This course focuses on criminal and non-criminal harms perpetrated by powerful individuals, organizations, and institutions. Topics covered may include political corruption, genocide, environmental crime, workplace injury and death, food contamination, stock market manipulation and various other kinds of fraud. The development and enforcement of criminal, administrative, and civil law will be examined along with different theoretical perspectives on this specific type of criminal behaviour. (Prerequisites: SACR-2600, SACR-2620 and semester 5 or higher standing)
Society today is complicated. You’ll learn how to unravel its most urgent issues in this program that is focused on research, analysis and communication — skills relevant to a wide range of fields. You can tailor your degree by picking courses that match your interests. The department is small, ensuring you’ll get lots of personal attention.
Sample Courses: Foundations of Social Life; Social Dilemmas; Sociology of Families; Perspectives on Culture; Crimes of the State: Genocide, War Crimes and Ethnic Cleansing; Social Movements
Career Tracks: Immigration officer, human resources manager, community relations worker, mediator, case worker
Rosoff, Pontell, and Tillman (2014) conclude that societal, institutional, and organizational factors generate the opportunities, motives, and means for white-collar criminality.
From a societal view, criminologists suggest that the ultimate source of white-collar criminality lies in the “culture of competition” that pervades American society, a culture that emphasizes wealth as a basic symbol of success, without a corresponding emphasis on the legitimate or counter-normative means used to achieve wealth.
Institutional factors relate to how a particular industry may provide the means and opportunity for white-collar crimes. Some industries are described as “criminogenic,” an implication that their internal structures play a role in generating criminal activity in the system.
Organizational factors place emphasis on how an organization may encourage or promote deviance.
Select an industry and a type of white-collar or corporate crime that is prevalent within that industry. Using scholarly academic literature, trade publications, and current events in newspapers, find 7 scholarly academic articles and 5 articles from either trade journals or newspapers addressing the type of crime in the industry you select. You will use these articles as the basis of your Secondary Data Analysis Report.
Begin your report with an overview of the industry you selected and a brief discussion of the white-collar or corporate crime that you chose to study within this industry. Discuss the impact this type of crime has on its victims, associated costs, legal issues (i.e., regulation and enforcement), the role of environmental and cultural issues, and prevention measures or remedies.
Your report should include the following parts.
Part A Introduction: Write an overview describing the industry you selected and discuss the prevalence of the crime you choose to research within the industry and society.
Part B Literature Review: Organize the works in a logical manner and summarize their content. All literary works (12 articles) should be discussed and cited.
Part C Discussion: Evaluate your Literary Review findings, addressing the following.
The nature of the type of crime within your industry and its impact on the victims, associated costs, and relevant legal issues.
The role of environmental and cultural factors in relation to the type of crime in your industry.
a. Social: Has our societal culture forced individuals to engage in crime (i.e., the need to succeed)?
b. Institutional: Are there industry dynamics that create the means and opportunities that attract individuals to engage in criminal activities?
c. Organizational: Are there organizational policies and operational directives that encourage employees to break the law for personal gain or to meet organization objectives and goals?
The preventive measures or remedies for the crime within your industry.
Part D Conclusion: Summarize your research findings. State your opinion on the findings and give support for your opinion.
Part E Recommendations: Recommend a total of four (4) changes you would make to current prevention methods, governing regulations, or remedies imposed for the type of crime you selected. Include your reasoning behind these recommended changes.
In the past four decades, the financial industry has been rocked by evolving wave of white collar or corporate crimes. Some of the commonly known white collar crimes that have continuously affected the financial industry include phenomenon of market-timing and late-trading practices that involving mutual, stock option scandals, the accounting fraud, IPO manipulation, the boiler boom practices, the insider-trading and looting of thrifts(Zack, 2013). Some of the most recent white collar crimes witnessed following global recession of 2008 included massive manipulation of key benchmark rates as well as the widespread miss-selling of complex financial derivatives instruments to both naïve and unknowledgeable investors.
Despite the fact that white collar crime in financial industry………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Ferguson, C. (2012). Predator Nation. New York: Crown Business.
Jeffers, A. E. & Mogielnicki, S. M. (2010). The Line between Illegality & Unethical Behavior in the Goldman Sachs Subprime Mortgage Securities Case. International Journal of Business Research, 10(4): 159-169.
Krawiec, K. D. (2009). Accounting for Greed: Unraveling the Rogue Trader Mystery. Oregon Law Review, 79: 301-338.
Leap, T. (2007). Dishonest Dollars: The Dynamics of White-Collar. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Rosoff, S., Pontell, H. & Robert, T. (2014). Profit Without Honor: White-Collar Crime and The Looting of America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Shover, N., Hochstetler, A. & Tage, A. (2012). Choosing White-Collar Crime. In T. C. Francis, Oxford Handbook of Criminological Theory (pp. 475-501). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tombs, S. (2013). Corporate Theft and Fraud: Business as Usual. Criminal Justice Matters, 94: 14-15.
Wright, K. (2008). The Subprime Swindle: How the Mortgage Industry Stole Black American’s Hard-won Wealth. The Nation, 287: 11-22.
Zack, G. M. (2013). Financial Statement Fraud: Strategies for Detection and Investigation. Hoboken, NJ: Wileys.
Zepeda, R. (2013). Derivatives Mis-Selling by British Banks and the Failed Legacy of the FSA. Journal of International Banking Law and Regulations, 28: 209-220.