This thesis examines the causes of financial malfeasance in the largest U.S. telecommunications corporations between 1995 and 2004. Specifically, it examines whether or not the executive compensation package influences the likelihood that a corporation will falsify its financial statements. The methods used are both qualitative and quantitative. I approach the question form a historical point of view and attempt to identify certain salient characteristics within the telecommunications industry that may influence of unethical or illegal activity. The findings support organizational-political embeddedness theory, which suggests that differential social structures create dependencies, incentives, and opportunities to engage in financial malfeasance. The historical analysis shows that neoliberal policies enacted in the mid-1990s resulted in organizational and political structures that permitted managers to engage in financial malfeasance while limiting the efficiency of regulatory bureaucracies. The quantitative analysis yields mixed findings, many of which are consistent with previous research on white-collar crime and financial malfeasance. This article adds to existing literature by outlining significant public policy shifts and the results those shifts may have on specific industries. These findings have important implications for political officials and corporate oversight organizations.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine both the gendered and racialized nature of workplace risk and compensation in the manufacturing industry of apparel. The author selects this industry because of its low-wage, labor intensive, and "deskilled" work, performed in often unsafe employment environments with minimal governmental regulations and limited unionization. The apparel industry is also characterized by its large percentage of racial and ethnic minorities, especially immigrant employees, that further disadvantage them in terms of communication barriers, threat of deportation, and the multiple and intersecting marginalizations associated with occupying a low-wage, minority and/or immigrant status. The gendered effects of workplace risk are addressed in the garment industry, as women and girls largely comprise these workers. Using governmental data, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the author measures the incidences, rates, and demographic characteristics associated with workplace injuries and illnesses for the years 1993-2002. In addition to occupational injuries and illnesses in these industries, the author examines Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division data to examine the incidences and types of compensation violations from the years 1993-2002. Finally, the author examines the limitations of government safety and compensation regulations and enforcement, and the corrective measures that are needed to uphold and safeguard the occupational health, safety, and compensation rights of these workers.

The use of unproctored internet-based testing for employee selection is widespread. Although this mode of testing has advantages over onsite testing, researchers and practitioners continue to be concerned about potential malfeasance (e.g., cheating and response distortion) under high-stakes conditions. Therefore, the primary objective of the present study was to investigate potential malfeasance effects on the scores of an unproctored internet-based cognitive ability, and a personality test. This was accomplished by implementing a within-subjects design in which test takers first completed the tests as job applicants (high-stakes) or incumbents (low-stakes) then as research participants (low-stakes). The pattern of cognitive ability test score differences was more consonant with a psychometric practice effect than a malfeasance explanation. Thus, the results suggest that, if present, there was no evidence to indicate that wide- scale or systematic malfeasance unduly affected the test scores. This may have been due to the speeded nature of the test, which was used to preempt the potential for widespread cheating. Additionally, the unproctored personality administration resulted in similar mean shifts and similar proportions of test takers being suspected of distorting their responses as that reported in the extant literature for proctored tests. In their totality, these results suggest that an unproctored internet-based administration does not uniquely threaten personality measures in terms of elevated levels of response distortion compared to proctored measures.

A dissertação objetiva defender a possibilidade do princípio da insignificância incidir sobre os atos de improbidade administrativa, à luz da hipótese analisada, na busca de uma interpretação mais humanizante ao viés extremamente sancionatório que a jurisprudência do Superior Tribunal de Justiça aplica à Lei 8.429/92, ao impedir, sequer, cogitar-se do princípio nessa seara. Sem olvidar a relevância da moralidade administrativa, o escopo do trabalho é apenas o de abrir uma fresta para a possibilidade de cabimento do princípio da insignificância, enquanto fundamento de validade principiológica da eventual absolvição de acusados da prática de atos de improbidade administrativa, cuja conduta, na análise do caso concreto, tenha se revelado dotada de ofensividade mínima ao bem jurídico protegido. A relevância normativa dos princípios, bem como das garantias e limites constitucionais contra o poder punitivo do Estado, são decorrência do antropocentrismo que fundamenta a Constituição vigente, levando a Suprema Corte a estabelecer vetores de aplicação do princípio da insignificância, que devem ter a possibilidade de serem estendidos, quando cabíveis, ao julgamento dos atos de improbidade administrativa, seja pelos princípios da proporcionalidade e da razoabilidade, limitadores da discricionariedade, seja por princípios de comum cabimento no direito sancionador, diante do conceito universal de antijuridicidade. Por fim, tendências jurisprudenciais e normativas indicam a possibilidade de aplicação do princípio da insignificância aos atos de improbidade administrativa, para corrigir o entrave criado pelo absolutismo da posição que veda, por completo, a mera cogitação de incidência do princípio. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the likelihood of enforcing the principle of insignificance to administrative malfeasance, in view of the hypothesis analyzed, in the search for a more human approach rather than the extremely punitive perspective followed by the Brazilian superior court of justice in relation to Law 8.429/92, by completely disregarding the principle in this sense. Notwithstanding the importance of the administrative morality, the purpose of this paper is to simply look at the possibility of considering the principle of insignificance, as a valid principle of eventual acquittal of those accused of administrative malfeasance, and whose actions might have been perceived as offensive to the assets protected by the law through the analysis of the case. The normative relevance of the principles and the warranties and constitutional limitations against the punitive powers of the State arise from the anthropocentrism that supports the current Constitution, which cause the Brazilian superior court of justice to veto the enforcement of the principle of insignificance, which should be extended, whenever possible, to the judgment of administrative malfeasance, either through principles of proportionality and reasonability, which limit discretion, either through common principles common to the punitive law or to the universal concept of unlawfulness. Finally, case lawrelated and normative trends show the possibility of enforcing the principle of insignificance to administrative malfeasance to correct problems caused by the absolutism of the position that vetoes the possibility of the principle.

A dissertação objetiva defender a possibilidade do princípio da insignificância incidir sobre os atos de improbidade administrativa, à luz da hipótese analisada, na busca de uma interpretação mais humanizante ao viés extremamente sancionatório que a jurisprudência do Superior Tribunal de Justiça aplica à Lei 8.429/92, ao impedir, sequer, cogitar-se do princípio nessa seara. Sem olvidar a relevância da moralidade administrativa, o escopo do trabalho é apenas o de abrir uma fresta para a possibilidade de cabimento do princípio da insignificância, enquanto fundamento de validade principiológica da eventual absolvição de acusados da prática de atos de improbidade administrativa, cuja conduta, na análise do caso concreto, tenha se revelado dotada de ofensividade mínima ao bem jurídico protegido. A relevância normativa dos princípios, bem como das garantias e limites constitucionais contra o poder punitivo do Estado, são decorrência do antropocentrismo que fundamenta a Constituição vigente, levando a Suprema Corte a estabelecer vetores de aplicação do princípio da insignificância, que devem ter a possibilidade de serem estendidos, quando cabíveis, ao julgamento dos atos de improbidade administrativa, seja pelos princípios da proporcionalidade e da razoabilidade, limitadores da discricionariedade, seja por princípios de comum cabimento no direito sancionador, diante do conceito universal de antijuridicidade. Por fim, tendências jurisprudenciais e normativas indicam a possibilidade de aplicação do princípio da insignificância aos atos de improbidade administrativa, para corrigir o entrave criado pelo absolutismo da posição que veda, por completo, a mera cogitação de incidência do princípio. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the likelihood of enforcing the principle of insignificance to administrative malfeasance, in view of the hypothesis analyzed, in the search for a more human approach rather than the extremely punitive perspective followed by the Brazilian superior court of justice in relation to Law 8.429/92, by completely disregarding the principle in this sense. Notwithstanding the importance of the administrative morality, the purpose of this paper is to simply look at the possibility of considering the principle of insignificance, as a valid principle of eventual acquittal of those accused of administrative malfeasance, and whose actions might have been perceived as offensive to the assets protected by the law through the analysis of the case. The normative relevance of the principles and the warranties and constitutional limitations against the punitive powers of the State arise from the anthropocentrism that supports the current Constitution, which cause the Brazilian superior court of justice to veto the enforcement of the principle of insignificance, which should be extended, whenever possible, to the judgment of administrative malfeasance, either through principles of proportionality and reasonability, which limit discretion, either through common principles common to the punitive law or to the universal concept of unlawfulness. Finally, case lawrelated and normative trends show the possibility of enforcing the principle of insignificance to administrative malfeasance to correct problems caused by the absolutism of the position that vetoes the possibility of the principle.