Crimes of the middle classes : white-collar offenders in the federal courts /

The fourth (and final) book emanating from a major, federally-funded study (based at Yale University) of white-collar crime. Previous volumes (Susan Shapiro's Wayward Capitalists, CH, Nov'84; Kenneth Mann's Defending White-Collar Crime, CH, Jul'85; Stanton Wheeler, Kenneth Mann, and Austin Sarat's Sitting in Judgment, CH, May'89) have examined the white-collar defense bar, the SEC, and the sentencing of white-collar criminals. A principal thesis of the Weisburd study is that those convicted of white-collar crimes in the federal courts are typically middle class (not elites), and their crimes are often quite banal. The study is based on detailed examination and analysis of presentencing reports for those convicted (1976-1978) of eight federal white-collar crimes. The book traces the "paths" and opportunity factors leading to white-collar crime, and the experience of offenders in the federal courts. Some stereotypes about such offenders are confirmed, others are shown invalid. The conception of white-collar crime adopted here (i.e., excluding corporate violence and governmental crime) and the time-frame of the sample impose significant limitations, but all four volumes of this project are essential acquisitions for any library serving a criminology program. Appendixes.-D. O. Friedrichs, University of Scranton