A Social Construction of Crime, Criminals, and the Justice System

MEDIA TREATMENTOF WHITE COLLAR CRIME

JOANN BORSELLAFlorida Institute of Technology 2014

INTRODUCTION• Why does the public see so little of white-collar crime portrayed in the media?

• Big Business owns the media companies and Big Business commits crime; thus, the media is biased against reporting white-collar crimes. 3

• Big Business will not expose itself or bring attention to the fact that Big Business and its employees can be corrupt. 1

• Because of this smoke-and-mirrors broadcasting, the public sees more crime being committed by street criminals and thugs rather than wealthy executives who dump toxic waste in our neighborhoods and steal the life savings of poor and middle-class Americans for their own greed. 1

• By broadcasting only what the media wants the public to see, the public, who is not entirely familiar with crime and criminal justice policies, will take for granted that the media production is broadcasting factual information and thus form an opinion from the media’s portrayal. 3

• National crime reports focus only on street crime which cements the media-created social construction of crime and justice. 2

• In turn, the absence of white-collar crime in the media produces a manipulating, media-generated social construction of crime, criminals, and the justice system. 3

“When you are the power, you shape people’s vision of the truth.” 1

If it bleeds, it leads

IF WE CAN FOOL YOU, WE RULE YOU 1

WHITE-COLLAR CRIME IS BORING • White-collar crime is generally ignored by the media because it is boring copy.

• It is not visually interesting.

• The media cannot agitate the public or scare them with white-collar crime stories.

• The harm to victims is usually monetary thus it is an indirect harm to a person.

• White-collar crimes are “not news in the traditional sense.” 1

• To make a white-collar crime story more appealing to the public, it is typically treated as infotainment by the media, or the media focuses on the celebrity in trouble, or as “violent predators disguised as executives.” 1

• Media attention is high when celebrities are involved such as Martha Stewart, who received far more media attention for her securities fraud charges as compared to CEOs who were not famous who stole millions of dollars and received much less media coverage.

• White-collar crimes are generally punished civilly and are not considered a part of the criminal justice system.

• News media agencies fear retaliation from major corporations involved in the white-collar crime stories through loss of advertisements.

MEDIA ATTENTION

Low Media Attention High Media Attention

THE MEDIA IS A TOOL

• The media is a tool that can and will be used by any stakeholder or claims maker to manipulate and influence the public’s opinion on a criminal trial of a white-collar criminal 3

• Reports of white-collar crime are generally used for infotainment 2

• White-collar crime has been generally “neglected by the print media” 1

• Media companies are owned by powerful corporations that receive billions of dollars in revenue and contribute money to politicians 2

• In white-collar crimes, the media works very diligently to change the focus of the story from the corporation to the individual because of financial interests. This process, labeled the ‘bad apple theory,’ allows media attention to focus on the individual, rather than tainting the corporation’s reputation 2

• “Sensation-hunger” may be brought on by the media, as well as the media’s construction of the news they broadcast, which mostly consists of sensationalism 1

• Attorneys for white-collar criminals use the media to the advantage of the client, and sometimes the use of the media can make or break a case 3

FILM AND TELEVISION• Wall Street

• Rogue Trader

• Catch Me if You Can

• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

• White Collar

• These films and television programs are available to a large audience; however, they do not portray much of the actual financial world, thus constructing an incorrect view of big business and financial white-collar crime 1

THE PLAYERS• There are a lot of key players in the media coverage of white-collar crime. They include: 1

• Victims

• Offenders

• Government institutions

• Third parties with an interest in particular outcomes

• Business pressure groups

• Trade associations

• Local and global corporate, cyber-security, and forensic accounting firms

• Anti-corruption, pro-consumer, and tax integrity non-government organizations

• Lobbyists, stakeholders, and claims makers who may try to make the public aware of a danger 1

• “Groups such as the US Center for Public Integrity or journalistic networks such as Reporters without Frontiers regularly use the media to get their anti-corruption message across and advocate for tougher legislation and more action against transnational and domestic bribers.” 1

CRAZY EDDIE: “THE DARTH VADER OF CAPITALISM” 1

• In the 1980s, Sam Antar his cousin, Eddie Antar, and their uncle Sam co-founded the company Crazy Eddie, Inc. which sold electronics.

• During that time, these three men concocted “one of the largest securities frauds of its time.” 1

• Their “fraud cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars, cost many people their life savings, cost many people their jobs and careers, cost creditors hundreds of millions of dollars, and many people’s suffering that cannot be measured.” 1

• Sam Antar was the government’s key witness in the criminal and civil prosecutions. 1

• “It takes one to know one.” 1

• Today, Antar is educating the public and law enforcement about white-collar crime to train them to identify and apprehend white-collar criminals. 1

• Antar states he would rather have been a white-collar criminal today than in the 80s because the Wall Street criminals did not go to prison for their crimes which led to the financial crisis,” and law enforcement is devoting less resources to white-collar crime today. 2

BERNIE MADOFF’S $65M PONZI SCHEME• Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for bilking investors

out of $65 million. 1

• He lied and convinced thousands of investors to give him their life savings for a profitable return on their investment. 1

• In December 2008, Madoff was charged with eleven counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and theft. 1

• Madoff’’s employees were found guilty for their part in the scheme and now his accountant and attorney is also facing 30 years in prison. 1

• Madoff’s scheme went on for so long because he was well respected in the financial world. He was a co-founder of the Nasdaq stock market, he sat on the board of the National Association of Securities Dealers, as well as advising the SEC on trading securities. 1

BIG BUSINESS• “Unlike organized crime, white-collar crime is

committed by respected, high social status members of society” 1

• Theft of a Nation discloses how the main financial institutions are “ongoing criminal enterprises” and the government protects these businesses while betraying the interest of the public 3

• The program White Collar is aired on USA Network, which is owned by NBC, which is owned by NBC Universal, which is owned by General Electric, so there will be no episodes involving any of the numerous corporate crimes GE has committed, such as “corporate pollution poisoning people” 2

• Media companies are owned by powerful corporations that receive billions of dollars in revenue and contribute money to politicians, thus having an advantage for changing policy and law 4

• Major corporations that own media companies monitor and manipulate what the public views on their networks, thus having the ability to shape public opinion 2, 4

CORPORATE FRAUD

• In 1981, General Electric (GE) was convicted of paying a $1.25 million bribe to an official in Puerto Rico in order to get a power plant contract 1

• GE has pled guilty to illegally obtaining highly classified defense documents 1

• GE paid $3.5 million to settle cases involving retaliation against 4 whistleblowers who helped to expose defense fraud 1

• Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, paid $9 billion to keep the public from hearing about the bank’s "massive criminal securities fraud" 3

• Whistleblowers in the UK were given large amounts of hush money to keep quiet 2

• Rather than relying on news media to give truthful accounts of corporate fraud, the public should view websites such as the FBI’s Crime Reports to receive accurate information

FBI Corporate Fraud Report 2010-2011

BIG BUSINESS AS THE VICTIM

• Financial institutions portray themselves as the victims of the financial crisis rather than the cause, and this “big lie” is repeated by those who had a hand in the “deregulation” that eventually was a cause of the crisis. 1

• Big businesses have funded their own research studies without ever realizing the losses these corporations and institutions inflict on the public. 1

JOURNALISM

• If it bleeds, it leads. 2

• “The public demands it.” 2

• Ignorance is a tactical maneuver: “We rule you, if we can fool you.” 4

• Sensational, violent crime gets attention from the paying public, thus, those types of crimes (street crimes) will take precedence over white-collar, non-violent crimes. 3

• “Journalists are not necessarily biased towards the powerful – but their bureaucratic organization and cultural assumptions make them conduits of that power.” 1

• Since the goal of a media agency is to make large amounts of money, they do not always report the facts accurately. 3

• “Fear-based news stories prey on the anxieties we all have and then hold us hostage.” 3

CRIME REPORTS & RESEARCH

• For the most part, white-collar crime has been “neglected by the print media” and this adds to the omission of white-collar crime within crime reports and texts from researchers who help politicians in their decision-making regarding crime. 2

• National crime reports focus on street crime and cement the media-created social construction of crime and justice. 1

• National crime reports leave out the corporate criminals who victimize the public. 1

• This, in turn, shapes the media’s reporting of the “crime problem;” the information in text books; and the research that uses those reports. 1

• These practices fail to incorporate white-collar crime into reports that are supposed to represent a depiction of criminal victimization in the country. 1

• To be useful to the public, policy makers, and the criminal justice system, it should record all crimes, not just street crimes. 1

• There is no report on white-collar or corporate crime in the US; and the exclusion of these categories from a report on crime “further removes white-collar crimes from public consciousness.” 1

• Part of the social construction of white-collar crime may be because research has neglected it. 3

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COVERAGE OF WHITE-COLLAR CRIME IN THE MEDIA

• The media shapes the way we view crime and may influence public perceptions of what is harmful and what is “the law and order problem” or “the crime problem” 3

• If the public knows about the effects of the media, it may inspire us to re-think criminal justice policy 3

• Because there is a bias of the media when reporting white-collar or corporate crimes, the media influences the public on what they report – mainly that violent crime is aired to scare us and that white-collar crime is not newsworthy or does not attract enough attention to its viewers because it is not life-threatening 2

• The media’s interpretation of a crime influences the public’s opinion on how dangerous the crime may be, as well as their interpretations of crime and justice problems, “policing powers;” decisions of juries; the money to be made by the accused; pre-trial publicity; and the public’s desire to make changes to judicial policy 1

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OFWHITE-COLLAR CRIME

• National crime reports focus only on street crime which cements the media-created social construction of crime and justice. 2

• Until white-collar crime is punished like street crime, it will not be perceived as serious. The public may still feel uncomfortable with sending business people to prison – as if they were “real” criminals. 1

• The majority of white-collar crime texts focuses on the actors instead of the activities. This affects public opinion and public policy and results in the implementation and enforcement of criminal law. This results in “official” crime statistics that support the idea that organized crimes by executives are rare and less important than other crimes. 1

• “The observer who looks first at events and then at the persons associated with them is more likely to adopt a scientific, value-free and causal analytical style. The observer who defines a universe by the people it contains is more prone to bias and non-testable assumptions – in short, to conclusions that are based more on ideology than on logic” – Dwight C. Smith, Jr. (1991). 1

MEDIA INFLUENCE ON WHITE-COLLAR CRIME• Ratings are most important to the media, and high profile stories sell newspapers and

generate advertising. The media focuses on ratings rather than exposing the damage done by the white-collar crime. 1

• As a result, scholars claim that public perception of white-collar crime and the executive criminal is greatly influenced by the media. 1

• Additionally, this influence damages the justice system by giving unjustified bias to the jury pool. 1

• Levi (2001) states, “At a wider structural level, the ownership of the mass media may inhibit certain forms of reporting.” 1

BIG BUSINESS’ INFLUENCE ON THE MEDIA • Reporting of white-collar crime reveals it seldom

focuses on the corporation but instead draws attention to the individual. It may begin at the corporation level, but soon changes emphasis to individuals. 2

• The media also tends to sensationalize the story if, and when, the focus is on the individual. 2

• Media companies are owned by powerful corporations who may have committed a fraud or two, and those corporations will tend to refrain from broadcasting stories which may bring attention to their corporation 2

• For example, General Electric (GE) owns NBC; GE reported earning $5 billion in 2010, but paid no corporate income tax; and in the last 5 years GE has earned $26 billion and received a net tax benefit of $4.1 billion from the IRS. This story ran on ABC and Fox, yet was not mentioned on NBC Nightly News or NBC’s Meet the Press 1

• Ironically, it's many of the same politicians who say they are "tough on crime" that are collecting millions of dollars in campaign money from the biggest crooks in America.

• A politician looking to win a campaign would never knowingly accept cash from street thugs, muggers and thieves.

• But corporate thugs, corporate muggers and corporate thieves?

• No problem!

Ralph Nader on Elected Officials and Corporate Executives

POWER RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CORPORATE CRIMINALS AND VICTIMS

• Leighton (2013) states that we should take some steps to focus more on perpetrators who have power.

• Apply Routine Activity theory to corporate crime control

• Apply Rational Choice theory to the rich

• Apply Strain theory to the rich

• Make corporate people and corporate organizations part of the study of criminology and “problematize” the lack of capable guardians to control motivated corporate offenders 1

CONCLUSION• White-collar crime continues to be an unimportant part of overall crime news and

entertainment media content.

• White-collar crime is generally ignored because it is not visually interesting.

• The media cannot agitate the public or scare them with white-collar crime stories.

• The harm to victims is usually monetary, thus it is an indirect harm to a person, and not considered newsworthy.

• News media agencies fear retaliation from major corporations involved in the white-collar crime stories through loss of advertising.

• Many major corporations own media agencies and will not air white-collar crime stories about a company they own.

• National crime reports focus only on street crime which cements the media-created social construction of crime and justice.

• The majority of white-collar crime texts focuses on the celebrity or executive who committed the crime rather than the crime itself. This affects public opinion and public policy which results in the implementation and enforcement of criminal law.

• Additionally, it creates a social construction of “official” crime statistics that support the idea that organized crimes by executives are rare and less important than other crimes.

“When you are the power, you shape people’s vision

of the truth.”

THE ENDMy very last project…

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http://www.whitecollarfraud.com/.

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• Financial Crimes Report to the Public. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/financial-crimes-report-2010-2011

• Griffin, S. P. (2002). Actors or activities? On the social construction of ''white-collar crime'' in the United States. Crime, Law and Social Change, 37(3), 245-276. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216163857?accountid=27313.

• Leighton. P. (2010). A professor of white collar crime reviews USA’s White Collar series. The Critical Criminologist, 19, 4. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/547507/A_Professor_of_White_Collar_Crime_Reviews_USAs_White_Collar_series

• Leighton, P. (2013). Corporate crime and the corporate agenda for crime control: disappearing awareness of corporate crime and increasing abuses of power. Western Criminology Review, 14(2), 38-51. Retrieved from http://westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v14n2/Leighton.pdf.

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• Serani, D. (2011). If it bleeds, it leads: Understanding fear-based media. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/two-takes-depression/201106/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-understanding-fear-based-media

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