The global economy and the rapid emergence of technology facilitated the possibility of becoming involved in international or global business operations, generating increased productivity by exploring global resources, but also increasing the rates of criminality. The business environment is directly associated with a prevailing type of crime – the corporate and white-collar crime. Less known by societies throughout the world because in general in has non-violent consequences, corporate and white-collar crime produce victims of fraud, scams, bribery, blackmail throughout the world. However, these types of crimes do have also a violent character, considering the state corporate crimes, such as the attacks on other countries (USA invasion of Iraq), the kidnapping, bombing, hijacking actions, which also have a global presence. As white-collar and corporate crime advances, becoming increasingly more sophisticated, the targets of these crimes rarely realize that they have been victimized and are, for this reason, unable to report their loss. An increased awareness is required to spot the white-collar and corporate crime and the criminal system needs to stay permanently updated with the development of their modes of action, for preventing it and for regulating against it.
Dussich, J. P. J. (2006). Victimology – past, present and future. Resource Material Series No. 70, 116-129.
Understanding what victimology is and how it interacts with other fields of criminal law study is a suitable start for developing a research on violence and victimology. Dussich provides consistent data about key concepts of victimology, offering a historical perspective upon how this domain was treated in the past in law literature or in public policies, national or international programs. The study’s relevance is also given by the fact that it presents the existent forms of victimology, allowing readers to understand better this field of study and the distinct nature of causes and effects that they comprise. Related to white-collar crimes, the study describes one such form of crime, which is the abuse of power, revealing its consequences upon the victims, as well as the legal and political approaches to stop this form of white-collar crime. Dussich endeavors to predict the future of victimology. In this sense, he cites promising practices, which he analyzes and interprets to make personal, yet, informed predictions about the changes that will occur in this field of study from the policy making or programmatic point of view. The study contains a section dedicated to presenting “best models” on victimology framed within public policies and programmatic documents, presented as proposed recommendations to be followed by other states. Between ignorance upon what is considered victimology and violence and heavy public policies that disputes this science, Dussich translates the challenges, the mission and the aims of the World Society of Victimology and the goals of global victimology. The study suggests that collaboration between different states or international agencies can result in effective results for combating violence and victimology caused by various types of crimes.
Friedrichs, D. (2010). Trusted criminals: white collar crime in contemporary society. Belmont: Wadsworth.
The book links the corporate violence and corporate actions that generate injury or death of their victims directly with the intention of obtaining maximized profits. In this purpose, Friedrichs investigates the connection between the recent economic crisis and the corporate crime, being guided by the belief that the white-collar criminals were involved in the outburst of this global economic and financial downturn. He considers that through the global economic crisis the white-collar criminals caused victims of unemployment, bankruptcy or poverty throughout the world. The book is concerned not only with identifying white-collar criminals, but also with anticipating their intentions, their actions and the outcomes of these actions, and with controlling the corporate criminals.
The author of this textbook reveals the particularities of various types of white-collar crimes: corporate crime, occupational crime, avocational crime, governmental (state and political white-collar) crime, enterprise, contropreneurial and techno crime. The textbook provides an in-depth understanding of the unethical corporate behavior, likely to conduct to corporate and white collar crime, investigating this type of criminality further than just looking into the popular and mediatized cases of renowned corporations. The violent behavior of corporate actors and their awareness of their victimizing actions are everywhere, from small organizations to multinational corporations. The author of this study provides characteristics for identifying corporate and white-collar crimes. Friedrichs dedicates space in his study to exploring the dynamism of the white-collar crime in the criminal justice domain, presenting the existing policies and regulations for protecting the victims against the white-collar crimes. The book is relevant for the conducted report, because it reveals the mode of actions of white-collars, generating awareness upon the gravity of these actions upon victims and society. Unlike other types of crimes, white-collar crimes are very costly and, as the book indicates, they can produce global victimology, affecting the population of the entire world, as the recent economic crisis did, considered to having been orchestrated by white-collar criminals.
Goodey, J. (2005). Victims and victimology: research, policy and practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Concerned about the fact that the white-collar crime is not yet a legitimate area of victimological field of study, Goodey emphasizes the reasons that make this type of crime less known and difficult to be detected. The book specifically argues why white-collar crimes should receive closer attention from society and criminology, intending to develop a case of study upon how the individual victims of this type of crime can be made more aware of the fact that they have been victimized and that they can take actions against their offenders. Knowing that the white-collar crimes are difficult to be depicted because of their general non-violent character, Goodey also appeals to more intense media attention upon the white-collar criminals. He requires the exposure of their fraudulent and deceiving operation modes, requesting media institutions to reflect how victims can defend, or can claim damages, being informed about their rights to be protected. The textbook draws attention upon the necessity that the criminal system to address this increasing concern by keeping up with the deployments of corporate scams and frauds. Goodey argues that not only the big corporations should be protected against such attacks, but individuals should be safeguarded from falling victims of undetected white-collar crimes. The book provides a comprehensive and illustrative reflection of how society currently perceives corporate and white-collar crimes. The author is committed to generate awareness upon the risk of falling victims of such crimes and to boost the criminal system to be more responsible in combating the white-collar crimes. Besides what people know in general about white-collar crimes, the author of this book translates the actual damages that the white-collar criminals can cause globally at one click of their mouse, hidden in their good-guys office suits or their falsely-promoted business ethics principles. The strategies and actions that Goodey proposes for dealing with white-collar criminals are worthy of a policy-making research, having the value of a programmatic document work.
Minkes, J. & Minkes, L. (2008). Corporate and white crime. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
The book reveals the reasons behind the white collar crimes: money and reputation, describing how the offenders act in such cases. The profile of the white-collar criminals or the career criminals are described and also their modus operandi. Minkers and Minkers provide the profile of the white-collar crime victims, indicating, like this, these oppressors’ varied areas of actions: communities, consumers, health and welfare services, etc. Often the persons targeted by the white-collar criminals are unaware that they have been victims of their attacks and cannot press charges, living the criminals free to attack again. The study also investigates the organizational violence topic, relevant for the conducted report. The authors investigate how the victims of organizational violence (employees, clients and other stakeholders) are knowingly exposed to violent behavior applied by organization in the form of abuse, bullying or harassment. More seriously, following organizational behavior, entrenched in corporate values, the book reveals that white-collars commit murderers in the name of the organization, for obtaining increased profits and for eliminating the competition. However, most corporate and white-collar crimes are found within practices such as price-fixing, bribery, power abuse, influence traffic, industrial espionage. The study investigates the development and formation of adults within the corporate environment, revealing that their predisposition to committing corporate crimes is has a similar developmental path with the one of domestic attackers. Besides a social and anthropologic focus, the articles gathered within this textbook reveals the consequences of white-collar crimes and of corporations that break the law driven by their profit-making avidity, upon society. The authors suggest that for a more successful approach of this subject and higher effectiveness to stop the corporate and white-collar crimes, this type of crime should be developed as a transdisciplinary field, joining diverse efforts for better understanding how these crimes function and how they could be reduced.
Newburn, T. & Stanko, E., A. (1996). Just boys doing business?: men, masculinities and crime. New York: Routledge.
Gravitating around the socially entrenched idea that crimes are associated with men’s behavior, this book examines the relationship between masculinities and crime. The author investigates the business world for examining the violence within this environment and the consequences of the white-collar crimes upon victims. This textbook asserts that violence is gendered, arguing that men are more likely than women not to feel shame or guilt after committing violent acts or crimes, feeling legitimated in their actions by the sense of aggression perpetrated and encouraged within their organization. The book gathers 13 different studies from different authors, who joined effort in providing a more transparent perspective upon how the traditional roles of men and women position the first as attackers and the later as victims. By exploring various socially perceived qualities of masculinity (such as aggressiveness, toughness, bullying, confrontational behavior, competitiveness or organizational superiority) the book reveals various causes and sources of crimes generated by an over emphasized mainly behavior. Men’s violence is explored in individual and group situations, delineating organizational intimidation and threats for hierarchical negotiation from criminal actions that end up in blackmail, physical or psychological attacks or murder. The book provides the profile of the white-collar criminals, who are in general men, interested to overcome their financial situation and to obtain a competitive advantage upon their men counterparts, confirming their competitive masculine behavior. Nevertheless, because the studies indicate that there are various ways in which men operate in their committed crimes, the book argues that there are more masculinities, hence, different types of aggressive behavior, masculine excitement or prowess that generate distinct operation modes. The white-collar crimes represent a different space for exerting the masculine traits. Usually, the masculine behavior associated with crimes is oriented against women, but in the white-collar and corporate environment they are mostly oriented towards men, as the book shows, being manifested as business competition against other men. The book is significant because it indicates that the competition, the risk of being defrauded and other similar possible negative outcomes of white-collar crimes produced in the workplace are considered normal in the business world, and the victims are prepared to handle such outcomes.
Pontell, H. N. & Geis, G. L. (2007) International handbook of white-collar and corporate crime. New York: Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.
This book is based on the Enron case, where the company’s former president and the chief operating officer have been accused and found guilty of white-collar fraud. Developing upon this story, the book develops by investing other similar cases from around the world, involved in victimizing their stakeholders through various strategies specific to corporate crimes. It brings to the readers’ attention towards facts unknown about the white-collar and corporate crimes and their violent consequences upon the victims of such actions. The authors associate United States’ invasion of Iraq with a white-collar crime, presenting various strategies used to subdue and violently attack the Muslim country, under the pretext of foreign geopolitics and peace propagation. As the world evolves in the new Millennium, new and more sophisticated forms of corporate and white-collar crime emerge. Pontell and Geiss require increased transparency in the business world, for diminishing the white-collar crime potential, hidden in opaque business operations and corporate moves. Likewise, the textbook draws attention upon the social, economic and political mechanisms created for supporting the white-collar crime, such as corruption and bribery, among others. It also indicates the need for legal and political intervention for preventing such actions and for developing policies and regulations against white-collar crimes, updated to their evolution. This series of articles gathered from the real business and governmental cases from around the world investigates various forms of violent behaviors of the white-collar criminals, revealing the deep consequences of victimology that further deepens the development of this type of crimes. The book indicates that the corporate-crime is sustained and even applied by governments, which makes it difficult to develop objectively policies and regulations against it. This is why an entire chapter is dedicated to discussing the corruption infiltrated in the public authorities’ daily work, as a means of supporting the abuse of power and other forms of corporate and white-collar crimes. The textbook is relevant for the conducted research because it describes how the white-collar and corporate crime has an international, global reach, being comparable with other forms of crimes in terms of consequences upon victims or violence.
Salinger, L. M. (2005). Encyclopedia of white-collar & corporate crime. Vol. 1. London: Sage Publications.
Although corporate and white-collar crimes are considered less damaging than the regular types of crimes because they are less-violent and often considered victimless, the author of this book assesses the actual seriousness of this type of crime, with the intent to increase individuals’ attention to the white-collar crime threat. The study covers the workplace environment, as the origin of the corporate and white-collar crimes. It depicts the labor trends that together with sociological and cultural background of workers have contributed to shaping a violent or non-violent, but offensive organizational behavior towards other employees, clients or business partners. The study differentiates from similar researches that treat violence and victimology caused by the white-collar criminals because of its focus towards the national and international agencies’ roles in protecting the victims of these crimes, other than the criminal system. The book is relevant for the topic of research because it reveals the connection between white collar crimes with the organized crime such as prostitution and human trafficking or drug trafficking, indicating the hidden violent nature of these corporate crimes. The book is engaging, as it originally presents a structured and clear description of real life corporate and white-collar crimes, in alphabetical order. Salinger reveals the unethical, fraudulent and deceiving nature of worldwide renowned companies, such as AAMCO, Abbot Laboratories, Carter Electronic Corporations or even Harvard University among other many big corporate names. The book explicitly presents and defines the white-collar crime methods, allowing the readers to familiarize with what constitutes a white-collar crime and to identify it before the fall victims of such crimes. Structured as an encyclopedia, the book vastly covers the corporate and white-collar crime, offering concise, yet thorough and relevant information about the social perception, historical developments, criminological approach, or the practices used by the white-collar criminals to hide their illegal operations.
Turvey, B. E. (2014). Forensic victimology: examining violent crime victims in investigative and legal contexts. 2nd edition. Oxford: Academic Press.
Shaped upon real events, this textbook investigates existent victimology cases for providing a comprehensive, consistent and factual theorization of forensic victimology. This study also defines victimology and illustrates approaches from past and present regarding this criminal law field of study, but its value stands in the fact that it presents a clear connection between violence and victimology, by referring to real life examples of violent victimology cases. The study constructs the victim’s profile, looking also into the victim’s lifestyle and situational exposure, examining also the psychological aspects of victimology, analyzing victim’s response to experienced violent crime, or the traumatic syndromes manifested by victims of violent crimes. Turvey also investigates the intimate violence, examining the reasons that conduct to violent behavior in the domestic context. Concerned about describing the nature of corporate crimes, Turvey admits the lack of available studies necessary for identifying the profile of the attackers. In fact, the entire study focuses on identifying the profile of victims, while there is limited information, insufficient for constructing the profile of the offenders. However, the study reveals the motifs of white-collar criminals (making profits) and their ways of actions, such as bribery, burglaries, kidnappings, homicide, bombing, etc., making obvious the forms of violence applied and the victimology implied in such cases. The textbook is relevant for investigating violence and victimology, as it presents the likely causes of violent attacks and the profile of the ones likely to be the victims of such attacks.
References
Dussich, J. P. J. (2006). Victimology – past, present and future. Resource Material Series No. 70, 116-129.
Friedrichs, D. (2010). Trusted criminals: white collar crime in contemporary society. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Goodey, J. (2005). Victims and victimology: research, policy and practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Minkes, J. & Minkes, L. (2008). Corporate and white crime. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Newburn, T. & Stanko, E., A. (1996). Just boys doing business?: men, masculinities and crime. New York: Routledge.
Pontell, H. N. & Geis, G. L. (2007) International handbook of white-collar and corporate crime. New York: Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.
Salinger, L. M. (2005). Encyclopedia of white-collar & corporate crime. Vol. 1. London: Sage Publications.
Turvey, B. E. (2014). Forensic victimology: examining violent crime victims in investigative and legal contexts. 2nd edition. Oxford: Academic Press.
