Today S White Collar Crime

Written as a text for undergraduate courses, this book appeals to instructors interested in teaching the field of white-collar crime, both from a matter-of-fact investigative perspective as well as a decidedly academic endeavor. Accordingly, it goes beyond discussing the basic theories and typologies of commonly-encountered offenses such as fraud, forgery, embezzlement, and currency counterfeiting, to include the legalistic aspects of white-collar crime. It also explores the investigative tools and analytical techniques needed if students wish to pursue careers in this field. Because of the inextricable links between abuse-of-trust crimes such as misuse of government office, nepotism, and bribery and the realm of corporate corruption, these issues are also included. The text also maintains a connection between white-collar crime and acts of international terrorism; as well as the more controversial aspects of possible abuses of power within the public arena posed by the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the asset forfeiture process. Adapted readings at the end of each chapter provide readable cases of white collar crime in action to illustrate the principles / theories presented. Activities, Exercises, and Photographs are also included in each of the 10 chapters and a Companion Web Site provides additional test items and other instructor support material.

Unlike other books of its kind, Understanding White-Collar Crime: An Opportunity Perspective uses a coherent theoretical perspective in its coverage of white-collar crime. Using opportunity perspective, or the assumption that all crimes depend on offenders having some sort of opportunity to commit an offense, allows the authors to uncover the processes leading up to white-collar crimes and offer potential solutions to this rampant issue, without being reductive in their treatment of the topic. With this second edition, Benson and Simpson have greatly expanded their coverage to include new case studies, substantive materials, and an annotated appendix of online resources to make this a core book for courses on white-collar crime.

What drives wealthy and powerful people to white-collar crime? Why They Do It is a breakthrough look at the dark side of the business world. From the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the insider traders at McKinsey, to the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, the failings of corporate titans are regular fixtures in the news. In Why They Do It, Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes draws from extensive personal interaction and correspondence with nearly fifty former executives as well as the latest research in psychology, criminology, and economics to investigate how once-celebrated executives become white-collar criminals. White-collar criminals are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris, nor do they usually carefully calculate costs and benefits before breaking the law. Instead, Soltes shows that most of the executives who committed crimes made decisions the way we all do-on the basis of their intuitions and gut feelings. The trouble is that these gut feelings are often poorly suited for the modern business world where leaders are increasingly distanced from the consequences of their decisions and the individuals they impact. The extraordinary costs of corporate misconduct are clear to its victims. Yet, never before have we been able to peer so deeply into the minds of the many prominent perpetrators of white-collar crime. With the increasing globalization of business threatening us with even more devastating corporate misconduct, the lessons Soltes draws in Why They Do It are needed more urgently than ever.

White-Collar Crime explains the common types of crime committed, ranging from simple fraud to embezzling to insider trading, notes the famous cases, and discusses how law enforcement agencies identify and fight these crimes.

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.

A comprehensive and state-of the-art overview from internationally-recognized experts on white-collar crime covering a broad range of topics from many perspectives Law enforcement professionals and criminal justice scholars have debated the most appropriate definition of “white-collar crime” ever since Edwin Sutherland first coined the phrase in his speech to the American Sociological Society in 1939. The conceptual ambiguity surrounding the term has challenged efforts to construct a body of science that meaningfully informs policy and theory. The Handbook of White-Collar Crime is a unique re-framing of traditional discussions that discusses common topics of white-collar crime—who the offenders are, who the victims are, how these crimes are punished, theoretical explanations—while exploring how the choice of one definition over another affects research and scholarship on the subject. Providing a one-volume overview of research on white-collar crime, this book presents diverse perspectives from an international team of both established and newer scholars that review theory, policy, and empirical work on a broad range of topics. Chapters explore the extent and cost of white-collar crimes, individual- as well as organizational- and macro-level theories of crime, law enforcement roles in prevention and intervention, crimes in Africa and South America, the influence of technology and globalization, and more. This important resource: Explores diverse implications for future theory, policy, and research on current and emerging issues in the field Clarifies distinct characteristics of specific types of offences within the general archetype of white-collar crime Includes chapters written by researchers from countries commonly underrepresented in the field Examines the real-world impact of ambiguous definitions of white-collar crime on prevention, investigation, and punishment Offers critical examination of how definitional decisions steer the direction of criminological scholarship Accessible to readers at the undergraduate level, yet equally relevant for experienced practitioners, academics, and researchers, The Handbook of White-Collar Crime is an innovative, substantial contribution to contemporary scholarship in the field.

Unlike other books of its kind, Understanding White-Collar Crime: An Opportunity Perspective uses a coherent theoretical perspective in its coverage of white-collar crime. Using opportunity perspective, or the assumption that all crimes depend on offenders having some sort of opportunity to commit an offense, allows the authors to uncover the processes leading up to white-collar crimes and offer potential solutions to this rampant issue, without being reductive in their treatment of the topic. With this second edition, Benson and Simpson have greatly expanded their coverage to include new case studies, substantive materials, and an annotated appendix of online resources to make this a core book for courses on white-collar crime.