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Lecture 15: Responding to the Challenge of White Collar Crime
WHITE COLLAR CRIME
Goal
• To achieve a more effective response to white
collar crime.
o How?
oRaise consciousness about white collar
crime.
oAdopt structural, normative, and
preventative policies.
o Business ethics courses
o Ethical committees/ombudsmen
o Ethics or compliance officers
o Sanctions
Positive Sanctions
• Use of pleasant incentives/rewards to
make people conform to laws prohibiting
white collar offenses.
• E.g., grants, tax credits,
administrative consideration.
favorable
Negative Sanctions
• Actions that discourage the repetition or
continuation of behavior. Can range from
mild to severe, formal to informal.
• E.g., imprisonment, fines, adverse publicity;
stigma.
• Four justifications for punishment:
o Retribution: punishment should be
comparable in severity to the deviance
itself.
o Deterrence: requires that the pains of
punishment outweigh the pleasures of
deviance.
• Rehabilitation:
views deviance as the
product of social problems (e.g., poverty) or
personal problems (e.g., mental illness);
social offenders are improved and offenders
subjected to intervention appropriate to
their condition.
• Social Protection: believes that if society is
unwilling or unable to improve offenders or
reform social conditions, protection from
further
deviance
is
necessary
by
incarceration or execution.
Formal Sanctions
• Formal sanctions are applied in a public
setting. E.g., awarding a prize (positive),
announcing a fine (negative).
Informal Sanctions
• Actions by groups/individuals that arise
spontaneously with little or no formal
direction.
E.g., smiles, handshakes
(positive);
frowns,
gossip,
impolite
treatment (negative).