ENTERPRISE CRIME

Corporate-financial fraud persistently promote widespread societal harm and sometimes result in major scandals leading to business failures, substantial financial losses, eroded faith in the financial system, and calls for regulatory reform. This comparative historical case study examines two large-scale corporate collapses in the energy industry in the United States: 1) Insull utility holding companies scandal in the 1930s, and 2) the Enron scandal in the early 2000s. Understanding both the institutional and organizational contexts contributing to these crimes enhances the theoretical and practical understanding of how complex corporate-financial frauds develop.

Transnational environmental crime (TEC) threatens human health and the natural environment. Its complexity also poses a challenge for regulation and enforcement. In the current paper, we present a process evaluation of one attempt to use innovations in policing to improve TEC enforcement. Specifically, we assess the implementation of intelligence-led policing (ILP) in the Environment Agency’s Securing Compliant Waste Exports Project. We find that the team was able to fully implement the UK National Intelligence Model to address illegal exports of hazardous waste, including combining regulatory and enforcement data to generate actionable intelligence. Future research should examine the implementation of ILP in other contexts and to address other forms of TEC to evaluate the generalizability of these results.

Scholars have long been interested in the study of corporate crime. The current financial crisis caused by widespread defaults on sub-prime mortgages brings a renewed call for understanding the significant harms produced by reckless corporate practices. This thesis utilizes a multiple case study approach to examine four major corporate scandals throughout American history. These cases include Cooke & Co. and Northern Pacific Railroad in the 1870s, the Insull Utility Holding Companies in the 1930s, the Savings and Loan Industry in the 1980s, and Enron in the early 2000s. A macro-social adaptation of Sherman’s (1978) examination of corrupt police organizations is used as a logical model to analyze the cases using cross-case synthesis. The four cases are compared using the framework to uncover common patterns of reactions to major corporate crimes. The thesis concludes with a discussion of various policy alternatives for handling complex corporate crime problems, including a guide for future research.

Despite not receiving as much serious attention as conventional street crimes, occupational and corporate crime result in substantial societal harm. Ranging from individual monetary losses to adverse macro-economic human health and safety, and environmental impacts, occupational and corporate crime represent a serious threat that is difficult to detect, prevent, and sanction. This entry provides an overview of the consequences, characteristics, and motivations for occupational and corporate crimes.

In Securing the Cloud: Cloud Computer Security Techniques and Tactics, Vic (J.R.) Winkler offers an important book for addressing security issues surrounding the growing use of cloud technology to share and transport files and information.

In Violence Goes to the Internet, Evan Axelrod tackles an important and emerging topic in the field of criminal justice: violent crimes emanating from the Internet.