Crimes of Privilege: Readings in White-Collar Crime examines the current state of knowledge about and debate over white-collar crime. One of the most challenging and controversial topics in sociology, white-collar crime differs fundamentally from street crime because those who commit it typically lead lives of privilege. Written by top scholars in the field, the thirty-one selections in this book include both previously published works as well as original papers. All have been significantly edited for readability and suitability for students. Organized by rational-choice theory, the...

This systematic application of rational-choice theory to white-collar crime problems distinguishes ordinary and upperworld white-collar crime and presents reasons theoretically for believing that both have increased substantially over time. Reasons for the increase include the growing supply of white-collar lure and non-credible oversight. The book argues that measures and approaches used in the war on street crime have greater promise for reducing white-collar crime. Concluding with reasons for believing that problems of white-collar crime will continue unchecked in the increasingly global...

Persistent thievescriminals who resume committing crimes of burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, and ordinary theft despite previous attempts to stopare a main focal point of American criminology and criminal justice. Cast as career criminals, they are also one of the principal targets of the war on crime that American governments have waged for more than two decades.Building on a theoretical interpretation of crime as choice, crime-control policies and programs justified by notions of deterrence and incapacitation have proliferated. America's urban police departments now have repeat...