A certain category of crimes are motivated by desire to derive economic benefits from an activity that is considered illegal. Governments are therefore resorting to statutes that ensure that the proceeds of crime are confiscated by the state. In an earlier post here, I have stated my reluctance to support laws that are designed to directly confer benefit to police forces or other law enforcement units. The main reason being that this leads to a distortion of incentives towards pursuit of criminals who hold property. In addition, there are a number of activities such as narcotics enforcement that could be handled by structured legalization because the profits from them arise from the fact of illegality in the first instance.
BBC News reports that in pursuit of its laws defining the treatment of the proceeds of crime, the Scottish Government has dedicated ₤2.2 million to support schools-based football teams. The Cashback for Communities Scheme focuses on this activity and is probably intended to get public support for the overall scheme. However, I am reluctant to accept that this is an efficient way to use the money in addition to questioning the assumptions about supporting youth activity to deter future crimes.
In addition, this cash injection is an overt subvention to both the Scottish Football Association and by extension the professional football clubs who would employ the successful students from the coaching. Affluent enterprises such as professional football club should not benefit from the confiscated property of criminals. This merely demonstrates the bizarre effects of the zest to punish criminals. Greater thought ought to go to better use of the money.
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