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Abstract Recently, some researchers have attempted to resurrect deterrence theory. These researchers have focused on the relationship between certainty and severity of punishment and subsequent rates of crime. An inverse relationship has been found, leading these researchers to conclude that penal sanctions deter crime. This paper presents another hypothesis, namely, that increases in crime may overburden existing legal machinery, and thus cause decreases in the certainty of punishment as a result. Using the same data employed in past deterrence studies, this paper demonstrates that crime may affect certainty of punishment more strongly than certainty of punishment affects the crime rate, a finding which seriously questions the ability of legal threats as currently administered in American society to deter crime.

AbstractWhite-collar criminality continues to be a significant issue in countries with differing levels of economic development. This paper provides a comparative analysis of white-collar crime and crises through an examination of the recent peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending crash in China. It considers criminological findings from major United States crises in light of China's P2P online lending market failure through the lens of white-collar crime theory and research. The findings show that fraud was a main contributor to the P2P online lending crash and that various structural factors facilitated financial crimes that caused the collapse of the P2P online lending market. This study indicates that, similar to the U.S. experience, crime-facilitative environments allowed for endemic fraud in China's online lending industry. It suggests that a primarily reactive approach to financial crime is less effective than a proactive system of compliance that includes more comprehensive and transparent financial regulation and law enforcement.

This paper proposes a classification scheme for distinguishing "organized crime" and "corporate crime" based not on the occupational position or social status of their perpetrators, but on the motives and methods of the offenses themselves. Using government documents, interviews with FBI investigators and thrift regulators, as well as a variety of secondary sources, it documents patterns of crime in the savings and loan industry and demonstrates that these conspiracies more closely approximate organized crime than corporate crime. Included in the discussion is a brief exploration of the other forms of corporate illegality to which this broader typology can be applied. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and policy implications of applying the organized crime model to certain forms of white‐collar crime and argues that with the proliferation of financial fraud, it is imperative to replace traditional ad hominem assumptions about corporate illegality with more analytically useful distinctions based on the modus operandi.

This article elaborates on the nature and scale of white-collar crime in the savings and loan crisis. It provides an overview of the thrift industry and the impact of deregulation on opportunities for fraud. Violations are then discussed under the general headings of "unlawful risk taking,""collective embezzlement," and "covering up," and similarities are noted between criminal activities of thrift operators and those of persons associated with traditional organized crime. Government enforcement issues are discussed, focusing on both statutory changes and the law in action. Finally, the article argues that future policymaking, when considering changes in regulatory structure, must take into account the criminogenic environment produced by earlier legislation.

In a discussion of white-collar crime in the savings & loan crisis, an overview of the thrift industry & the impact of deregulation on opportunities for fraud is presented. Violations are then discussed in terms of unlawful risk taking, collective embezzlement, & covering up. Similiarities are noted between criminal activities of thrift operators & those associated with traditional organized crime. Government enforcement issues are discussed, focusing on both statutory changes & the law in action. It is concluded that future policy making, when considering changes in regulatory structure, must take into account the criminogenic environment produced by earlier legislation. Adapted from the source document.

The question of punishment of white‐collar criminals is addressed in this paper through an examination of sanctions imposed on health care providers convicted of defrauding California's Medicaid "Medi‐Cal" system. Quantitative data were collected from Medi‐Cal case files and, for comparative purposes, from a statewide data base maintained by the California Bureau of Criminal Statistics for grand theft arrestees. Qualitative data comprising interviews with Medi‐Cal enforcement personnel supplement the analysis. The analysis of criminal sanctions reveals greater leniency in the punishment of Medi‐Cal offenders than in the punishment of similarly charged non‐white‐collar offenders. The findings are related to recent debates regarding the severity of punishment for white‐collar offenders.

Insider trading. Savings and loan scandals. Enron. Corporate crimes were once thought of as victimless offenses, but now - with billions of dollars and an increasingly global economy at stake - this is understood to be far from the truth. ""The International Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime"" explores the complex interplay of factors involved when corporate cultures normalize lawbreaking, and when organizational behavior is pushed to unethical (and sometimes inhumane) limits. Featuring original contributions from a panel of experts representing North America, Asia, Europe, and Aust