Substantive Challenges in Iran’s Criminal Policy Regarding Economic Crimes

Economic crimes, as a serious threat to public order, economic security, and public trust, require an effective and coherent response from criminal policy. In Iran, despite the growing prevalence of economic offenses such as embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion, and rent-seeking, the current criminal policy faces significant substantive challenges. These challenges include contradictions in legal concepts, the lack of a comprehensive and exclusive definition of economic crime, fragmentation of criminal regulations, and disproportion between offenses and punishments. Moreover, the absence of a clear distinction between economic crimes and other organized crimes, the weakness in criminalizing emerging economic behaviors, and the inconsistency between criminal laws and economic institutions have collectively undermined the effectiveness of the criminal response. This article adopts an analytical approach to examine the substantive challenges in Iran’s criminal policy regarding economic crimes and ultimately proposes recommendations for conceptual and legislative reform.