Administration
of Justice 511
Fall 1992
Philip Jenkins
Class meets Wednesday evenings 6.30-9pm
Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 10-11 am in 1006 Oswald Tower
The course
This course will discuss some of the major forms of corporate,
political and upper-world criminality. It will examine the effects and
seriousness of this type of offense; the nature of the harm caused; and will
compare the seriousness of upperworld crime to that of street crime. We will
consider the implications of upperworld crime for mainstream criminological
theory, and for the possibility of equitable and effective law-enforcement.
What does corporate crime tell us about the nature of law? Can a corporate
entity be convicted of crimes like murder? If a corporation is held guilty, who
should pay the price?
In terms of solutions, issues to be addressed include the use of
"regular" criminal justice methods, as well as several alternatives -
civil justice mechanisms; federal and state regulatory agencies; and political
agencies or investigative commissions. Is the proper regulation of abuses to be
found through the police, the courts, congress, or the community? Or is it a
question of fundamental political change?
Grading
The grade for this course has three components
i. Paper
one
- 25%
ii. Paper two
- 65%
iii. Class participation -
10%
The main assignment for the grade will be two papers, applying the
theoretical issues raised in the course to any one case-study of corporate or
political crime. The exact topic will be agreed with the instructor before the
end of the fourth week of the semester, on September 16. The first paper should
provide a bare narrative of the case or incident, briefly outlining the
research issues to be addressed, and including a bibliography. Basically, this
paper (due by the eighth week of semester, October 14) outlines what you are
proposing to do, and how you intend to go about it. The second paper (due by
the end of the semester) will represent an expansion of this, but will also pay
far more critical attention to the theoretical, legal and/or criminological
issues raised by the case. Each student will make a presentation based on his
or her research in the last two or three weeks of class. Depending on the size
of the class, I may devote more classes than scheduled here to presentations.
The topic chosen can be more or less anything within the general
scope of corporate or political criminality, as outlined in the following
syllabus. The only restriction concerns case-studies. If you choose to describe
a particular incident or individual, it should not be one that is already fully
described in book form - for example, don't just do a rehash of the BCCI or
Iran-Contra cases. Where possible, you should research the topic from official
documents, but media sources are perfectly acceptable.
Note that most of the books on the bibliography that I have
compiled will be available in Pattee library, and some will be on reserve.
However, there will also be a great deal of material in official and
congressional documents available in the documents room. Do note that these
materials are occasionally listed in the LIAS catalog, but usually they are
not. You assuredly need to spend a couple of hours familiarizing yourselves
with the documents room in Pattee and its somewhat confusing cataloging system.
Once you get into this, you will be surprised at what a powerful resource this
offers for any research topic in this class, or any other graduate work in the
social sciences. At some point, some agency or congressional committee
will have done a study into whatever topic you are looking at, and they will
provide a largely unsorted wealth of documentation for you to mine. It will
rapidly become obvious to you that the newspaper materials you are finding are
usually drawn from this official material, and often they are only scratching
the surface of it. In summary, the message is: go to the Document Room, and
become familiar with this resource early in the semester.
Also, I have made no effort to include here many of the numerous
articles on corporate and governmental criminality from journals like Criminology,
Justice Quarterly, etc. You will find abundant material in papers like
the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times, and do check out
the computer search faciilities in the microfilm and periodicals rooms in
Pattee (ProQuest in particular). Note that there is a lot in journals that you
may not have used previously for criminal justice research - for instance, try Forbes, Wall
Street Journal, Business Week, Far Eastern Economic Review,
and similar publications.
Texts
M. David Ermann and Richard J. Lundman, eds., Corporate and
Governmental Deviance, New York: Oxford University press, fourth edition,
1992, paperback
Mayer, Martin (1992), The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery New
York: Collier
1. August 26
Theoretical and criminological issues. A historical perspective.
RICO and the definition of corporate crime
I am not going to give specific week by week readings, but I
assume you will read the textbooks over the first couple of weeks of class.
2. September 2
Upper-world crime and the denial of democracy: Wedtech, Bechtel,
CTA
3. September 9
The defense industry
4. September 16
The banks; the Savings and Loan debacle. Discussion of Mayer book.
I need to know the general theme of your paper
5. September 23
Investment fraud and tax evasion. Criminogenic economic
environments.
6. September 30
Outrageous misconduct - the health and safety of consumers and
employees
7. October 7
Corporate and organized crime: the case of Atlantic City.
E. F. Hutton and money-laundering.
8. October 14
Patterns in American political corruption
First paper due: brief presentation by each student on the
nature of their research and progress to date
9. October 21
Police and intelligence abuses
10. October 28
The Iran-Contra affair
11. November 4
Investigation and prosecution. The regulatory agencies
12. November 11
Sanctions
13. November 18
A comparative perspective: Western Europe and Japan. Arms
trafficking.
please note that there will be no class on November 25
14-15 December 2-9
student presentations.
FINAL PAPERS ARE DUE IN MY OFFICE ON DECEMBER 15.
(A highly
selective list of references on some recent cases - chiefly E. F. Hutton,
Wedtech, BCCI, and the Savings and Loans)
Adams, James
Ring, (1990) The big fix: inside the S&L scandal. New York:
John Wiley and Sons.
Adams, James
Ring, with Douglas Frantz (1992). A full service bank: how BCCI stole
billions around the world New York: Pocket Books.
Barth, James
R (1991) The great savings and loans debacle, Washington DC: AEI Press/
University Press of America
Braithwaite,
John (1989). "Criminological theory and organizational crime". Justice Quarterly 6(3):
333-358
Burk, James
(1988). Values in the marketplace: the American stock market under federal
securities law. Walter de Gruyter.
Burnham,
David (1990), The I.R.S. : a law unto itself, New York: Random House.
Carpenter,
Donna Sammons, and John Feloni (1989). The fall of the house of Hutton. New York:
Henry Holt.
Fisse, Brent
and John C. Braithwaite (1983). The impact of publicity on corporate
offenders. SUNY Albany Press.
Fisse, Brent
and John C. Braithwaite (1985). Corrigible corporations and unruly law. San
Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press.
Fitzgerald,
A. Ernest (1989), The Pentagonists, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
Gaskins,
Richard H. (1989). Environmental accidents: personal injury and public
responsibility. Temple University Press.
Gordon, John
Steele (1988). The scarlet woman of Wall Street. Weidenfeld and
Nicholson.
Hawkins,
Keith (1984). Environment and enforcement. Oxford University Press.
Huber, Peter
(1988). Liability: the legal revolution and its consequences. New York:
Basic Books.
Hutchison,
Robert (1986). Off the books: Citibank and the world's biggest money game. New York: William Morrow.
Jackson,
Brooks (1988). Honest graft: Big money and the American political process.
New York: Alfred Knopf.
Jenkins,
Phiilip (1991) "The European arms industries in the 1980s: a case-study in
corporate crime". International Criminal Justice Review, 1(1).
Jones, Tara
(1988). Corporate killing: Bhopals will happen. London:
Free Association books.
Lowy, Martin
E (1991). High rollers: inside the savings and loan debacle New York:
Praeger
Mayer,
Martin (1992a), Stealing the market New York: Basic Books (on the SEC
and the Wall Street scandals of the 1980s)
Mayer,
Martin (1992b), The greatest-ever bank robbery New York: Collier (the
Savings and Loans)
Mokhiber,
Russell (1988). Corporate crime and violence: big business power and the
abuse of the public trust. Sierra Club.
Newfield,
Jack and Wayne Barrett (1988), City for sale: Ed Koch and the betrayal of
New York. An overview of the major city scandals of the Koch years
Zane Pilzer,
Paul, and Robert Deitz (1989) Other people's money: the inside story of the
S&L mess, New York: Simon and Schuster
Pizzo,
Stephen, Mary Fricker and Paul
Muolo (1989). Inside job: the looting of America's savings and loans.
New York: McGraw Hill.
Potts, Mark,
with Lionel Kochan and Robert Whittington (1992). Dirty money: BCCI, the inside
story of the world's sleaziest bank. Washington: National press Books
Scott,
Donald W. (1989). "Policing corporate collusion", Criminology,
27(3):559-557
Sherrill,
Robert (1984). The oil follies of 1970-1980. New York: Doubleday Anchor.
Sternberg,
William and Matthew C. Harrison (1989). Feeding frenzy: the inside story of
Wedtech. New York: Henry Holt.
Sterngold,
James (1990), Burning down the house New York: Summit. (on the fall of
E.F. Hutton)
Stevens,
Mark (1989). Sudden death: the rise and fall of E. F. Hutton. New York:
NAL.
Thompson,
Marilyn (1990) Feeding the beast: how Wedtech became the most corrupt little
company in America, New York: Charles Scribners' Sons
Timmerman,
Kenneth R. (1992) The death lobby: how the West armed Iraq, New York:
Houghton Mifflin.
Traub, James
(1990) Too good to be true: the outlandish story of Wedtech, New York:
Doubleday
Weiner, Tim
(1990) Blank check: the Pentagon's black budget, New York: Warner Books
Wheeler,
Stanton, Kenneth Mann and Austin Sarat (1988). Sitting in judgment: the
sentencing of white-collar criminals. Yale University Press.
White, Larry
C. (1988). Merchants of death: the American tobacco industry. New York:
Beech Tree