Dancing on the head of a pin? Addressing police white-collar crime
Dancing on the head of a pin? Addressing police white-collar crime
Recent global episodes have called attention to crime and social harms created by private enterprises. Less attention has fallen on crimes by public sector actors and, when it does, most commonly focuses on high-impact, tragic events. Scrutiny of police agency crimes, for instance, has prioritised exciting or ‘dirty’ activities, including fatalities or graft, rather than lower-order deviance. Instead this paper highlights police agency breaches of taxation, procurement, financial management and data protection laws and regulations. It then examines the oversight, regulatory and legal responses to such acts. In line with Sutherland’s original framing of white-collar crime, the paper argues that broadly such responses are intentionally found wanting, resulting in costs for others and uneven treatment of ‘moral’ persons relative to ordinary criminals. Thereafter the paper considers at what point deficient oversight might constitute negligence and what, if anything, this implies about likely domestic or EU action against public actors. The paper concludes by querying Sutherland’s contention that white-collar crime by public actors impacts on social relations.
Moss, Brian
2d1ac95e-d17d-4e4d-9067-fa96f2ef08f2
Moss, Brian
2d1ac95e-d17d-4e4d-9067-fa96f2ef08f2
Moss, Brian
(2020)
Dancing on the head of a pin? Addressing police white-collar crime.
European Society of Criminology Annual Conference, , Bucharest, Hungary.
11 Sep 2020.
(In Press)
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Other)
Abstract
Recent global episodes have called attention to crime and social harms created by private enterprises. Less attention has fallen on crimes by public sector actors and, when it does, most commonly focuses on high-impact, tragic events. Scrutiny of police agency crimes, for instance, has prioritised exciting or ‘dirty’ activities, including fatalities or graft, rather than lower-order deviance. Instead this paper highlights police agency breaches of taxation, procurement, financial management and data protection laws and regulations. It then examines the oversight, regulatory and legal responses to such acts. In line with Sutherland’s original framing of white-collar crime, the paper argues that broadly such responses are intentionally found wanting, resulting in costs for others and uneven treatment of ‘moral’ persons relative to ordinary criminals. Thereafter the paper considers at what point deficient oversight might constitute negligence and what, if anything, this implies about likely domestic or EU action against public actors. The paper concludes by querying Sutherland’s contention that white-collar crime by public actors impacts on social relations.
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Accepted/In Press date: 11 September 2020
Venue - Dates:
European Society of Criminology Annual Conference, , Bucharest, Hungary, 2020-09-11 - 2020-09-11
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Local EPrints ID: 449794
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/449794
PURE UUID: 84d6cf7c-31de-4cd5-8487-6411e14d94ec
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Date deposited: 17 Jun 2021 16:34
Last modified: 23 Jul 2022 02:26
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