CCJ 340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Wield, Government Accountability Office, White-Collar Crime
14 Mar 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Costs and consequences: the estimates released in february 2013 by the government accounting office (gao) were that the financial crisis of 2008 cost the american economy 22. Trillion dollars: very few arrests, or prosecutions, despite the dramatic collapse, due to risky maneuvers fraudulent and some seemed to violate the spirit of existing laws, occurred in fairly unregulated areas of the financial markets. This makes prosecutors somewhat reluctant to bring criminal charges in these cases. In the last 20+ years, there has been an even greater shift in the public"s attitude toward the prosecution of white-collar criminals. Given the increase in media attention, the very public collapse of several major corporations, and the financial and real estate meltdown, few people now see white collar crime as victimless activities of respectable individuals. Characteristics impacting attitudes: education and income consistently impact respondent beliefs in the effectiveness of the system. As education and income increase, belief in the effectiveness in the system decreases.
