Violent Street Crime Versus Harmful White-Collar Crime: A Comparison of Perceived Seriousness and Punitiveness

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Web End = Crit Crim (2016) 24:127143

DOI 10.1007/s10612-015-9295-2

Cedric Michel1

Published online: 21 August 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Abstract Recent studies have challenged traditional wisdom regarding public apathy about white-collar crime by revealing equal or greater perceived seriousness of these offenses among respondents relative to traditional crime. Nevertheless, subjects in those studies were generally asked to contrast white-collar crime scenarios with a non-violent street crime baseline vignette. Perhaps a violent street crime would have invited lower perceived seriousness for the white-collar offenses. Participants in the present study were asked to (1) read vignettes describing violent street crimes and physically harmful white-collar crimes, (2) compare their seriousness, and (3) determine appropriate sanctions. Subjects perceived the violent crime scenarios presented to them to be more serious than the harmful white-collar crime vignettes. Further, they were less punitive toward white-collar offenders compared with street criminals. Implications of these ndings are discussed.

Introduction

The literature on perceptions of crime severity generally reveals high levels of consensus among the American public (Grabosky et al. 1987; Hauber et al. 1988; Newman 1976; Rossi et al. 1974; Scott and Al-Thakeb 1977; Thomas et al. 1976; Warr 1989; Wolfgang et al. 1985). Phrased differently, widespread agreement seems to exist among all members of society about perceived seriousness of, and response to, crime. Such consensus is particularly evident regarding those offenses for which victims incur physical injury or death (Blumstein and Cohen 1980; Carlson and Williams 1993; Cullen et al. 1985c; Heller and McEwen 1975; Levi and Jones 1985; OConnell and Whelan 1996; Roth 1978). It is not certain, however, whether physical harm alone is sufcient in eliciting universal

& Cedric Michel [email protected]

1 Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Tampa, 401, W. Kennedy Blvd.,

Tampa, FL 33606-1490, USA

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128 C. Michel

condemnation or if the type of offense (i.e., street crime vs. white-collar crime) has a determining inuence on public perceptions. For example, a conservative estimate places at 300,000...