|
CRM 370 White Collar Crime
Required
Readings
David O. Friedrichs. 2009. Trusted
Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society, 4th
edition. Belmont: Thomson-Wadsworth. .
Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton. 2010. The
Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 9th ed. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon.
|
Recommended Reading
Barry Ritholtz. Bailout
Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street. New
York: Wiley. 0470520388
Ronald Burns, Michael Lynch and Paul
Stretesky. 2008. Environmental
Law, Crime and Justice. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.
9781593322762
Moses Naim. 2006. Illicit:
How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy.
New York: Anchor/Doubleday. 1400078849.
Penny Green and Tony Ward. 2004. State
Crime: Governments, Violence and Corruption. London: Pluto
Press. 0745317847.
Neal Shover and John Wright. 2001. Crimes
of Privilege. New York: Oxford U Press. 0195136217.
David Simon.. Elite
Deviance, 9th ed. Boston: Pearson. 0205571956
James Coleman. 2005. The
Criminal Elite. Worth Publishers. 0716787342
Stephen Rusoff, Henry Pontell and Robert Tillman. Profit
Without Honor: White Collar Crime and the Looting of America,
4th ed. Prentice Hall. 0131722328.
|
Recommended Websites
White
Collar Crime Blog (by law professor)
10b-5
blog (refers to SEC rules on "Employment of Manipulative or
Deceptive Devices")
Recording
Industry v the People (About the RIAA's attempt to monopolize digital
music by redefining copyright law, through the commencement of tens of
thousands of extortionate lawsuits against ordinary working people)
Financial blogs that sometimes post on
business wrongdoing include Calculated
Risk (housing and mortgage issues by people in the mortgage business);
Naked Capitalism (investment
banker); the Big Picture
(market researcher); and Footnoted
(problematic issues from companies' SEC filings)
Fortune
magazine, which broke the Enron story and whose reporters wrote The
Smartest Guys in the Room. The archive
of back issues.
|
The Study
Hacks blog teaches students how to do (very) well without burning out. It
preaches the idea that you should: do
less; do better; and know why.
|
Date |
Required
Reading |
Click here for syllabus
(word.doc) | Career
& Job Info
|
|
Sept 10
|
Introduction &
Greeting |
I would recommend bookmarking this page for
further reference. You may need to hit the Reload/Refresh button to get
the latest version.
|
|
Sept 15
|
Friedrichs, Ch
1 |
clip from The Corporation: Investigative
journalism and corporate power [Monsanto and milk] (10 min YouTube.com).
For more, see the milk
info from preventcancer.org and organic
valley (they produce organic milk, so do have an interest, but they cite
many of the original medical studies)
The Government Accountability Project - whistlebower.org. Daily
Show on the identity of Watergate whistleblower 'Deep Throat.'
Public Citizen -
even if you're skeptical about Nader for President, the organization does
some great work.
The Talking Heads' David
Byrne talks about the harm of payola. There's a brief
history of payola and a Salon.com
report on "pay for play" ("Why does radio suck? Because
most stations play only the songs the record companies pay them to.)
|
| Sept 17 |
Friedrichs, Ch 2 –
you only need to read p 34-37 and 44-59 |
|
| Sept 22 |
Friedrichs, Ch 3 start |
|
| Sept 24 |
Friedrichs, Ch 3 finish |
PBS Frontline Video: "A
Dangerous Business" Revisited. The New York Times also has a
collection of stories on McWane (part of their Workplace
Safety investigations)
PBS Frontline Video: Tax
Me If You Can ("because the government is not collecting all that
is owed -- the biggest piece of which is illegitimate tax shelters --
everyone else is paying 15 percent more than they should" - from the
summary
The
Birth of the Corp from The Corporation DVD (via You Tube - [see
complete playlist])
Multinational
Monitor site ~ Recalls.gov ~ Center
for Food Safety ~ Bureau of Labor Stats - workplace
injuries (why
the real numbers are higher than reported) ~ prescription
project ~Many
firms didn't pay taxes (Washington Post) ~
If you eat salmon, check out the Findlaw.com column
on the disclosures about additives to color the fish (the SalmonFan
is used to help pick the desired color). There's much worse on BarfBlog
(food safety blog).
peanut
butter and related products recalled
IN
CLASS QUIZ #1: Go to the class webpage and find the
link for “In
Settlement, A Warning to Drugmakers.” Your quiz will ask: 1) Which
company paid the record fine and what were three of the improper practices
[see paragraph starting with “the company allegedly…] 2) Is the company
a recidivist as far as settlements go – and if so, how many in the last
decade? 3) Did the company admit wrongdoing? 4) How much is the
whistleblower set to collect and what was his concern? And 5) what is the
critique of this settlement by Sidney Wolf? [6 points]
|
| Sept
29 |
Friedrichs, Ch 4 |
|
| Oct
1 |
Friedrichs, Ch 5 start |
PBS Frontline Video: Spying
On America
COINTELPRO - FBI program against black activists - 9
minute provocative YouTube video or 54
minute Google video. There are also some explanations
of the program at The Public Eye
FBI Files on well known people (Beatles, Einstein, MLK, etc)
See Crash Course:
Fuzzy Numbers for govt manipulation of inflation data.
Peanut
Processor Knowingly Sold Tainted Products
WORKSHEET
#1: Download the worksheet on the Indian Trust
Case. The
information for the worksheet is available from Judge
Removed from Indian Trust Case for Saying Dept of Interior Is Racist
and Accounting
Coup.
Due: I will be out of the country for the Oct 1 and Oct 6
classes, so this assignment will be due Thurs Oct 8 at the beginning of
class. You may also turn it in to my mailbox in the dept anytime before
class. DO NOT EMAIL IT TO ME – hardcopy only. Late worksheets will be
marked down. [8 points]
|
| Oct
6 |
Friedrichs, Ch 5
finish/ start Ch 6 |
Interview
(59 minutes) with Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation
WORKSHEET
#2: [Note this is a revised assignment to replace the interview
with Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation] Download
the worksheet for the interview
with the director of the documentary of Food, Inc. Type in your
answers on the worksheet as you watch the interview (24 min video)
Due: I will be out of the country for the Oct 6 class, so
this assignment will be due Thurs Oct 8 at the beginning of class. You may
also turn it in to my mailbox in the dept anytime before class. DO NOT EMAIL
IT TO ME – hardcopy only. Late worksheets will be marked down. [10 points]
|
| Oct 8 |
Friedrichs, Ch 6 finish
|
White
Collar Crime Review
PBS Frontline Video: Bigger
Than Enron
The 'Getting
Tough on Corporate Crime' piece I did with Reiman was part of an invited
lecture I gave that is available on YouTube, via my blog.
Fortune magazine: What's
Wrong with Wall St and How to Fix It.
EPA
says life is worth less (agency calculates value of life for
cost-benefit analysis and recently lowered the value of life - thus creating
fewer benefits for life saving regulation) [Washington Post, 18 July 2008,
A1]
Defending
Science.org (Project of Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy) works to
correct the distortions in knowledge introduced by industry in law making.
See also the Center for Science in the
Public Interest and The
Pump Handle public health blog.
Chocolate's
Bittersweet Economy: Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child
labor, little progress has been made (Fortune.com, Feb 08)
The Indian Trust
case is one of the largest financial scandals by government. There's a six
minute YouTube video that interviews the woman who is behind the suit.
Ticketmaster-Live
Nation: A Sour Note ~ $13.50
'ticket fee' + the actual ticket price ~ NJ
Congressman requests FTC investigation of Ticketmaster and reseller
Tickets.now. ~ Ticketbastards
|
| Oct
13 |
Review and catch up
|
Review sheet ~ link for bonus question:
what does this article have to do with white collar crime?
|
| Oct 15 |
TEST 1 - remember
to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the
first person has left
|
| Oct 20 |
Friedrichs, Ch 7 - you only need to read p 200-218 |
Princeton University video
on to tamper introduce a virus on a voting machine that will change votes
and delete itself so it can't be found. Salon.com
has some background in a story called Hack the Vote, which notes the
company's response to such demonstrations: "For there to be a problem
here, you're basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and
nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of
software. I don't believe these evil elections people exist." (People
created keys to open the locked slot for memory cards from a picture of the
key at the manufacturer's website - yes, one key opened all machines,
and they had a photo of it on their website!) Cyber security expert Stephen
Spoonamore is interviewed about voting machine fraud and accuses the
Republicans (his own party) of stealing votes: part 1
~ 2
~ 3
~ 4
~ 5
~ 6
~ 7
~ 8.
See also votersunite.org. The Onion
has a funny and cynical 'news' clip: Diebold
accidently leaks results of 08 election (YouTube, 3 min)
Quick overview of botnets
and eFraud. The Information
Warfare Monitor has more and the American
Federation of Scientists has a good resource page. There's also a
blog about the Russian Business
Network, which were heavily involved in cybercrime and may or may not
have been disbanded.
|
| Oct
22 |
Friedrichs, Ch 8 start |
|
| Oct 27 |
Friedrichs, Ch 8 finish
|
Communities
and Environmental Laws focuses on how citizens can learn about the
environmental laws and how these laws can be utilized to help the people
make their communities healthier places in which to live. (20 min video)
Selling “fair trade coffee,” as Starbucks does
to those customers willing to pay a premium for it, is not corporate
philanthropy. It’s just supplying a product at the profit-maximizing
price to a person who is an altruist. Business is happy to sell to
altruists, just as it is happy to sell to selfish people. Selling “fair
trade coffee” is no different, from the corporation’s standpoint, from
selling leather clothes to sadomasochists. Likewise with Nike’s efforts
to improve working conditions in its foreign plants: it is an example not
of corporate philanthrophy but of a corporate response to consumers’
demand for a different production method. From "Against
Creative Capitalism" on the Creative
Capitalism blog overseen by Bill Gates.
|
| Oct
29 |
Friedrichs, Ch 9
|
|
| Nov 3 |
Friedrichs, Ch 10 start
|
|
| Nov
5 |
Friedrichs, Ch 10 finish/ start Ch 11
|
QUIZ #2: Read “Fair
Mortgage Collaborative?” (Barry Ritholtz, Big Picture Blog).
In no more than 1 single spaced typewritten page, answer: 1) who is the
Fair Mortgage Collaborative, 2) why doesn’t the author believe they will
be an effective group and 3) how is this similar to the criticism of
self-regulation in Friedrichs, ch 10? [6 points]
Due: I will be at the American Society of Criminology
conference on this day. The worksheet will be due Tues Nov 10 at the start
of class. You may also turn it in to my mailbox in the dept anytime before
class. DO NOT EMAIL IT TO ME – hardcopy only. Late worksheets will be
marked down.
|
| Nov 10 |
Friedrichs, Ch 11 finish/ start Ch 12
|
Britain's Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act - Center for
Corporate Accountability's assessment
and other
materials related to the law.
ch 11 Connecticut's
suit against Countrywide Financial (pdf of complaint); California's
suit against Countrywide financial (pdf of complaint)
|
| Nov 12 |
Friedrichs, Ch 12 finish/ review
|
|
| Nov 17 |
TEST 2 - remember
to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the
first person has left
Link
for the bonus question - what is this about and what does it have to
do with our class?
|
| Nov 19 |
Reiman and Leighton, Introduction
|
In 1980, the last year of Jimmy Carter's
administration, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)
commissioned a series of three 30-minute films about worker safety. In
1981, Reagan appointed a construction executive, Thorne G. Auchter, who
proceeded to systematically dismantle the agency. Evidently, the 3
films disturbed Thorne greatly, because OSHA issued a recall, threatening to
withhold OSHA funds from any organization that did not return their copies
of the films, which were promptly destroyed. But, a
few union officials defied the ban and "stole" copies, which are
now available on the internet (longer description and embedded YouTube
video). Or see archive.org: The
Story of OSHA; Worker
to Worker; and Can't
Take No More.
NY Times article, When
Workers Die: U.S. Rarely Seeks Charges for Deaths in Workplace.
|
| Nov 24 |
Reiman and Leighton, Ch 1 |
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for Ch 1
|
|
Nov
26-29 – Thanksgiving NO
CLASSES |
| Dec 1 |
Reiman and Leighton, Ch 2; Appendix
2 (Why Criminology Needs Philosophy)
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for
Ch 2
QUIZ 3: Read these
two postings on popcorn
lung from The Pump Handle public health blog - Popcorn
lung coming to your kitchen? and EPA
microwave popcorn emissions study finally published. Your quiz will ask:
(1) what causes popcorn lung and what are the effects of the chemical on the
body, (2) what is the significance of Dr Rose's letter, (3) what are the
four agencies charged with protecting health that have done nothing, and (4)
how would you briefly summarize the results of the EPA study for a friend or
family member who liked to breathe in deeply when they open a bag of
microwave popcorn? [7 point quiz]
You do not need to read these links for the quiz, but
if you are interested in more information about this issue, the pump Handle
blog has a popcorn
lung category for all their posts on that topic, and Defending
Science has a case study on the topic. The author of The Pump Handle
articles is David Michaels, who has written a book called Doubt
Is Their Product
which is excerpted at Hazards magazine.
|
| Dec
3 |
Reiman and Leighton, Ch 3
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for Ch 3
|
PLEASE NOTE: Professors do
not have regular office hours after the last class. Make sure to get
in touch before classes end if you have an important issues to
resolve. All back work should be turned in before the end of the last
class. The late penalty escalates sharply at this point; papers turned
in after the last day of class will be worth a maximum of 1 point.
Work turned in at the final exam will only be counted if you have made
prior arrangements with me.
|
| Dec
8 |
Reiman and Leighton, Ch 4
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for
Ch 4
|
| Dec
10 |
Reiman and Leighton, Conclusion
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for the Conclusion.
|
| Dec 15 |
Final Exam
|
1:30-3:00 (Not Regular Class Time)
Review sheet
~ link
for bonus question (for full points, make sure to provide information
from more than the first page)
remember
to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the
first person has left
|
If you're graduating, congratulations.
Whether or not you are graduating, check
out the commencement address given by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. He
discusses dropping out of college (he never graduated), getting fired from
Apple (a company he helped start) and dealing with cancer.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
[ Up ] [ Crim Grad Program ] [ CRM 331: Corrections ] [ CRM 370 White Collar Crime ] [ CRM 412 Law & Society ] [ CRM 550Domestic Violence ] [ CRM 611: Soc of Crime ] [ CRM 681 Race, Gender & Crime ]
|
