White-Collar Crime and Criminal Careers

Weisburd and Waring offer here the first detailed examination of the white-collar criminal career.

David Weisburd (Author), Elin Waring (Author), Ellen F. Chayet (Author)

9780521777636, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 12 February 2001

208 pages, 7 b/w illus. 34 tables
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.29 kg

'This book refutes the simplistic notion that poverty causes crime. The idea that criminals are in some way different from the rest of society and only to be found in the most impoverished urban estates may be reassuring but it is certainly false.' Irish Jurist

Studies of the criminal career to date have focused on common criminals and street crime; criminologists have overlooked the careers of white-collar offenders. David Weisburd and Elin Waring offer here the first detailed examination of the criminal careers of people convicted of white-collar crimes. Weisburd and Waring uncover some surprising findings, which upset common wisdom about white-collar criminals. Many scholars have assumed that white-collar criminals are unlikely to have multiple or long records or repeat offenses. As the authors demonstrate, a significant number of white-collar criminals have numerous brushes with the law and their careers show marked similarities to the circumstances and life patterns of street criminals. Their findings illustrate the misplaced emphasis of previous scholarship in focusing on the categorical distinctions between criminals and non-criminals. Rather, their data suggest the importance of the immediate context of crime and its role in leading otherwise conventional people to violate the law.

1. White collar crime and criminal careers
2. Dimensions of official criminal careers
3. Crimes of crisis and opportunity
4. Chronic offenders
5. Prison sanctions and criminal careers
6. Understanding recidivism
7. Conclusions
Appendix A. Description of statutory offenses
Appendix B. Comparison of the Wheeler et al. and the current sample
Notes
References.

Subject Areas: Crime & criminology [JKV], Sociology & anthropology [JH]