AProfessorofWhiteCollarCrimeReviewsUSAsWhite.docVIP

A Professor of White Collar Crime Reviews USAs White Collar series Paul Leighton Author’s note: This article is a revised and better version of an entry I originally wrote for PaulsJusticeB. Because of these origins, some of the references are embedded as links. If the version you are reading does not have working links to underlined words, please check the original version at /2010/02/a_professor_of_white_collar_cr.php. A standard critique of media portrayals of crime is that there is an over-emphasis on street crime compared to white collar crime, especially given the prevalence and enormous costs of white collar crime. Certainly the law also criminalizes more harms done by the poor (street crime) rather than harms done by the rich (white collar crime), but the media further magnifies the carnival mirror-like distortions of the criminal law and criminal justice system (Reiman and Leighton 2010). COPS, all the varieties of Law Order, CSI, etc almost never deal with a white collar crime. Sometimes rich people end up on the show, but usually for committing a homicide or other street crime, not for corporate acts that harm workers, consumers, the environment and/or communities. So, along comes the USA series White Collar. Neal, a convicted art forger, joins forces with an FBI agent to solve white collar crimes. Given that this is just one show compared to a vast sea of programs about street crime, the critique still basically stands. But the media distortion of crime is so important that we also need to be aware that the crimes portrayed on White Collar are a narrow apolitical set of white collar crimes - and they are ones that do not challenge abuses of power by corporations or government. The type of crimes on White Collar are similar to many other treatments of white collar crime that emphasize employee theft, bank tellers embezzling, and credit card fraud. In each of these cases, the perpetrators, while white collar and/or professionals, are victimizing an enti