The Yale White-Collar Crime Project: A Review and Critique

Abstract:     
Although there is a recognized awareness of the overwhelming financial and social costs of white-collar crime in America, few scholars have probed this sociolegal field. For over a decade, the Yale White-Collar Crime Project has strengthened this area of legal scholarship. This article undertakes an in-depth analysis of four studies that comprise a major part of the Yale White-Collar Crime Project. It summarizes and evaluates each book individually and weighs the effect of the project as a whole on the study of white-collar crime. The studies surveyed include:

1) Susan Shapiro, Wayward Capitalists: Target of the Securities and Exchange Commission. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984.

2) Kenneth Mann, Defending White-Collar Crime: A Portrait of Attorneys at Work. 1985. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.

3) Stanton Wheeler, Kenneth Mann, & Austin Sarat, Sitting in Judgment: The Sentencing of White-Collar Criminals. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988.

4) David Weisburd, Stanton Wheeler, Elin Waring, & Nancy Bode, Crimes of the Middle Classes: White Collar Offenders in the Federal Courts. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1991.

This article begins with an overview of the major contested areas in the white-collar crime field, highlighting how the various definitions of white-collar crime drive most of these four scholarly works. This review considers the gaps in each study, providing guidance to future researchers to enable a further understanding of white-collar crime.

Keywords: Criminal law, White-Collar Crime, Yale White-Collar Crime Project, Sociological Theory, Susan Shapiro, Wayward Capitalists, Defending White-Collar Crime, Stanton Wheeler, Kenneth Mann, Austin Sarat, Sitting in Judgment, David Weisburd, Elin Waring, Nancy Bode, Crimes of the Middle Classes

Accepted Paper Series