From White Collar to Corporate Crime and Beyond: The Limits of Law and Theory

Abstract:     
This paper builds upon earlier efforts to understand corporate crime and the related area of white collar crime and seeks to assess the state of our knowledge in this area. Advances in theoretical understanding of this broad area have been slow to emerge, whilst the extensive number of studies of particular corporate or white collar crimes has been somewhat too narrow to allow for generalisations to be made about this phenomenon. This has seen a focus in the literature on corporate scandals, corporate frauds and corporate collapses; some of the more spectacular of recent illustrations of corporate collapse has included Enron in the United States and HIH in Australia. The haphazard development of writing on white collar and corporate crime may in part be attributed to the failure of criminologists to closely study the intricacies of corporate crime and corporate law and to the problems of gaining access for more detailed studies of corporate boardrooms and corporate structures. The paucity of theoretically driven research in this area may also be related to the somewhat ambiguous nature of white collar and corporate crimes. Related to this have been ideological problems inherent in challenging the crimes of politically powerful elements of society. The paper concludes by noting that a new regulatory paradigm is emerging and this takes us significantly beyond the command and control models that have dominated consideration of responses to white collar and corporate criminal activity. This paradigm focuses upon the regulatory space within which corporations and their controllers operate and goes beyond a study of formal law itself.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 14

Keywords: Corporate Crime, White Collar Crime, Theory, Limits of Laws

JEL Classification: K14, K22, K42

Accepted Paper Series