NCJ Number
216505
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 46 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2006 Pages: 1073-1090
Date Published
November 2006
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper examines three key criminal trials that occurred from 1850 to 1880 in analyzing Great Britain's experiences with financial crimes during the second half of the 19th century, with attention to the processes of criminalizing business activity that have been largely neglected by researchers.
Abstract
By analyzing three key Victorian fraud trials, this paper identifies concerns about the nature and extent of financial fraud as well as its capacity to inflict both economic and social damage. This paper explains how the 19th-century rise of industrial capitalism, which presented mass-market opportunities for making money through private investment, also encouraged financial crimes on a significant scale. An expanded share market allowed dishonesty to flourish across a number of new financial interests. The trials showed concern that the prevalence of fraud in businesses could threaten consolidation of London's reputation as the pre-eminent international financial center. There was also a concern to make clear that "a man's wealth and power do not put him beyond punishment" (Levi, 1991). Trials in the period of mass-market businesses did confront alleged frauds that arose as a secondary consequence of business decisions that appeared legitimate but which had detrimental consequences for the business. The trials had to manage the difference between unforeseen and unintended consequences of risk-taking and criminal behavior that had the intent to defraud people. The trials show how traditional personal morality that defined an individual's respectability and esteem, also became the basis of morality for proper business conduct and reputation. 35 references