NCJ Number
83448
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1982) Pages: 191-204
Date Published
1982
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The research focuses on 'shrewd' economic crime committed with or without recourse to a business front. It is a first exploration in Quebec of what is commonly called white-collar crime.
Abstract
The study sought to identify the types of economic crime defined as criminal by the justice system, to analyze the modus operandi of these crimes (circumstances, offenders, victims, amounts involved, and methods), and to highlight the formal social response as manifested in the processing of the crimes (duration and delays in the investigations and prosecutions, penalties). It also tried to identify the network and the links within the network of social control organizations responsible for regulating the business world. This was a prerequisite for proposing a theoretical framework and for attempting a clarification of certain terminological difficulties. Fifty police files involving 68 court cases were used for the study. They covered the period 1967-79 and involved the Economic Crime Unit of the Quebec Provincial Police. The study revealed that the two main types of economic crime were treated differently: crimes committed by persons on an individual and occasional basis without recourse to a corporate front and crimes committed by professionals or administrators on an organized basis and using a corporate front. Two notes are appended. (Author abstract modified)