From elite lawbreaking to financial crime: The evolution of the concept of white-collar crime

Arjan Reurink

No 16/10, MPIfG Discussion Paper from Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Abstract: Despite the ubiquity of illegality in today's financial markets, systematic scrutiny of the phenomenon of financial crime is lacking in the fields of economic sociology and political economy. One field of research in which the illegal behaviors of business elites have long taken center stage is that of white-collar crime research. This paper makes available to economic sociologists and political economists an overview of the most important conceptual insights that have been produced in the white-collar crime literature. In doing so, its aim is to provide economic sociologists and political economists with a conceptual foundation for future research on financial crime. The paper first traces the evolution of the white-collar crime concept. Subsequently, it investigates how white-collar crime scholars have conceptualized the way in which the empirical profile of white-collar crimes has evolved over the past decades and especially how the locus of such crimes has shifted away from industrial corporations to the financial services industry. It is argued that a fruitful avenue for future research on financial crime in economic sociology and political economy consists in studying in more detail the interactions between the changing character of white-collar crime and the broader capitalist dynamics associated with processes of financialization.

Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hme
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:1610

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