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Bad guys: Why the public supports punishing white-collar offenders

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Abstract

Until the latter part of the 1960s, the American public was inattentive to the problem of crime in the upperworld. Due to a confluence of events (e.g., Watergate affair, Vietnam War, civil rights movement), concern about this lawlessness rose precipitously in the 1970s. Public attention toward and willingness to punish white-collar crime has persisted into the twenty-first century. We argue, however, that due to a series of recent scandals (e.g., Enron, WorldCom), public opinion about upperworld offenders has been transformed qualitatively. High-profile offenders are now seen not as respected community citizens but as “bad guys” whose crimes reflect inordinate greed and a disturbing lack of concern for victims. This typification is conducive to the prosecution of white-collar offenders but may have the unanticipated consequence of deflecting attention away from structural sources of corporate illegal enterprises.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 210389, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0389, USA

    Francis T. Cullen

  2. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Jennifer L. Hartman

  3. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Cheryl Lero Jonson

Authors
  1. Francis T. Cullen
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  2. Jennifer L. Hartman
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  3. Cheryl Lero Jonson
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Correspondence to Francis T. Cullen.

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Cullen, F.T., Hartman, J.L. & Jonson, C.L. Bad guys: Why the public supports punishing white-collar offenders. Crime Law Soc Change 51, 31–44 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9143-3

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