Clarissa A. Meerts - Corporate investigations, corporate justice and public-private relations : towards a new conceptualisation

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Clarisa Meerts provides a comprehensive insight into the world of corporate investigation, looking at its work, how different investigators behave, the rules governing what it does, and its relationship with public law enforcement. Her focus is on the Netherlands but her analysis has a much broader application. This is a world which has received very little scholarly attention and this book is long overdue.

Meerts identifies four professional groups of corporate investigatorsprivate investigation firms, in-house security departments, forensic accountants and forensic legal investigatorsworking in the corporate and semi-public arenas. Each area of investigation is treated to a critical assessment; the strengths and weaknesses of each are discussed. As is emphasised, there are more similarities than differences between them albeit such are the variations that they would not fit easily under one representative umbrella.

You will read about the wide variety of work they are involved with, involving many different kinds of undesirable behaviour, and a diverse range of norm violations, not just criminal ones, although they are typically focused on financial loss or the risk of it, and usually on lower-level staff (itself an interesting finding).

There are several reasons advanced as to why corporate investigators are largely autonomous. For example, Meerts reports on the lack of regulation applicable to their work, and the lack of any overarching regime. Moreover, they largely operate outside the criminal justice system focusing often on private settlements. Indeed, their work with public law enforcement is limited, they tend to coexist rather than cooperate. They have different clients of course, corporate investigation always serves a specific interest rather than being primarily about the public good (although, importantly, it serves that too), and they have very different powers. Meerts provides an interesting comparison about the relative advantages of each. While state actors have formal powers, corporate investigators benefit from easier access to inside organisational information about employees, on internal systems, in communications (email, phone records), and financial systems (accounting, sales and other systems) for example.

Another important difference is that when it comes to dealing with employees, corporate investigators typically have the support of the organisation they work for. Indeed, one of the many reasons for engaging them is the specific desire not to involve state law enforcement or the criminal justice process. This way they have control. As Meerts writes, formally engaging law enforcement authorities seems to be regarded as an additional measure by most respondents instead of an end in itself. Even when they do submit reports they will not necessarily be used; law enforcement is often uncomfortable with reports generated in this way. Indeed, distance and misunderstandings between law enforcement actors and corporate investigators hampers cooperation, albeit they are generally pleased with the work of corporate investigators.

Beyond the valuable contribution to researching an area of private security that has not been undertaken in this way, at least for this reader, is that Meerts has shown how yet another valuable resource available to better protect people is not harnessed in all the meaningful ways it could be. Readers of this book will be better positioned to see where potential opportunities and drawbacks lie. In so doing, it provides an essential reference point for anyone engaged in this area.

From the moment that I was introduced to the subject, corporate security has intrigued me. From a criminological point of view, it remains largely obscured because of lack of attention. From a societal point of view, the same could be said. While police and (to a lesser extent) private security enjoy much consideration, both by society and by criminology, the day-to-day business of corporate investigators remains relatively unknown. The field is shrouded in mystery. This may have been one of the attractions of the subject for me. My fascination for corporate investigations, settlements and public-private relations has led me to the ambition of conducting a PhD research on the subject. The book that is before you is based on these years of research.