Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Corporate crime is rampant in the US (Business schools see ethics as “irrelevant”!)  CC is linked with political corruption  Profit and Power drive Corp crime  CC is much more harmful than street crime (cost, death, injury, etc.)

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime CC kills and injures more people than street crime Examples:  Unsafe worksites (worker death/injury)  Toxic “dumping” and general pollution  Unsafe food and drugs  Unnecessary surgery (patients)  Unsafe cars (drivers, passengers)  Unsafe homes, schools, etc.

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime CC costs at least 20x as much as street crime  Looting of companies S&L scandals, Enron  Fraud  Money laundering  Corporate scams Cost tens of billions of dollars -- costs passed on to the public – us!

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime The “subprime” and S&L scams and now the recent “financial meltdown” – how it all works The Depression Regulation and “Insurance” Deregulation

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Reform movements and government regulation Who rules America? Big Business (de-regulation) vs. Big Government (regulation) (corp/polit manipulation & public confusion)

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Corp Criminology as “Academic Siberia” The “Muckrakers” (early 1900s) The Depression years (1930s) “White Collar Crime” (after WW2)

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Numerous “scandals” over decades:  Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at any Speed”  Towns/schools built on toxic dumps  Thalidomide and birth defects  Ford and the “rolling firebomb” (Pinto)  Wave of corporate scandals in 1990s  Many billions of dollars “missing” in Iraq

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime The emergence of “Criminal Justice” in 1970s finally completely “marginalized” corporate crime as an academic & research discipline. Federal money defined the field of study Corporate criminology labeled as “deviant” (radical, extreme, etc.)

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Types of Corporate Crime Sketched on Outline

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Corporate Predators Authors and “corporate watch” No government/foundation efforts to document or collect data on corporate crimes – corporate owned media distorts the problem

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Ralph Nader’s introduction: Two goals of corporations:  Increase revenues (“market share”)  Socialize costs (pass costs to public)

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Comments on Chapters Know basic points and major examples in each chapter Sketched in Outline

Soc 322 – Corporate Crime Next week -- Exam 1 Do the practice exam!!! Questions before the exam? use