WHITE COLLAR CRIMELecture 2: Studying White Collar Crime and Assessing Its Costs

Shared Fundamental Characteristics And Beliefs

Many approaches, many shared characteristics and beliefs:

• Assumptions about the nature of reality, human nature, the basis of morality, and the character of society.

• More privileged members of society have more influence than less privileged members.

• Moral hypocrisy permeates the realm of WCC

• Power and conflict play a role in shaping law and maintaining social order.

• Humans are fundamentally rational but self-interested, and are capable of making free choices for which they can be held accountable.

2 Major Approaches

• Posivistic – assumes that WCC can be studied “scientifically”

• Humanistic – believes best way to study WCC is through interpretive observation and qualitative methods.

Challenges To Study Of Wcc• Complexity – lack of consensus on definitions and

core concepts

• Gaining access for research – cannot appear to threaten the corporation; use familiar terminology; provide a benefit

• Obtaining statistics – no uniform crime data

• Obtaining research support – most funding tends to go to projects exploring conventional crime

Case Study

• In-depth study of a single case.

• Goal is to provide a comprehensive exploration of a particular case, to ultimately explain the underlying reason the event occurred.

• Provides a concrete understanding of the dynamics and realities of a particular case.

• Major limitation: case may be atypical.

Experiments

• Posivistic Approach

• Examines the effects, if any, of an independent variable on a dependent variable.

• Requirements: (1) control group; (2) experimental group.

Surveys• Typically used to study opinions, attitudes, and

beliefs.

• Often difficult to obtain a representative sample.

• Often difficult to obtain a high enough response rate.

• Contribute to study of WCC by identifying patterns of involvement, rationalizations, and attitudes related to WCC issues.

Observational Research

• Direct observation of individuals, a group, or an organization over a period of time.

• Limited application due to difficulty gaining access to criminal enterprises and social control

agencies.

• Most commonly used in studies of regulatory agencies.

Secondary Data Analysis/Statistical Data

• Commonly statistical information collected by various official agencies (e.g., Department of Health data, Environmental Protection Agency data, etc.)

• Use is limited by the quality and accuracy of the data.

• The use of statistical data is problematic because can be open to a variety of interpretations.

Archival Data (Written Document) Analysis

• Large amount of records (e.g., investigative files).

• Limited by the selective nature of what is recorded and incompleteness.

• Single most credible source of information.

Content Analysis

• Systematically analyzes the representation of something in the media to find underlying forms

and structures in social communications.

• Easily accessible.

Cross-cultural Comparative Studies

• Compares the treatment of WCC in two or more countries.

• Sensitizes to parallels and differences in the response to WCC in different countries.

Co$t$ & ConsequencesDirect Costs

– Usually economic (e.g., market value, original cost, replacement cost, etc.)

– Defined in terms of the victim’s losses.

– Direct economic losses from WCC are measurably greater than direct economic losses attributable to conventional criminal behavior.

 

Indirect Costs

– Costs proximately caused by WCC (e.g., higher taxes, increased cost of goods).

 

Physical Costs

– Typically associated with conventional crime (e.g., injuries suffered due to an assault).

– Physical costs of WCC include death and injury from polluting the environment, malnutrition caused by fraud involving aid agencies in third-world countries, development of fatal conditions, and birth defects.

Victims Of WCC

Workers/Employees

• Hazardous/illegal conditions in the workplace

• Practices that deprive of just compensation and other labor-related rights

Consumers

• Price-fixing• Unsafe products• Fraudulent/unethical practices

Taxpayers

• Defense contract fraud

Governmental Entities and Organizations

• Overbilling (e.g., Medicare/Medicaid fraud)

Business Competitors/ Partners/ Shareholders/ Investors/ Pension Holders