Organising White-Collar and Corporate Crimes

This book explores how we can re-constitute our approach to analysing and empirically investigating the organisation of white-collar and corporate crimes, with a view to building fuller theoretical and empirical accounts. The work demonstrates how knowledge can be produced and systematised within a conceptual and analytical framework concerned with understanding how such crimes are organised, why they are organised as they are, who gets involved in them as primary offenders and as facilitators, and the ?real? factors that shape these organisational dynamics over time within particular contexts and under varying conditions. In doing so, the volume examines the distal (far-off) and proximal (close) social arrangements and relations that create and shape emergent white-collar crime opportunities and their structures. It also investigates the mechanisms, relationships, processes and conditions that are necessary for the commission, or the unfolding, of white-collar crimes, or for their non-commission. How these are contingently connected to particular contexts is explored. The work also considers the people who collaborate, connect and otherwise associate, whether ephemerally or for longer periods, in the pursuit of criminal goals, and the actual or potential skills, expertise and abilities of these people to accomplish or resist particular behaviours that are required of them. Finally, the volume assesses the human, social, cultural and material antecedents that enable white-collar crimes to flourish or fade. The work will be of particular interest to scholars theorising about and empirically investigating white-collar and corporate crimes, or seeking to understand empirical approaches to analysing such behaviours and other types of crime. As such, it is primarily aimed at critical social scientists, including criminologists and sociologists, as well as socio-legal, business, economics, and political studies scholars. The work will also be of interest to practitioners and policymakers keen to learn more about how and why these crimes are organised as they are.

'In this groundbreaking work, Lord and Levi present a detailed analysis of how complex white-collar and corporate crimes are organized. By focusing on the mechanics of white-collar offenses, they advance our understanding of how and why these multifaceted crimes persist as well as suggesting mechanisms for their regulation and control.'

Michael L. Benson, Professor of Criminology, University of Cincinnati

'Lord and Levi, renowned global scholars, take readers on a tour de force into the world of white-collar and corporate criminals. Focusing on the very nature of these crimes ? organisation, they lay bare the deep mechanisms on which they thrive. Razor-sharp analyses of juicy cases complement a truly intellectual adventure.'

Susanne Karstedt, Professor of Criminology, Griffith University

'This book by two of the most authoritative scholars in white-collar criminology offers a comprehensive account of how white-collar crimes are organized and financed, as well as many case descriptions of seriously harmful white-collar crimes in contemporary organizations. An essential read.'

Judith van Erp, Professor of Regulatory Governance, Utrecht University

'Seventy-five years after Edwin Sutherland characterized white-collar crimes as crimes of organization, this book provides the analytical framework to actually study the contemporary organization of white-collar and corporate crimes. This is much needed to advance white-collar and corporate crime scholarship.'

Karin van Wingerde, Professor of Corporate Crime and Governance, Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam

'Most studies apply mainstream theories from criminology to white-collar and corporate crime, with mixed results. This book revitalizes the field with an opposite approach, by directly aiming at the core of white-collar crime. Understanding ?organisation? is key to understanding the true nature and root causes of white-collar and corporate crime.'

Wim Huisman, Professor of Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

'Why are white-collar and corporate crimes organized as they are?  What conditions give rise to different forms of organisation over time?  How do people come together to undertake and accomplish these illegal acts?  In this unique and important book, the authors conduct a deep dive into the underlying mechanisms of organisation by connecting diverse literatures (opportunity, white-collar crime scripts, and multi-mode, multi-link network analysis) and applying their integrated perspective to case studies of white-collar and corporate crime.  The approach is innovative and illuminating.  I heartily recommend it.'

Sally S. Simpson, Distinguished University Professor (Emerita), Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland