Elin Waring - Böcker

White-collar criminals are often assumed to be wealthy and powerful individuals who receive lenient treatment from the courts. This book—a major study of convicted white-collar offenders in America—provides a radically different portrait of these criminals and their punishments. Weisburd, Wheeler, Waring, and bode argue that the majority of white-collar criminals come from the middle classes and that judges often punish wrongdoers of higher status more harshly than less socially privileged criminals.  Drawing from a large research project that had special access to confidential federal pre-sentence investigations, the authors are able to give a particularly rich and detailed view of white-collar crime—from securities fraud and anti-trust violations to embezzlement and tax fraud. Following offenders from their crimes through conviction and sentencing, their book provides a fresh look at a number of questions that have become central research and policy concerns. Fro example, they find that the most important factor that makes it possible to commit costly and damaging white-collar crimes is use of organizational resources. They state that, when sentencing white-collar criminals, judges consider the blameworthiness of defendants and the harm they inflict upon the community.  The authors argue that the vast middle of our increasingly bureaucratic society has both more opportunities for financial wrongdoing and more susceptibility to it. They predict that white-collar crimes committed by these Americans will grow in significance as the nation approaches the twenty-first century.

Studies of the criminal career to date have focused on common criminals and street crime; criminologists have overlooked the careers of white-collar offenders. David Weisburd and Elin Waring offer here the first detailed examination of the criminal careers of people convicted of white-collar crimes. Weisburd and Waring uncover some surprising findings, which upset common wisdom about white-collar criminals. Many scholars have assumed that white-collar criminals are unlikely to have multiple or long records or repeat offenses. As the authors demonstrate, a significant number of white-collar criminals have numerous brushes with the law and their careers show marked similarities to the circumstances and life patterns of street criminals. Their findings illustrate the misplaced emphasis of previous scholarship in focusing on the categorical distinctions between criminals and non-criminals. Rather, their data suggest the importance of the immediate context of crime and its role in leading otherwise conventional people to violate the law.

Studies of the criminal career to date have focused on common criminals and street crime; criminologists have overlooked the careers of white-collar offenders. David Weisburd and Elin Waring offer here the first detailed examination of the criminal careers of people convicted of white-collar crimes. Weisburd and Waring uncover some surprising findings, which upset common wisdom about white-collar criminals. Many scholars have assumed that white-collar criminals are unlikely to have multiple or long records or repeat offenses. As the authors demonstrate, a significant number of white-collar criminals have numerous brushes with the law and their careers show marked similarities to the circumstances and life patterns of street criminals. Their findings illustrate the misplaced emphasis of previous scholarship in focusing on the categorical distinctions between criminals and non-criminals. Rather, their data suggest the importance of the immediate context of crime and its role in leading otherwise conventional people to violate the law.

This tenth volume in the Advances in Criminological Theory series is dedicated to the work of Albert J. Reiss, Jr. It focuses on the relationship between crime and social organization that is so central to his work. This focus rejects a view of crime solely as the action of atomistic individuals and sees the criminal justice system as inseparable from its social, political and organizational context. This perspective has had a resurgence in recent years, and this volume brings together some of the most important scholars who have contributed to these developments. Articles examine the social organization of crime itself, the context of crime, and the response to crime. The concept of co-offending, originally developed by Reiss, is explored both as a way of improving understanding of juvenile offending and as a framework for understanding patterns of criminal organization across crime types and the relationship of criminal to licit organization. Other articles recast social disorganization theory in light of recent theoretical and empirical developments. They argue for a version of control theory that incorporates internal, contextual, and state-focused dimensions. Organizational actors, both as offenders and as governmental agencies responding to crime, are explored. Building from Reiss's groundbreaking work on policing, a group of articles on policing examine organizational change through reorganization, the adoption of strategies such as community policing and the increased use of empirical evidence, complicated by routines, organizational culture and political constraints. Taken together, these works develop new connections between dimensions of social organization and renew the social organization perspective on crime and criminal justice. Contributors include: Diane Vaughan, Joan McCord, Kevin P. Conway, Elin Waring, Felton Earls, Beat Mohler, Peter Manning, Stephen Mastrofski, Lawrence Sherman, David Weisburd, Robert Sampson, David F. Greenberg, Margaret Kelley, Robin Tamarelli, and Jeremy Travis.