Public perceptions of white collar crime seriousness: A survey of an Australian sample

During the past decade or so a number of studies in the United States and Canada have offered a challenge to the commonly held belief that the public is indifferent or somewhat ambivalent to white collar criminality. The present research replicated the Rossi et. al., survey in 1972 of the seriousness of 140 offenses to test if similar results were possible in Australia. The results presented here show that the public do perceive these offenses as being serious, and the degree of seriousness depends on the impact of harm particular types of offenses have on victims.