NCJ Number
99360
Journal
American Sociological Review Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1985) Pages: 302-316
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper proposes a structural theory of white-collar crime and punishment.
Abstract
The fundamental premise of this theory is that class position, measured in relational rather than more traditional gradational terms, influences white-collar criminal behavior as well as its punishment. Using data collected through interviews with investigators involved in the prosecution of securities violators over a seventeen-year period in Ontario, it is demonstrated that the punishment of white-collar crime is not only a function of class position, but also of the kinds of organized white-collar criminal behavior that certain class positions make possible. This is the first analysis to include data on persons charged with noncriminal as well as criminal statutes, a distinction that proves crucial in the understanding of the class structure and legal sanctioning of the kind of white-collar crime considered. (Author abstract)