the textbook is represented by Chapter 11, which considers the issues of providing business security in the contemporary Russia.

Many issues are considered in several paragraphs and chapters. In this case the text contains hyperlinks to the relating parts of the textbook. This allows us to avoid unjustified redundancy, provides compact narration and facilitates the understanding of the internal relations in the structure of the suggested academic material.

Along with the main text consisting of the introduction and eleven chapters, the textbook contains test questions and tasks, a glossary, appendices, a list of the recommended literature and references to the Internet resources on certain issues. The study material is illustrated by a great number of specially selected examples and diagrams, which facilitate the comprehension of the basic provisions. The system of hyperlinks in presenting the material allows to demonstrate the internal interrelation of the main topics, issues and ideas of the academic material and to move freely in the informational space of the textbook.

Informational references introducing the structure of the electronic textbook and the problems it deals with are given in English is immediately accessible for foreign Internet users. As the project is being developed, we are planning to create an English version of the principal sections of the textbook.

The electronic textbook “The Shadow Economy and Economic Crime” is a project under development. New ideas keep coming constantly, and even now when our “product” is ready, we are not completely satisfied, because certain structural and content solutions do not seem to be the best any longer. That is why we would appreciate any suggestions, comments and constructive criticism. As new information accumulates, the authors are planning to make changes in the content and structure of the textbook.

A.K.Bekryashev
I.P.Belozyorov
September 30, 2000.