NCJ Number
75024
Date Published
1979
Length
157 pages
Annotation
This book examines the effects of imprisonment on 100 white-collar criminals in England and on their families through accounts of the offenders' experiences leading to the crimes that caused their imprisonment) the imprisonment itself and their parole from prison.
Abstract
The stories of the 100 men involved in the study were obtained through extensive interviews with each of them. The average age of the men was slightly over 43, meaning that most of them committed their crimes in middle age, thereby destroying the lives that they had created and rendering their postprison employment prospects bleak. All of them were middle class, and held respectable positions as attorneys, accountants, clerks, and businessmen. Educational attainment was not high. Most were first offenders, who committed crimes to compensate for living beyond their means or through loyalty to embezzling coworkers whom they failed to report. Most of them were married. Very few of the men gained large sums of money, and some gained nothing at all. The interviews demonstrated that several reforms could be made to improve the treatment and prospects of these middle class, low-risk offenders who are incarcerated with hardened criminals. Among the reforms are a decrease in the time between announcement of an investigation and trial, reduction of harsh sentences and granting more suspended sentences, immediate incarceration in medium or minimum security prisons instead of adjustment periods in maximum security prisons as currently provided, provision of employment counseling, and nonautomatic revocation of professional status by professional associations and organizations determined on a case-by-case basis after sentence has been served. Other reforms include increasing communications between white-collar criminals and their families during the imprisonment period, making the parole process more rational and predictable, and providing financial counseling and economic help to the families of white-collar criminals. These reforms would reduce pressures on the criminals and their families, and provide them with hope for their futures. Appendixes contain data on 474 white-collar criminals, including job qualifications and employment records of the offenders and their fathers. Statistics on the 100 men interviewed for the book, including age, marital status, country of birth, education, and conviction are also appended, as are papers addressing employment and parole and the white-collar crime phenomenon.