Miriam H. Baer

Myths and Misunderstandings in White-Collar Crime uses real-world examples to explore the pathologies that hamper our ability to understand and redress white-collar crime. The book argues that misinterpretations about federal white-collar crime impede its lawmaking, enforcement, and discourse, leading it to be overcriminalized and underenforced. Many of these pathologies can be traced to the federal code's failure to subdivide white-collar crimes by degrees of severity, and by the legislature's outsourcing of criminal lawmaking to other institutions. With deep knowledge of the federal code and theories of institutional design and behavioral psychology at her disposal, Miriam Baer offers a step-by-step framework for redressing these problems by paying greater attention to how we write, frame, and lay out our federal criminal code. A clearer, subdivided criminal code, she argues, paves the way for more informed and productive deliberation, and fewer myths and misunderstandings.

Myths and Misunderstandings in White-Collar Crime uses real-world examples to explore the pathologies that hamper our ability to understand and redress white-collar crime. The book argues that misinterpretations about federal white-collar crime impede its lawmaking, enforcement, and discourse, leading it to be overcriminalized and underenforced. Many of these pathologies can be traced to the federal code's failure to subdivide white-collar crimes by degrees of severity, and by the legislature's outsourcing of criminal lawmaking to other institutions. With deep knowledge of the federal code and theories of institutional design and behavioral psychology at her disposal, Miriam Baer offers a step-by-step framework for redressing these problems by paying greater attention to how we write, frame, and lay out our federal criminal code. A clearer, subdivided criminal code, she argues, paves the way for more informed and productive deliberation, and fewer myths and misunderstandings.

This text provides a broad overview of white collar crime, including procedural and evidentiary issues. It covers specific offenses such as mail and bank fraud, securities fraud, obstruction of justice, bribery, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and computer crimes. It covers procedural topics such as those related to grand jury and administrative agency investigations, self-incrimination, and parallel proceedings. Also discussed are punishment and sanctions for white collar crimes.