White-Collar Crime Victims and the Issue of Trust

This paper presents the results of a study exploring relationships of trust and distrust between the offender, the victims, regulators and the wider financial system in a particular case of white-collar crime. Individuals whose pension fund assets were defrauded by Robert Maxwell were interviewed in order to examine the consequences of financial crime and mismanagement upon the construction of trust towards financial investment. Results reveal that individuals manage the risks posed by financial crime and mismanagement through complex, yet routine, perceptions of trust and distrust, which may be profoundly influenced by an experience of victimisation.