Measurement problems in official and survey crime rates

This paper analyzes sources of error in the two major methods we use to measure crime in America—official police statistics and victimization surveys. The two produce quite different pictures of the volume and distribution of crime, but it is not clear that this is because victim-based statistics are “accurate.” Each measurement procedure has its characteristic errors, some of which it shares with the other. Comparisons of official and survey data on crime are helpful in revealing the dimensions of these error terms, and they point out the analyses which must be conducted if we are to specify their exact proportions.     

Re-imagining crime prevention: controlling corporate crime?

While the discourses and practices of crime prevention are of increasing salience, few criminologists have sought the inclusion of corporate illegalities on such agendas. Relatedly, within criminology, there has been a diminished tendency to think in idealistic, utopian and emancipatory terms. This paper is one small attempt to think in precisely such terms.¹ But it is not an exercise in pure imagination. In particular, the paper makes extended reference to Finland, where recent experience suggests that corporate crime prevention may be feasible, under certain conditions, albeit subject to certain limitations. Thus we consider both the desirability and the feasibility of corporate crime prevention intruding upon the generally narrowly constructed terrain of ‘crime prevention’. We begin with a critique of some of the key aspects of crime prevention discourses – at both theoretical and practical levels – with a particular emphasis upon the extent to which these are both more appropriately and usefully applied to corporate crime prevention, before going on to discuss corporate crime prevention ‘in action’, through a focus upon recent developments in Finland. In a concluding section, we consider various aspects of both the desirability and feasibility of corporate crime prevention.     

Truman's revenge: Social control and corporate crime

Many criminologists have found that corporate crime does more harm than street crime, whether measured by property lost, money stolen, or lives taken. Yet, public concern about crime is almost exclusively focused on street crime and “just deserts” for the offender. The authors argue that corporate criminality is more likely than individual criminality to be planned and subjected to cost/benefit analysis than street crime and therefore more likely to be deterred by raising the costs of corporate criminality. The Model Penal Code is used to demonstrate that both individual and corporate crime produce a comparable array of avoidable harms. Public policies that demand just deserts for individual offenders (natural persons) are revealed as highly inconsistent with policies that protect corporations (juristic persons) from accountability for the harms they create. A philosophical and legal foundation for corporate crime control strategies is provided. The authors propose a sanctions regime for corporate criminals comparable to the sanctions regime imposed on natural persons for street crimes. Strategies to avoid risk shifting by corporations are suggested. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Environmental pollution: corporate crime and cancer mortality

Corporate crime remains more costly and arguably more harmful than street crime and such harms include environmental, air, and water pollution resulting in increasing cancer mortality rates around the globe. More importantly, these corporate crimes are global in nature and facilitated by transnational corporations’ capture of the USA Environmental Protection Agency.     

Understanding transnational bribery: a corporate crime framework

Despite calls for utilizing white-collar and corporate crime frameworks to study corruption, the role of corporations in supplying bribes to foreign government officials is not well understood. In the current study, we draw upon a recent framework designed to examine the transnational corporate bribery process from an opportunity theory perspective. We apply the framework to a sample of individuals and organizations with enforcement actions levied against them by the United States Department of Justice’s Fraud Section for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 between 2011 and 2016. Using an exploratory mixed methods approach, we assess the prevalence and qualitative nature of multiple components of the framework. Our goal is to develop a systematic way to apply it to different sets of bribery data and to move toward a fuller theoretical account of transnational corporate bribery. Our findings demonstrate the significance of the corporate role in foreign bribery, the utility of the bribery process framework, and some areas of refinement and future theoretical development.

     

Foot patrol and crime rates

This paper examines the effectiveness of proactive police patrolling as it pertains to crime reduction. While conventional squad car patrolling can be seen as proactive, it is generally a reactive form of police behavior. Foot patrols, due in part, to closer interaction with citizens, and closer proximity to potential crime scenes, more clearly represent the intent of proactive patrolling. Based upon data recorded by the police department in a city recently experimenting with foot patrols, this research addresses the issue of whether or not proactive foot patrolling has been successful in reducing crime, both violent and property offenses, in a downtown commercial area.     

Counterfeiting as corporate externality: intellectual property crime and global insecurity

Corporate negative externalities occur when corporations place some of the costs of their profit-seeking activity onto society. This paper suggests that the current global problem of intellectual property crime is such an externality, and that it has not been recognised as such because corporations present product counterfeiting and piracy as crimes which reduce their revenue, rather than as predictable side effects of corporate production and merchandising, including branding activity, which have considerable socially deleterious consequences. It is argued that corporate actors are responsible for the socially harmful effects of the global counterfeiting problem in the following respects. Branding, advertising, and other corporate activities drive the market for goods which have a fashion value over and above their use value. While corporations ‘create’ this desire, they cannot prevent it being applied to the desire for fake or replica goods. Outsourcing of corporate production activities to developing countries to take advantage of cheap manufacturing and labour costs presents considerable opportunities to producers in those countries to copy and distribute the goods in an unauthorised way. Serious measures are not taken against product counterfeiters by rights-holding corporations, since market expediency dictates that the costs of counterfeiting are not so adverse to corporations to incentivise them to change their business methods. Counterfeit and pirated goods cause a range of social harms above and beyond the spuriously-costed financial damage corporate rights-holders suggest they suffer - these include the health and safety issues created by some fake goods, and the creation and maintenance of highly profitable organised crime activity in international markets for fake goods.     

Age structure and crime rates: The conflicting evidence

Because arrest rates are especially high for teenagers and young adults, criminologists have long contended that age structure changes affect crime trends. In recent years, however, this belief has been drawn into question because crime has not declined even though high-crime age groups have shrunk. We argue that the age/crime relationship is probably exaggerated because the high arrest rates for younger persons are due partly to their lesser ability to escape arrest, younger persons commit more group crime, and the age structure of victims should be taken into account. We then review 90 studies that regress crime rates on age structure; only a small minority consistently finds significant relationships. Because of methodological problems in this research, one cannot conclude that the age/crime relationship does not exist, but the weight of evidence shows that forecasts based on demographic trends are not likely to be helpful.     

Causal factors of corporate crime in Taiwan: qualitative and quantitative findings

Street crimes are a primary concern of most criminologists in Taiwan. In recent years, however, crimes committed by corporations have increased greatly in this country. Employing the empirical approach to collect data about causal factors of corporate crime, the research presented in this article is the first systematic empirical study concerning corporate crime in Taiwan. The research sample was selected from a corporation with a criminal record of pollution caused by the release of toxic chemicals into the environment and a corporation with no criminal record. Questionnaire survey and interviews of corporate employees and managers were conducted, and secondary data were collected from official agencies. This research indicated the causal factors of corporate crime as follows: the failure of government regulation, lack of corporate self-regulation, lack of public concern about corporate crime, corporate mechanistic structure, and the low self-control tendency of corporate managers.     

Conceptualising and combating transnational environmental crime

To date, transnational environmental crime has been poorly attended to by the transnational organised crime and transnational policing discourse. Academics have focused on individual elements of environmental crime, neglecting a broader theoretical discussion, while national and international institutions have prioritised other forms of organised crime, giving little thought to the nuanced nature of transnational environmental crime and how this should be reflected in policing and countermeasures. This paper attempts to rectify this by conceptualising transnational environmental crime and suggesting ways forward for countermeasure development. The paper will begin by looking at the problem of environmental crime, its value, scope and effects, concluding that the damaging nature of transnational environmental crime demands a greater focus on its policing. The nature of transnational environmental crime will then be discussed by reference to traditional forms of organised crime. It will be argued that, while transnational environmental crime is a form of organised crime, and has some features in common with the traditional organised crimes, such as drug smuggling and people trafficking, it is the substantial differences that should guide the approach to developing countermeasures. The development of effective countermeasures, it is concluded, requires a significant change in policy at every level.     

当前我国公司犯罪影响因素评析

公司犯罪与其它形态的犯罪一样,不是单一的因素所引起的,而是多种因素相互作用的结果.这些因素所起的效果不是同等的简单的并列在一起的,而是表现为有机结合在一起的相互影响和作用的因素综合体.公司犯罪影响因素具体主要包括社会结构的变迁、经济发展的不平衡性与文化观念的变异、国家刑事立法与司法及被害人因素等.     

“Organized crime” and “organized crime”: Indeterminate problems of definition

Despite decades of effort, the search for a universal definition of organized crime has eluded both academics, criminal justice agencies, as well as international bodies. More than two decades ago, a content analysis of such definitional efforts by this writer (Hagan, 1983) noted that, while many writers, including those of textbooks, failed to supply explicit definitions of organized crime, some consensus was apparent. These earlier findings are explored and compared with updated content analyses of American criminology and criminal justice textbooks and organized crime textbooks. Also discussed are definitions offered by criminal justice agencies and those by international organizations. A distinction is made between “Organized Crime” groups and “organized crime,” activities by groups that are organized. This paper was presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2006.     

Ascent of the corporate model in environmental-organized crime

Since the mid-1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) has been used against traditional organized criminals (i.e., Mafia) operating within various waste-trade industries. Recent civil and criminal RICO cases brought in New York City and State, provide current examples of the overall limited success of using RICO against criminal actors situated within the waste-trade industries. Although the traditional form of organized crime (i.e., Mafia) appears to be on the wane, corporate forms of organized crime have already entered into the waste-trade industries to fill the void created by the extraction of their predecessors. These corporate racketeers closely mimic the old traditional form of crime they have replaced, but may prove to be even more intractable, because, as the literature on corporate crime has clearly shown, corporate entities are extremely resistant to labeling as illegitimate organizations. One result of addressing “environmental-organized crime” as strictly organized crime, rather than as environmental crime, is that little change will be forthcoming in our current environmental regulations, laws, strategies and policies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Official crime rates and victim surveys: An empirical comparison

This paper compares the Uniform Crime Reports (UCRs) to the results of the National Crime Survey (NCS). Six Part I offenses are used to form the basis for comparison across twenty-six large American cities. The two data sources are conceptually comparable. Empirically, the NCS reveals significantly higher rates for all offenses but auto theft. The two sources are compatible in that the UCR revealed the same distributional pattern as the NCS. Thus it was concluded that the UCR provides an accurate indicator of the relative occurrence of criminal acts.     

Sanctioning corporate crime: How do business executives and the public compare?

Previous literature on attitudes toward the punishment or seriousness of criminal behavior has largely neglected to focus systematically upon five issues: (1) public perceptions of corporate illegality rather than perceptions of street crime or other forms of white-collar lawlessness; (2) how evaluations are conditioned by the degree of culpability and harm an offense involves; (3) the circumstances under which citizens will support the use of legal sanctions against an individual executive as opposed to a corporate entity; (4) the public's willingness to support criminal as opposed to civil intervention into various kinds of illegal corporate activities; and (5) how business executives' attitudes toward corporate legal sanctioning compare to those held by the general public. Through a survey of residents and business executives in a midwestern metropolitan area, an attempt was made to shed light on these issues. The analysis revealed a pervasive willingness among the sample to embrace the use of civil sanctions against corporations regardless of the circumstances surrounding the conduct being rated. By contrast, advocacy of civil remedies against executives and criminal penalties against either the corporation or its executives was found to vary considerably according to the culpability and harm manifested by a given illegal act. Also, public support for sanctioning corporate behavior was consistently higher than the support evidenced by executives, especially where the sanctions were directed at individual corporate managers.     

Disappearing act: The representation of corporate crime research in criminological literature

Following the labeling, conflict, and radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s and the attention these perspectives directed toward crimes committed by the powerful, it became commonplace for most criminologists to assume that corporate and white-collar crime received adequate attention in criminological and criminal justice literature. At the same time, corporate and white-collar crime researchers continued to assert that the behaviors they studied remain underrepresented in criminological literature, especially relative to the level of harm these behaviors cause. This article examines these two competing assumptions concerning the prevalence of corporate and white-collar crime literature during the later 1990s by: (1) analyzing the contents of several major criminological and criminal justice journals over a five-year time period; and (2) analyzing the coverage, placement, and integration of white-collar and corporate crime discussions in criminology and criminal justice textbooks. In addition, twenty-one Ph.D. granting criminology departments were polled to determine whether they offered regular and required courses on corporate and white-collar crime. Representativeness was determined through comparisons of the number of journal articles and the number of textbook pages published on white-collar and corporate crime indicators relative to the number of articles and pages published on several other criminological issues. Indicators of and the determination of representativeness are related to indicators of the seriousness (financial costs and level of violence) and impact of corporate and white-collar crime on society compared to the seriousness and impact of street crimes.     

Environmentalism and the internet: corporate greenwashers and environmental groups

Environmental degradation is a serious problem, for current populations and for future generations. Corporations are the largest offenders but seldom face the consequences of their actions. This article proposes that public relations campaigns and conflicting information on the internet pose significant challenges to calling for environmental accountability from corporations. Three companies – Coca‐Cola, Georgia Pacific, and Shell – are examined here in terms of questionable practices and public relations campaigns. While the internet could be an alternative news source, ‘corporate greenwash’ muffles a definitive voice on environmental issues. Both retributive and restorative justice processes are thwarted by misleading information. Despite environmental laws and efforts to increase accountability, calling for necessary change will continue to be exceedingly difficult without public knowledge of corporate behavior.     

Self-reported crime rates of women prisoners

This paper presents findings from the first study of female prisoners' self-reports of criminal activity. Using the criminal career paradigm to frame the analysis, self-reported estimates of crime participation and frequency rates were examined for eight felony crimes. Important similarities between women and men were found in overall patterns of crime. Specifically, a small proportion ofboth women and men described committing a large portion of the total crimes reported. These data also suggest that women and men are similar in violent crime participation — a finding that varies from the current literature. Once active in a crime type, women and men committed assault, theft, and forgery at significantly different rates; no gender differences were found in the annualized frequency rates of burglary, robbery, motor vehicle theft, fraud, and drug dealing. However, although statistical differences were not found in the overall frequency of drug dealing, specific patterns of drug dealing reflected considerable gender variation, with a larger proportion of the female sample committing very frequent (daily) drug dealing activity. The findings reflect the value of the criminal career paradigm for the study of gender differences. Future research should include largescale quantitative designs that allow detailed analyses of correlates of the distinct criminal career dimensions.Points of view are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice.This research was funded in part by the National Institute of Justice, Grant 87-IJ-CX-0048.     

Using meta-analysis under conditions of definitional ambiguity: the case of corporate crime

Given the reliance on meta-analyses to produce criminal justice policy recommendations, it is important to think critically about how this method is being applied in practice. In this study, we use data from a meta-analysis of corporate crime deterrence to demonstrate that applying meta-analytic methods to conceptually ambiguous research domains is problematic. Although meta-analysis is capable of modeling methodological variations in different research projects examining the same construct, analysts should not assume that meta-analytic methods are always appropriate; methodological differences may reflect underlying conceptual dissimilarities – this violates an assumption of meta-analysis. We also offer a critique of the corporate crime field for failing to clearly define its outcome, a critique that can be extended to other areas of criminological study.