ABSTRACT
The novelty of large-scale illegality that occurred in the world of finance and financial institutions in Victorian Britain challenged contemporaries in numerous ways and on two very key fronts of sensibility and policy. Financial crime also challenged the strong contemporary sense of an age of sheer exuberance and confidence in the great improvements of the age, demonstrated through the countries material wealth. The sheer scale of financial crime perpetration would challenge Victorian determination to find effective responses, in ways which are recognisable today in the context of the aftermath of the global financial crisis and indeed prior to it. Today, these same considerations capture the essence of the lexicon of financial crime, and continue to characterise its underpinning ambivalences. It is the sustained reference to these which attract accusations today that criminal justice responses to financial crime lack efficacy, and thwart the determination to ensure it is regarded as real crime and its perpetrators as real criminals.
