NCJ Number
174966
Journal
Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: July 1996 Pages: 44-63
Date Published
1996
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Recognizing there are both significant parallels and differences between governmental crime and white-collar crime, this article identifies factors that are likely to intensify or diminish differences between these two forms of crime.
Abstract
The study of political or governmental crime occupies a marginal status within criminology and within the criminal justice curriculum. Further, the most common form of political crime discussed in textbooks is international terrorism. When governmental corruption is discussed, it most typically is considered in the context of individual acts. Factors that may explain the low level of attention to governmental crime are noted, and an effort is made to delineate some of the intersecting and separate concerns of students of both governmental and white-collar crime. The activities of Hitler and nuclear war are considered as possible examples of white collar crime. The author concludes that governmental crime and white collar crime are cognate but not synonymous forms of criminal activity, that governmental crime often takes the form of a cooperative enterprise with private sector entities and individuals, and that the complicity of academics in governmental crime is an important case of a cooperative enterprise. 65 references