The survey will be supplemented by an analysis of 600 criminal proceedings. Possible offenses where proceeds may be particularly relevant are white collar crime, organized crime, and illicit drug trafficking. Of interest at West Germany's Max Planck Institute are the extension and identifiability of profit derived from crimes. Working hypotheses of the exploratory study are eight-fold: 1) identification of profits derived from criminal activities involves determining assets and distinguishing between legal and illegal assets; 2) systematic preliminary investigations to sequester crime proceeds are an exception in the work of criminal prosecution agencies; 3) criminal prosecutors are interested primarily in proving guilt, with crime profit secondary; 4) tax investigations are mainly directed to claiming defrauded taxes, and the detection of tax offenses is of secondary importance; 5) illicit drug traffickers' dominant interests are in maximizing profits; 6) difficulties in identifying crime proceeds seldom result in sanctions; 7) sanctions designed to skim profits are imposed predominantly in simple cases; and 8) cooperation among criminal prosecution agencies focuses principally on suspect conviction, and banks and other private sector institutions are addressees of coercive measures rather than voluntarily cooperative partners. 40 references.