Bad guys: Why the public supports punishing white-collar offenders Export

@article{citeulike:3636226, abstract = {Abstract\ \ Until the latter part of the 1960s, the American public was inattentive to the problem of crime in the upperworld. Due to a confluence of events (e.g., Watergate affair, Vietnam War, civil rights movement), concern about this lawlessness rose precipitously in the 1970s. Public attention toward and willingness to punish white-collar crime has persisted into the twenty-first century. We argue, however, that due to a series of recent scandals (e.g., Enron, WorldCom), public opinion about upperworld offenders has been transformed qualitatively. High-profile offenders are now seen not as respected community citizens but as ” bad guys” whose crimes reflect inordinate greed and a disturbing lack of concern for victims. This typification is conducive to the prosecution of white-collar offenders but may have the unanticipated consequence of deflecting attention away from structural sources of corporate illegal enterprises.}, author = {Cullen, Francis and Hartman, Jennifer and Jonson, Cheryl}, citeulike-article-id = {3636226}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9143-3}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.springerlink.com/content/p62323gj34246728}, doi = {10.1007/s10611-008-9143-3}, journal = {Crime, Law and Social Change}, keywords = {accountability, greed, public, reputations, respect-levels, white-collar}, posted-at = {2009-03-27 09:42:54}, priority = {2}, title = {Bad guys: Why the public supports punishing white-collar offenders}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9143-3} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3636226 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3636226 N2 - Abstract  Until the latter part of the 1960s, the American public was inattentive to the problem of crime in the upperworld. Due to a confluence of events (e.g., Watergate affair, Vietnam War, civil rights movement), concern about this lawlessness rose precipitously in the 1970s. Public attention toward and willingness to punish white-collar crime has persisted into the twenty-first century. We argue, however, that due to a series of recent scandals (e.g., Enron, WorldCom), public opinion about upperworld offenders has been transformed qualitatively. High-profile offenders are now seen not as respected community citizens but as “bad guys” whose crimes reflect inordinate greed and a disturbing lack of concern for victims. This typification is conducive to the prosecution of white-collar offenders but may have the unanticipated consequence of deflecting attention away from structural sources of corporate illegal enterprises. JF - Crime, Law and Social Change TI - Bad guys: Why the public supports punishing white-collar offenders KW - accountability KW - greed KW - public KW - reputations KW - respect-levels KW - white-collar AU - Cullen, Francis AU - Hartman, Jennifer AU - Jonson, Cheryl UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9143-3 ER -