NCJ Number
92387
Date Published
1983
Length
265 pages
Annotation
Traditionally, criminologists have concentrated their efforts on discovering why relatively powerless people apparently commit so many serious crimes, and how the state might best regulate and control this problem. This book questions these endeavors, contending that society is fraught with crimes of the powerful, which the justice system neglects.
Abstract
The discussion first argues that most serious crimes are committed by persons of power and privilege, particularly in multinational corporations and social control agencies such as the police. Although the widespread and injurious nature of crimes committed by the powerful has been known for over 40 years, it has neither been adequately publicized nor have its implications for penal policy been widely discussed. Second, it is argued that some relatively powerless groups, particularly women, hardly commit any serious crimes and that this demonstrates the inadequacy of the orthodox view that powerlessness causes crime. A major implication of these two arguments is that definitions of serious crime, the criminal justice process, and government penal policies all need to be reconceptualized. These definitions, process, and policies have been more concerned with regulating, controlling, and demoralizing regularly powerless groups than with reducing the amount of avoidable death, injury, and economic deprivation caused by crime, particularly by crimes of the powerful. In consequence, common beliefs about crime and criminals often present a distorted image of the true nature of the crime problem and its most powerful culprits. Tabular data, over 500 references, and name and subject indexes are provided. (Publisher summary modified)