Substantive Challenges in Iran's Criminal Policy Toward Economic Crimes

Economic crimes, as a serious threat to public order, economic security, and public trust, necessitate an effective and coherent response from criminal policy. In Iran, despite the increasing prevalence of economic crimes such as embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion, and rent-seeking, the existing criminal policy faces significant substantive challenges. These challenges include contradictions in legal concepts, the absence of a comprehensive and exclusive definition of economic crime, fragmentation in criminal regulations, and a lack of proportionality between crimes and punishments. Furthermore, the absence of a clear distinction between economic crimes and other forms of organized crime, deficiencies in criminalizing emerging economic behaviors, and inconsistencies between criminal laws and economic institutions have weakened the effectiveness of the penal response. This article adopts an analytical approach to examine the substantive challenges of Iran's criminal policy toward economic crimes and ultimately proposes recommendations for conceptual and legislative reform.