Special Course Descriptions
Sociology
SOC 394 10- Special Topic:White Collar & Commrcial Crime
Prof. Lange
Ask most citizens how they define crime and they will usually refer to violence and deviance in their community or their neighborhood. Few consider the scope or incidence of white collar crimes committed by organizations and corporate entities, nor the resulting levels and types of victimization. Sociologists and legal theorists discuss corporations as the twentieth-century criminal, born of industrial transformation, requiring regulation and transparency to ensure that the public is adequately protected.
This course will explore foundational concepts associated with white collar criminology using some of the most significant cases of the past 30 years. Special emphasis will be placed on offenses involving consumer frauds, institutional and political corruption, and crimes likely to increase in frequency and magnitude such as health care fraud, financial transactions offenses, and cybercrimes.