Instructor: Jane Siegel, Ph.D.
Office:
363 Armitage
Phone:
225-6207
E-mail:
jasiegel@camden.rutgers.edu
Home page: http://crab.rutgers.edu/~jasiegel/ - On-line copies of this syllabus are available from my home page.
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 - 12:00, and by appointment.
White Collar Crime in America, by Jay S. Albanese
Crimes of Privilege, edited by Neal Shover and John Paul Wright
Both are available in the bookstore. Additional readings are on reserve in the library.
This course is intended to provide students with the following:
1. An understanding of the definitional complexity of white-collar crime and of the idea of crime as a socially constructed phenomenon;
2. An overview of the types of behaviors encompassed by the term "white-collar crime," in part through case studies;
3. An estimate of the extent and cost of white-collar crime;
4. An introduction to the theoretical explanations for white-collar crime at both the individual and corporate levels; and
5. An appreciation of the difficulties of enforcement and prosecution of white-collar criminality.
The term "white-collar crime" has been used to refer to a wide variety of illegal behaviors, but much definitional ambiguity remains about a concept that was named only during the latter part of the 20th century. This course will begin with a consideration of the question "what is white-collar crime?" and the implications of the answer for criminal justice professionals and researchers. Various forms of white-collar crime will be examined and illustrated through case studies and estimates of the extent and costs of these crimes will be presented, along with victim and offender profiles. Legal issues, including questions of corporate liability, will be reviewed. The course will also offer an introductory examination of theoretical explanations for white-collar crime committed by individual offenders and corporations. Readings will provide students with the opportunity to consider problems associated with the enforcement of laws related to white-collar criminality, the investigation and prosecution of such offenses and the sentencing of white-collar offenders.
Students' mastery of the readings and lecture materials presented in class will be evaluated on the basis of their performance on responses to questions on case studies, a "news journal," class participation, a mid-term and a final.
Case studies
The textbook and readings for this class contain several case studies of white-collar crimes. Students will be required to submit written responses to questions posed about two different case studies. All written responses should be typed, double-spaced, with 1" margins all around. Although additional research is not required to respond to the questions, students who elect to use outside sources in preparing these assignments should properly cite them, using the style set forth either in the guidelines of the American Sociological Association or the American Psychological Association. The department has a web page with links to sites that provide guidance on how to format written materials to comply with those guidelines.
News journals
Most Americans learn about the news from television, which provides very little coverage of white-collar crime but much coverage of violent street crime. This presentation of the news skews our image of the nation's "crime problem" and keeps the public's attention focused on crimes associated with the lower classes. Newspapers and magazines, however, report on white-collar crimes with much greater frequency. To keep us aware of the fact that white-collar crimes occur regularly, we will provide our own reports of white-collar crime at each class meeting.
Each student will keep a weekly "news journal," consisting of an article from a newspaper or magazine about white-collar crime and a written reaction to each article. Articles can deal with any form of white-collar crime (e.g. fraud, environmental offenses, anti-trust violations, insider trading, embezzlement, bribery) and can report on a particular criminal incident, an offender, a criminal trial or other official action, sentencing, etc. The written reaction should include your personal reflections on the crime, tempered by information you have learned in the course. Questions you might want to answer in your reaction include, but are not limited to:
1. What new insights did this article bring to you?
2. How do you rate the severity of the crime?
3. Does the disposition of the crime seem fair?
4. How does this compare to a street crime or to the treatment
of street criminals?
5. Does this article confirm or contradict course material? Does
it add to it in any way?
Reactions should be typed, double-spaced, with 1" margins all around. At the top of each reaction, write the date, name and source of the article. Articles and reactions should be bound into some type of binder or notebook, in chronological order, with a copy of the article followed immediately by the reaction page for that particular article.
At the end of the semester, you will choose what you consider to be your best reaction paper and designate it as one that will be graded. The news journal itself will count for 20% (20 points) of your final grade for the class; 15 of those points will be earned by completing the entire news journal correctly, which means having 14 different articles and 14 typed reactions, bound in correct order in a binder. The proportion of the remaining five points that you receive will be determined by the quality of the designated reaction paper. A well-written (i.e. lucid, grammatically correct, without spelling errors, well-organized) paper will earn all five points.
The easiest way to locate articles is to log on to one of the library's on-line databases, such as Dow-Jones Interactive or Lexis-Nexis. Type in a search term and a list of articles (some suitable, others not) will be displayed. You can either save the article and then print it out using any word processing program or print it out directly from the computer.
At each class meeting, one or two students will be asked to provide the rest of the class with a "white-collar crime news update," which will consist of a summary of the article found for that week. Students can volunteer to be the correspondent for a given day, but all students will be required to report at least once during the semester. Completion of this assignment will count for three of the 15 points possible for class participation/oral exams.
Class participation
Regular class participation is an important element for success in this course. Students should come to each class prepared to respond orally to questions posed about the readings. All students will be called on, since these questions are intended to supplement the assessment of student comprehension of the readings that will be based on written examinations. Most chapters of the text contain critical thinking exercises based on cases illustrative of the key concepts covered in a given chapter; students should be prepared to respond to these questions when called on in class.
In-class discussion groups will also be held in which students will have an opportunity to discuss the case studies and their responses as well as other topics.
Students with excessive absences may be given a grade of F.
Assessment of student performance will be computed on the following
basis:
| Midterm | 15% |
| Final | 25% |
| Written case study responses | 15% (2 at 7.5% each) |
| In-class discussion groups | 10% |
| Class participation/Oral exams | 15% |
| News journals | 20% |
Make-up exams will be given only if you have obtained my permission to be excused from the actual exam prior to the time of that exam. Late submission of written assignments will be accepted only with my prior consent. Five points may be deducted from the grade for each day beyond the due date that an assignment is turned in late.
An electronic mailing list, known as a "listserv," has been established for this class. I will use this listserv as a means of communicating with the entire class, but it can also be used by each of you to communicate with the class as well. To be on the listserv (and each student MUST be on the listserv), you must subscribe to it, which means that you must have an e-mail account. Such accounts are available to every student and are free of charge. If you do not have an account, click here to learn about setting up an account.
The college's academic integrity policy, which can be found in the college catalogue, will be enforced in this class. Students are also encouraged to read the departmental plagiarism policy, which includes some useful links to other sites that may help you avoid plagiarizing inadvertently. If you are in doubt about what might constitute plagiarism in a written or oral assignment, please check with me.
Assigned readings should be done prior to the date where they appear, especially since students will be questioned in class about them. Additional readings may be distributed in class. The meaning of the abbreviations used in the list below are as follows:
CP = Crimes of Privilege
WCC = White Collar Crime in America
LR = Library reserve
The schedule outlined below represents my intended timetable, but adjustments may be made during the semester.
Students are responsible for knowing the material in the readings, regardless
of whether it is discussed in class or not. In other words, your tests
will include materials from class lectures and your readings, unless otherwise
noted. Since I will not be able to discuss all of the subjects covered
in the texts, you should take careful notes on the readings and ask
me about any topics you do not understand and that I have not reviewed
in class.
| DATE | TOPICS AND READINGS |
| 1/16 | Introduction to the course. What is white-collar crime and why bother studying it? |
| 1/18 | History of the concept of white-collar crime. Legal concepts related
to white-collar crime.
Readings: CP, "White-Collar Criminality," pp. 4-11
|
| 1/23 | Working definitions of "white-collar crime." Typologies of white-collar
crime. Defining different forms of white-collar offenses. Corporate crime.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 1, pp. 1-10
|
| 1/25 | Conspiracy.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 2, pp. 13-23 CP, "From Fiddle Factors to Networks of Collusion," pp. 127-136 |
| 1/30 | Conspiracy (cont'd.) Anti-trust law. Case in point: the heavy electrical
equipment price-fixing conspiracy.
Readings: LR, "The Heavy Electrical Equipment Antitrust Cases of 1961" |
| 2/1 | Crimes of theft by fraud: embezzlement, extortion, forgery and fraud.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 3, pp. 27-39
|
| 2/6 | Structuring fraud: motivation and opportunity
Readings: Ch. 2-5 from Fraud: Bringing Light to the Dark Side of
Business:
(N.B. These readings are grouped together in the library reserves under the name "The Nature of Fraud.") |
| 2/8 | Fraud (cont'd.) Case in point: Medicaid fraud.
Readings: LR, "Medicaid Fraud" DISCUSSION GROUP 1 |
| 2/13 | Offenses against public administration: bribery, obstruction of justice,
official misconduct and perjury.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 4, pp. 41-57 |
| 2/15 | Public administration offenses (cont'd.). Case in point: Watergate
Readings: LR, "Case Study: Watergate" Listen to excerpts from Nixon's tapes NOTE: At this site, you can download a transcript of a conversation that you believe contains evidence of a public administration offense and use that transcript for your news journal entry and reaction this week. Your reaction paper should identify the specific offense(s) revealed by the conversation and explain why you believe that what was said provides evidence of the offense(s). |
| 2/20 | Regulatory offenses: administrative violations, environmental offenses,
labor violations, manufacturing violations and unfair trade practices.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 5, pp. 61-77 |
| 2/22 | Regulatory offenses (continued). Case in point: Environmental crime
close to home.
Readings: "Beyond the Flames" This link takes you to the first article in an 8-part series published in the "Philadelphia Inquirer." Read the entire series by clicking on the links to each part, which are displayed on the left-hand side of the screen. While there, you should also take a look at the photos of the people affected by this incident by clicking on "The Sick and The Dead" link. |
| 2/27 | MID-TERM EXAM - Chapters 1-5 in WCC text plus associated readings from 1/18 through 2/22 and lecture materials |
| 3/1 | Finance crime. Case in point: Fraud and embezzlement in the savings
and loan industry.
Readings: CP, "'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose,'" pp. 99-127 DISCUSSION GROUP 2 |
| 3/6 | But white-collar crime never killed anybody." The case of corporate
violence.
Readings: LR, "Quiet Violence"
|
| 3/8 | Corporate violence (continued). Case in point: The Imperial Food Products
fire
Readings: CP, "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of State-Corporate Crime," pp. 156-172 CASE STUDY #1 DUE - - Questions will be distributed via listserv |
| 3/13 | SPRING BREAK |
| 3/15 | SPRING BREAK |
| 3/20 | Measuring white-collar crime.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 6, pp. 81-87
|
| 3/22 | Assessing the impact of white-collar crimes.
Readings CP, "The Neglected Victims and Unexamined Costs of White-Collar
Crime," pp. 51-57
|
| 3/27 | Who are the white-collar criminals?
Readings CP, "Characteristics and Sources of White-Collar Crime," pp.
329-341
|
| 3/29 | The white-collar criminal: Gender and white-collar crime
Readings: WCC, Ch. 10, pp. 151-159
|
| 4/3 | Why do they do it? Theoretical explanations of white-collar crime.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 7, pp. 99-112 |
| 4/5 | Theoretical explanations of white-collar crime. (cont'd.)
Readings: CP, "Competition and Motivation to White-Collar Crime," pp.
341-358
|
| 4/10 | Explaining crimes by corporations.
Readings: CP, "A Rational Choice Theory of Corporate Crime," pp. 194-210
CASE STUDY # 2 DUE - Questions will be distributed via listserv DISCUSSION GROUP 3 |
| 4/12 | Investigating white-collar crime. Prosecuting and defending white-collar
offenders.
Readings: WCC, Ch. 8, pp. 117-132 |
| 4/17 | The role of regulatory agencies in the control of corporate crime.
Readings: LR, "Regulating Corporate Behavior" |
| 4/19 | Controlling corporate crime.
Readings: CP, "On Theory and Action for Corporate Crime Control," pp. 361-379 |
| 4/24 | The challenge of prosecuting white-collar crime. Case in point: The
Ford Pinto case.
Readings: LR, "The Ford Pinto Case and Beyond: Moral Boundaries and
the Criminal Sanction"
DISCUSSION GROUP 4 |
| 4/26 | Sentencing white-collar offenders. Can you send a corporation to prison?
Alternative sentences. The future of white collar crime
Readings: WCC, Ch. 9, pp. 135-146
**NEWS JOURNALS TO BE HANDED IN TODAY** |
| 5/4 | FINAL EXAM - 2:00 - 5:00 |