The alchemy of fraud: Investment scams in the precious-metals mining business

Particularly since the emergence of modern stock markets, investment frauds based on hyped or completely phony claims have been sufficient to cause concern. However those involving precious metals seem in a category by themselves. Partly no doubt that is because such schemes routinely promise fantastic returns; partly, too, it is because precious metals have a special lure based on myth, magic or even atavistic religious appeal which con artists exploit. However it is often difficult with precious metal mines to know precisely where over-enthusiasm by promoters ends and outright fraud against investors begins. Unlike with base metals, it is commercially feasible to mine precious ones at very low concentrations; while the speculative nature of most new mining ventures makes failure for legitimate reasons a frequent occurrence, helping to disguise or at least fudge the distinction between a business venture that went sour and an outright scam. Moreover the geology of sites can be tricky even for experts to read; assay results are far from conclusive in many instances; and the technologies employed are often changing with the result that what might have seemed an impossibility one day becomes at least arguable the next. All this combines with short memories and the lure of potentially very high returns to make investment in the precious metals sector as much today as in the past treacherous not just for novices but even for experienced investors. This paper examines the nature of such investment frauds in light of history, technology and geological uncertainty, and suggests reasons to expect no significant change in the foreseeable future.

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Corporate criminology: Explaining deviance of business and political organizations

Explanations of criminal behavior historically have focused on the behavior of individuals. The criminality of organizations, or corporate criminology, has only recently received systematic attention from researchers and policy makers. Four existing theories of organizational crime, and subsequent evaluations of their explanatory power, are comparatively assessed with special attention given to their implications for control strategies. It is suggested that strategies based on causal factors will achieve greater success than prevailing approaches to corporate criminality.     

Corporate crime and criminal justice system capacity: Government response to financial institution fraud

References to gang initiation rites are common in contemporary discourse about crime. Contemporary legends claim that gangs require initiates to commit horrific crimes, social science researchers depict initiations as brief tests of character, and newspaper accounts use initiation rites to explain unsolved crimes. The motif of gang initiation resembles claims about other deviant conspiracies. Its use illustrates how existing cultural resources serve the construction of social problems.     

Force and fraud: A radically coherent criticism of corrections as industry

As radical criminology continues to gain popularity among a new generation of scholars, there are several troubling developments that ought to be met with caution. First, many emergent writings seem to take a benevolent state for granted. Second, there is a tendency to present radical ideas in a vocabulary that is so abstruse that it is difficult to decipher precisely how social change might be realized. As a remedy to these problems, this article relies on blunt language to analyze the corrections industry; by doing so, it focuses on market principles shaping key mechanisms of social control, namely force and fraud. In terms of force, the US criminal justice apparatus is too often harsh and coercive, particularly for the poor and racial minorities. Compounding matters, citizens rarely challenge such force due in large part to fraudulent governmental insistence that tough on crime initiatives are necessary to maintain public safety. Among the items discussed within this framework are public misperceptions of crime and punishment, the production of prisoners in a capitalist system, and the encouragement of excessive incarceration producing financial and ideological dividends for the state as well as the private sector.     

Business Ethics as Corporate Governance

The paper analyses ethical business codes as governance mechanisms, i.e. institutions which facilitate coordination of economic behaviour. Ethical business codes are compared to other social institutions (market solutions, government intervention, the prevailing social ethic), and their efficiency is evaluated in terms of transaction costs. A normative rationale for ethical codes is found when other institutions fail to achieve socially optimal outcomes, in particular when the firm has access to unique information. Some economic incentives are identified which induce firms to commit to socially optimal ethical codes but it is argued that economic forces will not in general be sufficient for optimality.     

Workplace theft: An analysis of student-employee offenders and job attributes

This paper identifies characteristics and behaviors of college students who steal from their places of employment. As such, the present study focuses on the job-related lifestyle behaviors and characteristics of students that influence their opportunities and likelihood of stealing from their place of employment. The data come from self-administered surveys conducted with 1,531 college students in the fall of 1996. Results reveal job characteristics that increase opportunity and past criminal behavior are the most influential predictors of individuals who engage in workplace theft. Policy implications are discussed.     

Corporate Law Versus Social Autonomy: Law as Social Hazard

Law and Critique - This article argues that corporate law has become the legal platform upon which is erected a social process impeding society’s capacity to lucidly reflect on its primary...