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Business Crime: Cases and Materials

NCJ Number
121133
Author(s)
H First
Date Published
1990
Length
707 pages
Annotation
This casebook of business crime is a course of study that focuses on problems of substantive criminal law and problems of criminal procedure.
Abstract
As used in this text, "business crime" is defined as a "crime committed during the normal course of business operations, for economic reasons, by or on behalf of a legitimate business organization." "Business crime" is used instead of "white collar crime" because the latter tends to feature the socioeconomic class of the offender and ignore the broader context of the offense. This study addresses the nature of the offense and its institutional character. Part I, problems of substantive criminal law, opens with a statutory overview, followed by an examination of the decision to criminalize business crime. A discussion of sanctions covers sentencing guidelines, individual sanctions, and entity sanctions. Part II, problems of criminal procedure, begins with a review of corporate privileges under constitutional and common law, followed by an examination of issues in grand jury proceedings. The latter covers fundamentals of grand jury power, the conduct of the grand jury inquest, and multiple representation and conflicts of interest. Government evidence gathering and the interplay between civil and criminal proceedings are also considered. Table of cases, subject index.