Geis, Gilbert: Perspectives on White-Collar Crime Scandals

Henry N. Pontell

Since Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime in 1939, it has proven to be both a social science construct and a real world phenomenon that presents major challenges to researchers, law enforcers, and policymakers. Countries around the world continue to be plagued by corruption, financial frauds, economic crime scams, and corporate crimes that threaten not only the fiscal health of consumers and investors but the physical environment as well. The largest recorded white-collar crime waves have occurred in the United States with the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s which cost American taxpayers $150 billion. The corporate and accounting scandals uncovered in 2002, which included Enron, Arthur Andersen, and a spate of other companies, resulted in more than $4 trillion in market losses worldwide. In 2008, the U.S. subprime mortgage and banking meltdown has infected the global economy. These major scandals were preceded by one that occurred In ...

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