Corporate Control Of White Collar Crime

Insider trading. Savings and loan scandals. Enron. Corporate crimes were once thought of as victimless offenses, but now—with billions of dollars and an increasingly global economy at stake—this is understood to be far from the truth. The International Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime explores the complex interplay of factors involved when corporate cultures normalize lawbreaking, and when organizational behavior is pushed to unethical (and sometimes inhumane) limits. Featuring original contributions from a panel of experts representing North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, this timely volume presents multidisciplinary views on recent corporate wrongdoing affecting economic and social conditions worldwide. Criminal liability and intent Stock market and financial crime Bribery and extortion Computer and identity fraud Health care fraud Crime in the professions Industrial pollution Political corruption War crimes and genocide Contributors offer case studies, historical and sociopolitical analyses, theoretical and legal perspectives, and comparative studies, featuring examples as varied as NASA, Parmalat, the Italian government, and Watergate. Criminal justice responses to these phenomena, the role of the media in exposing or minimizing them, prevention, regulation, and self- policing strategies, and larger global issues emerging from economic crime are also featured. Richly diverse in its coverage, The International Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime is stimulating reading for students, academics, and professionals in a wide range of fields, from criminology and criminal justice to business and economics, psychology to social policy to ethics. This powerful information is certain to change many of our deeply held views on criminal behavior.

Traditionally, corporate control is all about top-down approaches to management of employees. Executives attempt to influence employees toward achieving business goals, and they attempt to prevent and detect wrongdoing, misconduct, and crime among employees. However, top-down approaches to corporate control do not work when executives and other privileged individuals in the business themselves commit and conceal their wrongdoing, misconduct, and crime in organizational settings. Then there is a need for a bottom-up approach in corporate control as outlined in this book. Bottom-up control refers to the manner in which organizational members can use different types of control mechanisms – such as whistleblowing, transparency, resource access, or culture – to monitor, measure, and evaluate executives’ avoidance of deviant behaviors and influence them toward achieving the organization’s goals in efficient and effective ways. The newly emerging perspective of a social license to operate forms part of the bottom-up strategy where criminalization becomes social property independent of the criminal justice system. The social license is predominantly centered on social permission for business activity where the media, social movements, and citizen watchdogs exert pressure, demand change, and bring top management to account. This book presents a novel approach to corporate control of white-collar crime based on the theory of convenience. White-collar crime is financial crime committed by privileged individuals who have legitimate access to resources based on the power and trust inherent through their professional positions. Convenience theory proposes that motive, opportunity, and willingness are the three dimensions that underlie white-collar crime in an organizational context. This book contributes to the study of white-collar criminality through a blend of theoretical discussions and practical materials that illuminate and support the use of convenience theory. The book discusses how bottom-up approaches can overcome the difficulty of detecting white-collar crime and overcome the barriers of preventing executive deviance.

White-collar crime costs the United States more than $300 billion each year. It is surprisingly common, with one in every three Americans eventually becoming a victim. The criminals often dismiss these crimes as victimless, but those unfortunate enough to fall prey would disagree. An Introduction to Corporate and White-Collar Crime provides readers with an understanding of what white-collar crime is, how it works, and the extent to which it exists in our society. The broad-based coverage in this text analyzes the opportunity structures for committing white-collar crime and explores new ways of thinking about how to control it. Topics include: Theories behind white-collar crime, including social and psychological theories Routine activity, crime pattern, and situational crime prevention theories Laws that govern the securities industries, including the Securities Exchange Act and Sarbanes–Oxley Bank fraud, money laundering, racketeering, and organized crime Crimes involving public officials and obstruction of justice Control and prevention of white-collar crimes and sanctions for white-collar criminals The material is organized and presented in a logical fashion, with each chapter building from the previous content. Every chapter begins with objectives to help readers focus on the topic and concludes with review questions to test assimilation of the material and promote debate. Several chapters conclude with a practicum to facilitate real-world understanding of the material.

When does cutting corners in pursuit of corporate profit become a crime? When should the misdeeds of government officials warrant a prison sentence? This lucid introduction to the notoriously complex problem of white-collar crime provides students with a set of tools for exploring the abuse of corporate and government power.

This reference guide documents white-collar crimes by individuals and businesses over the past 150 years, offering the most comprehensive array of documents and interpretations available. From Gilded Age railroad scandals to the muckraking period and from the Savings and Loan debacle to corporate fallout during the recent economic meltdown, some individuals and companies have chosen to take the low road to achieve "the American dream." While these offenders throughout modern history may have lacked ethics, morals, or good judgment, they certainly were not wanting in terms of creativity. White-Collar and Corporate Crime: A Documentary and Reference Guide traces the fascinating history of white-collar and corporate criminal behavior from the 1800s through the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform measure. Author Gilbert Geis scrutinizes more than a century of episodes involving corporate corruption and other self-serving behaviors that violate antitrust laws, bribery statutes, and fraud laws. The various attempts made by authorities to rein in greed and the methods employed by wrongdoers to evade these controls are also discussed and evaluated.

In a thorough reappraisal of the white-collar and corporate crime scene, this Second Edition builds on the first edition to complete the criminal narrative in an outstanding reference resource.

For more than three decades, rational-choice theory has reigned as the dominant approach both for interpreting crime and as underpinning for crime-control programs. Although it has been applied to an array of street crimes, white-collar crime and those who commit it have thus far received less attention. Choosing White-Collar Crime is a systematic application of rational-choice theory to problems of explaining and controlling white-collar crime. It distinguishes ordinary and upperworld white-collar crime and presents reasons theoretically for believing that both have increased substantially in recent decades. Reasons for the increase include the growing supply of white-collar lure and non-credible oversight. Choosing White-Collar Crime also examines criminal decision making by white-collar criminals and their criminal careers. The book concludes with reasons for believing that problems of white-collar crime will continue unchecked in the increasingly global economy and calls for strengthened citizen movements to rein in the increases.

As an instructor teaching white collar crime, are you frustrated by texts which leave your students feeling outraged but helpless about the subject? Assigning this new text by Mike Benson and Sally Simpson can successfully address that problem, because it explains to students why white-collar crime is so prevalent and so difficult to control. Using this text, instructors can show students how these crimes are carried out in ways that make them difficult to discover. Instructors can also show how opportunities for white-collar crimes could be reduced if we were to approach the problem from the perspective of situational crime prevention. The authors address the difficulty of controlling white-collar crime in detail, and speculate on the future of white-collar crime in the rapidly globalizing world of trans-national corporations.