Chapter 12 Study Guide White Collar Crime

Which of the following best represents the definition of public criminology?

Calls for criminologists to focus on public policy concerns

Which element of deterrence is apparently the most important in terms of effectiveness?

Certainty

Which of the following sanctions is characterized as having a mixture of positive and negative elements?

Community service

The use of fines in response to corporate crime has been especially favored by which of the following?

Conservatives

According to Braithwaite, which of the following is not an advantage of enforced self-regulation?

Corporations could be hindered from preempting and severely limiting meaningful regulation

Attempts to encourage whistleblowers to come forward by offering rewards through the False Claims Act have not proved effective.

False

Because of their concern over liability, corporations are highly likely to impose occupational disqualification on corporate executives who commit occupation- related offenses.

False

By definition, negative sanctions may only be applied through criminal law, rather than through civil or administrative law.

False

Campaign-financing reforms of the recent era have eliminated the problem of corrupt public officials for all practical purposes.

False

Community service or restitution are exclusively negative sanctions.

False

Conservative critics tend to claim that the failure of the government to take strong action and adopt new laws in response to such problems as the savings and loan failures causes a great deal of harm.

False

Corporate codes of ethics mainly stress the moral responsibilities of corporations to citizens, consumers, and employees.

False

Corporate ethics programs are generally directed toward the collective conscience of the corporation.

False

Enforced self-regulation is a form of regulation that depends entirely on the corporation's voluntary assumption of responsibility for its own conduct.

False

Fines have been a fairly rare form of negative sanction applied in corporate crime cases.

False

In instances of general deterrence, punished offenders are dissuaded from committing further offenses after they have had legal sanctions imposed upon them.

False

It has been clearly demonstrated that the adoption of measures reforming corporations eliminates pressures and opportunities to commit illegalities.

False

One of the principal benefits of imposing fines in white collar crime cases is that they are cost-efficient and easy to collect in full.

False

The "graying" of the American population is likely to lead to a reduction in white collar crime in the U.S.

False

The broader application to the criminal law to such matters as worker safety, toxic dumping, and environmental pollution is uniformly regarded as a positive development.

False

The challenges of ensuring that corporations are complying with the conditions of their probation are minimal.

False

The educational and job-training dimensions of rehabilitation are seen as especially applicable to white collar offenders.

False

The notion of probation for organizations predates the idea of probation for individuals.

False

The text suggests that moral outrage in response to white collar crime is neither necessary nor justifiable.

False

Which of the following is not a positive sanction?

Fines

Which of the following does not apply to the corporate social responsibility movement?

Has been shown to be extremely effective after systematic evaluation over many years

Which of the following is not an argument that has been made in favor of incarcerating white collar offenders?

Incarceration is essential for rehabilitation

A global justice movement has been a major force in challenging a world dominated by transnational corporations.

True

According to the text, any rehabilitation of white collar offenders is likely to take place outside of correctional institutions.

True

According to the text, the contextual forces within a business or organization are likely to have a more powerful impact than exposure to one or more business ethics courses.

True

According to the text, without specific incentives in place to reward ethical conduct, codes calling for such conduct are unlikely to have any positive effects.

True

Although they are generally antagonistic towards the capitalist state, progressive criminologists may call for stronger state action against corporate crime.

True

Any theory of deterrence adopts, in some form, the classical criminological model of human beings as rational creatures.

True

By the late 1980s, the vast majority of American business schools were offering some form of business ethics study.

True

Community service sentences offer communities direct positive benefits without significant costs.

True

Compared to conventional offenders, relatively few white collar criminals have been sent to prison.

True

Contemporary deterrence research suggests that the subjective perception of being sanctioned is more important than the actual probability of it.

True

Ethical problems are one of three ways in which businesses get themselves into serious trouble.

True

Historically, corporations have often found it less costly to face civil lawsuits than to limit profits by fully complying with the law or correcting hazards.

True

If one accepts the proposition that corporations are more rational than individuals, it should generally follow that corporations can be more easily deterred than individuals.

True

In one view, white collar crime principally reflects the overreach of the regulatory state.

True

John Braithwaite's re-introduction of "shaming" as an appropriate element in responding to white collar crime is based on the view that punishment is likely to fail if it is "uncoupled" from its moral roots.

True

Probation has typically been regarded as more appropriate for individual white collar offenders than for conventional offenders.

True

Research on the effectiveness of moral appeals in promoting taxpayer compliance has produced somewhat contradictory findings.

True

Some evidence suggests that positive sanctions can help increase compliance.

True

The U.S. government has repeatedly awarded lucrative contracts to corporations that have been found guilty of some form of criminal conduct, including defrauding the government.

True

The effectiveness of a reintegrative shaming strategy tends to presuppose a rather high level of consensus on the perceived shamefulness of white collar crime.

True

The media and political attention given to the corporate scandals and Wall Street financial crisis of the early 2000s has been shown with some evidence to have transformed public opinion about upper-world offenders.

True

The new federal sentencing guidelines basically called for significantly higher fines for white collar crime than those traditionally imposed.

True

The original purpose of organizational probation was to insure that the corporation in question remained in compliance with the laws and followed through on orders to pay fines and restitution.

True

The use of civil procedures allows prosecutors to avoid meeting the stringent standards of the criminal law for establishing proof and culpability.

True

White collar crime is typically viewed as a highly instrumental crime.

True

White collar offenders are generally regarded as well-positioned to make restitution to victims.

True

Responses to white collar crime which appeal to reason or offer practical inducements are which of the following?

Utilitarian

Which of the following statements about the use of the criminal law to respond to white collar crime is true?

It has been criticized by some as either inappropriate or ineffective

The text suggests that the responses to white collar crime are likely to be more effective if they are:

driven by an appropriate mix of moral and practical considerations

Fines which call for convicted corporations to issue special shares which are placed with a state victim compensation board, which in turn can liquidate them when they can realize a maximum return, are called:

equity fines

Probation is a penal option which:

has traditionally been applied to individuals, but has more recently been applied to organizations

White collar crime is typically viewed as an __________ crime, and accordingly ________ deterrent-prone than conventional crime.

instrumental or rational; more

A "just deserts" approach to white collar crime:

is traditionally associated with retribution, and conveys social condemnation

The text suggests that the most enduring and effective solution to white collar crime is likely to be which of the following?

structural, normative, and preventive

With regard to the deterrence of crimes of corporations:

there are some fundamental interpretive disagreements on whether corporations can be easily deterred

In the second half of the 20th century, class action lawsuits:

were permitted in certain cases and have become a significant device for responding to some white collar crimes

According to Christine Parker in the text, support for compliance programs is influenced by:

whether or not the corporation thinks the relevant laws are morally justified and widely supported

Which of the following is the single most common element of corporate ethics programs?

A code of ethics

According to the text, the most serious challenge to state-corporate crime may ultimately require which of the following?

A transformation of the political economy

According to the text, a substantial response to major state crime would ideally involve which of the following?

Effective international tribunals

Which answer best describes the "social license" approach to corporate crime?

Pressures companies into going beyond compliance by engaging in socially desirable actions

Occupational disqualification is likely to have especially devastating consequences for which of the following groups?

Professionals

Which of the following is a basic rationale for prosecuting and punishing corporations, rather than individual executives?

Prosecutors can often secure cooperation more effectively when they have the option of prosecuting both the organization and individual executives

Which of the following would represent the least formal response to white collar crime?

Public opinion and popular shaming

Which of the following penal objectives is not fulfilled by occupational disqualification?

Rehabilitation

John Braithwaite has argued that shaming can be an effective general response to crime if it is which of the following?

Reintegrative

Which group of countries has been especially proactive in addressing white collar crime?

Scandinavian

Which of the following special concerns has been voiced about imposing community service sentences?

The convicted offender can transform it into a public relations coup

Which of the following is not an argument that has been made against incarcerating white collar offenders?

The harm committed by white collar offenders is much less than that of conventional offenders

Which of the following is true of business ethics courses, and business ethics within the business world?

They appear to have had limited positive as well as negative effects, but often do not affect business conduct in a fundamental way

Which of the following arguments has not been made in favor of moral appeals to promote taxpayer compliance?

They are demonstrably more effective in all cases

According to the text, which of the following is true of reforms such as new laws, different sanctions, and innovative educational programs, meant to reduce white collar crime?

They are likely to have only limited effect

Which of the following is not an advantage of positive sanctions?

They are likely to promote trust within an organization

Which of the following has not been cited as a concern using fines as a penal measure for white collar crime?

They are not likely to be cost-efficient for the justice system