White-Collar Crime and Police Crime: Rotten Apples or Rotten Barrels?

Is "White Collar Crime" Crime?

Rotten Apples or a Rotting Barrel

Crises of corporate and professional responsibility have been endemic to American society, at least since the last quarter of the nineteenth century. With each chapter of professional misconduct -from the robber barons and the Teapot Dome scandals, from the progressive era through the Watergate, Iran Contra, and financial mismanagements of the last quarter of the twentieth century -the response...

Commentary: Perverse incentives or rotten apples?

Around 2% of the investigators admit to have falsified or fabricated data at least once. Also, 34% report to have been guilty to one or more questionable research practices, such as doing many statistical analyses and to publish only what fits their theoretical framework. Prevention of questionable research practices is very important. Universities should ensure that the training is in order an...

White-collar Crime

Possibly the most significant recent development in criminology, especially since World War II, has been the emergence of the concept "white-collar" crime as an area of scientific inquiry and theoretical speculation. It is true, of course, that this crime itself is not wholly new; robber barons have been exposed in the past, and muckrakers have long decried corruption and venality in high place...

Policing White-Collar Crime

White-collar crime is financial crime committed by upper-class members of society for personal or organizational gain. White-collar criminals are individuals who tend to be wealthy, highly educated and socially connected, and they are typically employed by, and within, legitimate organizations. Ever since Edwin Sutherland first introduced the concept of “white-collar” crime in 1939, researchers...