Internal investigations as an essential element of “criminal compliance programs”: making a virtue of necessity

Abstract

This paper is framed in the culture of compliance in complex organisations, as a policy that results in a reduction of criminal acts occurring in the corporate environment. In this sense, internal investigations have emerged as an inherent and essential mechanism for self-regulation and self-organisation and control to bear fruit in an efficient manner and without undermining constitutionalised rights and procedural guarantees, which are essential in any country that claims to be democratic and governed by the rule of law.