Robert Tillman

For courses in criminal justice, white-collar crime, criminology, law & society, social problems, and American culture. A lively storytelling approach to white-collar crimeWitty and engaging, Profit Without Honor: White-Collar Crime and the Looting of America paints a vivid picture of white¿-collar crime in the US today. Exposing discrepancies between personal gain and individual integrity, the authors examine high-¿profile cases, trends in criminal activity, and the victims and consequences of criminal behaviors. Colorful anecdotes and statistics spark interest and motivate students to keep reading. The 7th edition addresses dramatic new developments in the study of white-collar crime since the last edition, including dozens of cases of corporate and governmental abuses of power in our modern era.

Well-written, witty, and authoritative. Profit Without Honor clearly exposes the battle between personal gain and individual integrity and provides a comprehensive overview of white-collar crime in American society. Presenting a vivid picture of all types of white-collar crime, the book covers high-profile cases, the latest trends in criminal activity, and a thorough discussion of the victims and consequences of these criminal behaviors. This edition addresses the recurrent financial meltdowns in recent years and the role of fraud and corporate crime in these crises. Utilizing both academic and popular sources, the book challenges readers to grasp the importance and long-term effects of white-collar crime in America.

At a cost of $500 billion to American taxpayers, the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s was the worst financial crisis of the twentieth century as well as a crime unparalleled in American history. Yet the vast majority of its perpetrators will never be prosecuted, and those who were have received minimal sentences. In the first in-depth scrutiny of the ways and means of this disaster, this groundbreaking book comes to disturbing conclusions about the deliberate nature of this financial fraud, the political collusion involved, and the leniency of the criminal justice system in dealing with these 'Gucci-clad white-collar criminals'. Using material from over one hundred interviews with government officials and industry leaders and recently declassified documents, the authors show how - contrary to previous government and 'expert' explanations that chalked the disaster up to business risks gone awry or adverse economic conditions - S&L leaders engaged in deliberate fraud, stealing from their own corporations to speculate on high-risk ventures. Tempted by the insurance net, perpetrators looted their own institutions in a new kind of white-collar crime the authors dub 'collective embezzlement'. "Big Money Crime" also demonstrates how systematic political collusion - not just policy errors - was a critical ingredient in this unprecedented series of frauds. Bringing together statistics from a variety of government agencies, the authors provide a close reading of the track record of prosecutions and sentencing and find that 'suite crime' receives much more lenient treatment than 'street crime', despite its significantly higher price tag. The book concludes with a number of modest, but no less urgent, policy recommendations to counter the current deregulatory trend and to avert a replay of the S&L debacle in other financial sectors. From the book: 'We built thick walls; we have cameras; we have time clocks on the vaults ...all these controls were to protect against somebody stealing the cash. Well, you can steal far more money, and take it out the back door. The best way to rob a bank is to own one' - House Committee on Government Operations, 1988.