NCJ Number
152531
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1994) Pages: 100-106
Date Published
1994
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This book review essay on three publications focuses on a number of important themes in white-collar crime research: the significance of organizational position in determining opportunities for white-collar crime, the links between the legitimate and illegitimate worlds, and the contingent negotiated character of law-making and law enforcement.
Abstract
Mary Zey's "Banking on Fraud" includes a case study of the causes and consequences of the junk bond insider trading scandal; it examines the connections between legitimacy and illegitimacy in the bond market of the 1980's. Zey argues that the entire junk bond industry and market were organized to support fraud, indeed networks of fraud, on a massive scale. Elizabeth's Szockyj's "The Law and Insider Trading" presents a welcome corrective to this oversight and illustrates the socially negotiated and contingent character of law-making and law enforcing. A review of the history of securities law from 1934 forward focuses on insider trading and on the courts, which in combination with and in opposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have played a significant role in defining both the offense and the SEC's authority to pursue it. "Crimes of the Middle Classes" by Weisburd et al. shows that access to organizational resources is more important than social status in determining the size of white-collar crime. Opportunities to commit serious white-collar crimes depend on the offender's position within an organization.