TrustedCriminals –White-CollarCriminality
Lecturer: Éva Inzelt, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology
Office hours: Monday 14:00 – 16:00 pm, Room 317.
E-mail:
Coursedescription
Albeittheterm of white-collarcrime has beenintroducedby Edwin H. Sutherlandin 1939 as „a crimecommittedby a person of respectability and highsocial status inthecourse of hisoccupation” (Sutherland 1949: 9), wecanstatethatthistype of crime has beenexistingsincethe establishment of thefirstsocieties. The nature of white-collarcrimedependsontheactualstate (health) of thesocietywhich is relatedtotheculture and thepoliticalsystem of a given country, aswellastothe international environmentviaeffects of political and economic relations.
The aim of thecourse is toanswerbasiccriminologicalquestionsaboutthenature, theprevalence, offenderprofiles, thevictimization, thecausation, theprevention and thedeterrence of whitecollarcrime. Duringthecoursetypical (American and European) white-collarcrimecaseswill be analyzed. Typicalexamples of thistype of crimeoccurredin Hungary duringthelasttwodecadeswill be discussed.
Incriminology, severalconceptshavebeendevelopedtograspforms of crimecommittedinthecontext of organizations, suchaswhite-collarcrime, corporatecrime, statecrime, occupationalcrime, governmentalcrime, state-corporatecrime and financecrime. Studiesontheseforms of crimehavepointedatthesignificance of thefactthatthecrimesarecommittedbypeoplewhoenjoy a relativelyhighlevel of trust and respectability and whoareoperatinginthecontext of organizations. Whileit is generallyacknowledgedthatsuchwhite-collarcrime is veryharmfultosociety.
Duringthecoursewewillusefilms and You-tubeclipstounderstandthecases. Intheclassestherewill be groupdiscussionondefinitions, theories and explanations of whitecollarcrime.
Courseschedule
Lecture 1: Introductionthestudy of crime and criminality: The basis of criminologicalinquiry. Introductiontothewhitecollarcrimeresearch.
- What is crime?
- Basic concepts and generalintroduction
- Criminal Policy
- CriminalJustice System
- What is Criminology?
- Whystudywhitecollarcrime?
Lecture 2: Definitions and concepts of whitecollarcrimestudies/organizationalcriminology.
- Definitions
- Schafer István, Edwin Sutherland
- Sutherland – Tappandebate
- Debatingthelegitimacy of whitecollarcrimestudies
- Accepting a class/administrationbiasedinterpretation of criminality (Braithwaite, Slapper and Tombs, Sutherland)
- Rationaleforstudyingwhitecollarcrimes (social, economic, environmentalharm, behavior, sciences, generalunderstanding of societalculture, institutional and societaltrust, fluctuatingnature of crime and definition of criminalconductotherthanpurelylegalaspects)
- White collarcrimeas an umbrellaterm (Friedrichs, Nelken)
o White collarcrime/occupationalcrime
o Corporatecrime/organizationalcrime
o State-corporate/ State-sponsoredcorporatecrime
The problemwithpublic-privatepartnerships
The medicine-industrycomplex
- Approachestowhitecollarcrimeinthe USA and Europe
- White collarcrimetoday
Lecture 3-4-5: Theoreticalbackground of organizationalcriminology, explanations of whitecollarcrime
- Theories of whitecollar and organizationalcriminality
- Sutherland: DifferentialAssociationTheory, towards a generalexplanation of crime
- Geis, Meier and Salinger: White collarcrime: Classic and contemporaryviews
- Maurice Punch: Whymanagersmurder and corporationskill: ineffect an explanation of means, motive and opportunitystructureswithinorganizations
The managerial mind and thecorporateculture
o Size and complexity
o Goals
o The companyas a totalinstitution
o ArguingtheCorporateCulture
o Means/Motive/Opportunitystructures
- Commitment and the Organization (Randall) /The Organization Man (Whyte)
- Henry Mintzberg: Organizationalstructure
- Needleman and Needleman: Twomodels of criminogenisis
- Hirschi and Gottfredson and human naturetheory
- Neutralizationtheory
- Rationalchoicetheory
- Organizationalstructure
- Shapiro: socialorganization of trust
- Anomie and corporatestructure: Durkheim, MertonMessner and Rosenfeld, NikosPassas
- Capitalismassocialstructure
- Markets and industrystructure
Casestudies:
1. ExxonValdezOilSpill
2. Challenger Disaster
3. Dr Nancy Olivieri and Apotex Inc.
4. Bernard ‘Bernie’ Madoff
5. Ford PintoCase
6. Globex
Lecture 6-7: Empiricalresearch and whitecollarcrime.
- Sutherland’s initialstudy
- Radical and Criticalcriminology (1970s USA)
- Quantitative and QualitativeTraditions (casestudies, courtcasedatacollection)
- Analysisbasedoncategoriesortypes of corporatecrime:
o Type of lawatissue: antitrust, employment, legislation etc.
o Identification of victimse.g. consumers
o Employmentrelationshipe.g. discrimination, protection, wagelaws, safety, etc.
o Harmtotheenvironment
- Industryspecificcasestudies: pharmaceutical, automobile, oil, chemical, financialindustries
- Measuringwhitecollarcrime
- Latency/Limitations of criminallaw
- Corruptionperception index
- Victimizationsurveys
- Eurobarometer
Lecture 8-9: Respondingtowhitecollarcriminality
- Christopher D. Stone: Wherethelawends: The Social control of corporatebehaviour
- Eric Colvin: CorporatePersonality and CriminalLiability
- Clarson: KickingCorporateBodies and DamningTheirSouls
- Stuart Field: CorporateLiability and Manslaughter: Shouldwe be goingDutch?
- Regulatingwhitecollarcrime
- Prosecution of whitecollarcrimes
- Prevention
- (White collar) Criminal policy
Students will be requiredtopresent a casestudy of theirownchoosing, usingthetheories and conceptsthathavebeendiscussedwithintheduration of thecourse. Presentations must last no longerthan 20 minutes.
Lastlecture of thesemester
- Discussiononthecourseitself, conclusion, lessonslearnt, experiences
Literature
- Friedrichs, D.O. (2010). Trustedcriminals: whitecollarcrimeincontemporarysociety (4th edition). Belmont, Calif.:WadsworthCengageLearning.
- Brian K. Payne: White-collarCrime. The Essentials. SAGE Publications, 2013.
- Erp-Huisman-Vande-Walle(eds.): The RoutledgeHandbook of White-Collar and CorporateCrimein Europe. Routledge, 2015. ISBN 978-0-415-72214-8
- MaterialsavailableonNeptun
- Lectures
Assessment/exam
Students couldchooseeithertogive a presentation (on an agreedtopic) ortowrite an atleast 18’000 characterspaperonthetopic of thecourse (agreedinadvancewiththeteacher). Submissiondeadlinefortheessay: lastweek of thesemester.
Difficultylevel
Students participatingin BA or MA program arewelcome.