Social Reactions to White-Collar Crimes and their Relationship to Economic Crises

Michael Levi

doi:10.1108/S1521-6136(2011)0000016008

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Sociology of Crime Law and Deviance

ISSN: 1521-6136
Series editor(s): Professor Mathieu Deflem, University of South Carolina

Subject Area: Sociology and Public Policy

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Social Reactions to White-Collar Crimes and their Relationship to Economic Crises

Document Information:
Title:	Social Reactions to White-Collar Crimes and their Relationship to Economic Crises
Author(s):	Michael Levi
Volume:	16 Editor(s): Mathieu Deflem ISBN: 978-0-85724-801-5 eISBN: 978-0-85724-802-2
Citation:	Michael Levi (2011), Social Reactions to White-Collar Crimes and their Relationship to Economic Crises, in Mathieu Deflem (ed.) Economic Crisis and Crime (Sociology of Crime Law and Deviance, Volume 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.87-105
DOI:	10.1108/S1521-6136(2011)0000016008 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	A number of approaches might be taken to the relationship between economic crises and white-collar crimes. One is to review the role that white-collar crimes played in causing economic crisis, but this is legally problematic. This chapter begins with a discussion of social reaction to different forms of white-collar crime, and then goes on to examine briefly the evidence for the impact of the economic crisis on levels of frauds. The core argument is that the economic crisis did affect social and official reaction to some frauds – though the impact of this may be temporary – but that unlike most “law and order” issues, politicians around the world have typically downplayed fears of elite criminality and serious misconduct. Most reactions to white-collar crime reflect longer-term populist sentiments that prioritize offenses such as identity theft and fraud. Furthermore, there is little evidence that the Global Financial Crisis did much to increase the risk of fraud, though it is easy to misattribute the revelation of longer-running frauds to the crisis instead of to the fact that the recession smoked them out of the woodwork.