Previous research found gender to be a primary consideration of judges in terms of actions towards defendants. Blameworthiness, the combined effect of criminal history, offense severity, and the defendant's role in the criminal event, is also known to impact judge's actions. Little, though, is known about how gender and blameworthiness, combined, may be related to judges' actions towards white-collar defendants. The purpose of this case study, therefore, was to explore whether defendant gender and blameworthiness impact judicial actions towards defendants charged with white-collar crime(s) in a federal district court of New York. The theoretical framework was Demuth and Steffensmeier's theory of focal concerns. Research questions focused on the impacts of defendants' gender and blameworthiness in general and with regard to bail and restitution decisions. Data consisted of published court case summaries for 1,162 criminal cases heard by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York between 2009 and 2015. These data were analyzed via an inductive coding process and then subjected to content analysis. Themes that emerged revealed that all facets of blameworthiness impacted restitution while only the seriousness of the offense impacted bail decisions. Further, gender was found to impact judge's actions in subtler ways than in prior research. For example, analysis revealed slight modifications in word choice in the case summaries that appeared to be connected to the gender of the defendant, particularly related to restitution decisions. The results of this study may be used to courts and Congress to enhance existing statutes and guidelines directed at decreasing the impact of gender and blameworthiness on defendants by the justice system.

The aim of this study is to discuss white collar industrial employee&rsquo / s alienation to urban life in Kocaeli. In this context, Lived Space of white collar industrial employees in a selected factory in the city is examined in terms of employees&rsquo / use and perception of the urban space. To this end, several expert interviews (local media representative, head of chamber of industry and head of the department of human resources of the selected factory) and subject group interviews were carried out and analyzed in combination with an application of a questionnaire conducted with 62 employees. At the micro level, the study shows that white collar industrial employees only feel limited &ldquo / urban attachment&rdquo / and perceive Kocaeli as a place they have put up with in order to gain a living. At the macro level, it is suggested that a spatial regime in which Kocaeli is the industrial periphery of the Istanbul Metropolitan Region is an important determinant of the assumed alienation of the subject group. In this context, the results attained from the field study show that although the white collar industrial employees use the urban space partially in their daily activities and establish some community relations, they are still alienated to the city in terms of their perception of the urban space and stuck in the centrifugal structure between the metropolitan centre and the industrial periphery.

Organizations use pre-employment tests to identify individuals characterized as having a propensity (likelihood) to commit theft with the intent to limit at-risk hires, thereby reducing the risk of fraud. Pre-employment tests were originally designed to identify a broad range of deviant behaviors such as previous violations of laws, and violations of social norms and organizational policies (O'Bannon et al., 1989), not as predictive indicators of deviant behavior and theft. In addition, the test most commonly used to identify high fraud risk applicants, the integrity test, has limited support as a valid predictor of theft (MacLane & Walmsley, 2010; Ones et al., 2003; Sackett et al., 1989; Van Iddekinge et al., 2012) within the literature. This study empirically examined the efficacy of pre-employment tests to elicit a predictive profile of white-collar crime by testing the relationship between deviant behaviors, personality traits, and integrity. The data for this study was obtained through questionnaires and pre-employment tests administered within the Federal prison system. The total sample consisted of twenty (N=20) convicted white-collar inmates. Results of this sample were compared to the general population statistics as provided by the pre-employment test providers. In line with the literature, positive relationships were found between low integrity and deviant behaviors. Contrary to past literature, no significant relationships were found between Agreeableness and Integrity or Emotional Stability/Neuroticism and Integrity. A positive relationship was found between high Conscientiousness and Integrity. Of particular note, this study found that the failure rate of the overt-integrity test was 45% and 100% for personality tests in identifying individuals with traits consistent with deviant behaviors. This study contributes to the existing literature on personality, integrity and deviant behaviors by providing insights into the nature of the relationships as they relate to white-collar crime. This study also expands the theory of deviant behaviors with a thorough definition within the literature results, which helps to define the dimension and constructs of deviant behaviors within the workplace as it relates to white-collar crime. Finally, this study specifies practical implications to be considered by management and pre-employment test providers for the purpose of enhancing fraud prevention and reducing deviant behaviors within the organization.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The introduction, and evolution of securitisation over the years, has made a phenomenal contribution to the area of corporate finance. Securitisation is specialised area which has evolved to deliver considerable advantages to banks and their corporate and government clients, a sub-subjected explored in this thesis. Securitisation is using the cashflow, creditworthiness and collateral of receivables to raise finance from the capital markets. To date, research on the subject of securitisation has produced a few textbooks and numerous articles written by academics and practitioners. The ambit of these writings addresses three questions, namely, what is securitisation; how does it work in practice; and how can securitisation be developed so that it can continue delivering advantages in the evolving world of corporate finance. Securitisation is very much a practical subject, and given that the author had very little, if any, practical exposure to the subject prior to developing this thesis, the author, admittedly, felt challenged to ascertain significant issues that could be developed to the extent that such development represents an original contribution to knowledge. Case law in the US had already explored the most significant issue regarding securitisation, namely, true sale. Armed with a solid theoretical base of knowledge that author looked for inspiration, and discovered it during the initial days when the Enron scandal hit the headlines. In short, the Enron scandal involved using the concept of securitisation to facilitate financial crime. The masterminds (if its appropriate to use such description) of the scandal, as this thesis will unfold later, cleverly used thousands of securitisation and hedging transactions to raise funds in order to give financial creditability to a giant corporation which on the surface appeared prosperous but, in reality, was breathing to a large extent on borrowed funds. This scandal, in which securitisation was used, inspired the author to develop the originality of the thesis by focusing on the issue of securitisation and financial crime. Given that financial crime is a huge area to explore, the author narrowed the focus to look at money laundering, and address the question: can the practice of securitisation facilitate money laundering? To approach this question and answer it at doctorate level required a solid understanding of what securitisation is and how it works in practice. Using textbooks, articles and conversations with practitioners, the thesis documents under Part 1, what securitisation is and how it works in practice before moving on to Part 2 to look at if and how securitisation can facilitate money laundering.

No description available.

This qualitative study examines whether, and to what extent, gender equality can be used for trade-union revitalisation purposes. The white-collar unions; Unionen and Fackförbundet ST, are two prominent cases of studying actor’s promotion of gender equality on the Swedish labour market. This study sets out two questions; In what ways do they work with gender issues? Why do they work with gender equality - Is it being used strategically or because they think that it is an important issue? The empirical study is based on twenty interviews with the respective union leadership, elected representatives and officials. The results of the study show that both unions are working on gender equality, because their members consider gender equality to be a priority. As regards the issue of gender equality as a strategy, my study shows that Unionen is working on gender equality as a strategy while Fackförbundet ST do not. Unionen do so that they can recruit a new group, namely young members. Therefore, my study shows that gender equality can be used as a union revitalisation strategy. The study also shows that union revitalisation strategies are contextual in the sense that strategies that work in countries with high female employment rates and high female union coverage, are different from strategies that work in countries with low female employment rates and low female union coverage.

In this research I analyse how the existence of regulations that allow private funding of election campaigns have created opportunities for crime. Three specific questions are addressed here: 1. Do electoral donations increase political corruption? 2. Why do companies give electoral donations? 3. How are electoral donors compensated? To address these questions, I adopted a nested analysis. This sequential, mixed method brings together the strengths of both regression analysis and case study research, while conducting a validity check—triangulation—by convergence of results via different methods and theoretical approaches. I first conducted a cross-national comparison of 78 countries; then, I conducted a survey of 302 private companies in Colombia; and finally, I documented one case that described how campaign contributions affect the political decision-making process. The main conclusion of this research is that electoral law creates opportunities for crime, because it legalizes the entrance of interested money into politics, disqualifies donors as perpetrators, and introduces regulations with null or limited deterrent effect on the delivery of undue reciprocities. Indeed, I demonstrated that electoral financing is used as a legal bribery by private corporations. The legal character of this political instrument is perverted when undue compensation is delivered to donors. This is not a crime with a single perpetrator; rather, donors and incumbents are equally involved. However, donors are protected by electoral law, because the money delivered as corrupt incentive is classified as legal. This suggests that the law is being used as a mechanism that neutralizes donors as perpetrators. This perspective points to the manipulative use of electoral law, or creative compliance, as the term is used by McBarnet (2006).

M.Cur. (Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing) / The objective of this research is to explore and describe how the white-collar criminal experiences being admitted to prison. In a country like South Africa, where the crime rate is of the highest in the world and where a new democratic era has also begun where the prisoner is entitled to more humane treatment, the Department of Correctional Service faces considerable criticism from time to time, whilst being exposed to increasing demands. The white-collar criminal experiences problems integrating successfully in the prison community, with the result that such integration and the accompanying deprivation give rise to mental health problems. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, contextual research study has been undertaken to describe how. the white-collar criminal experiences being admitted to prison. Five whitecollar criminals, who. met all the set criteria, were included in the study by means of purposive convenience sampling. . In-depth exploration into the experience of the white-collar criminal was done by utilising the phenomenological method of interviewing for the collection of data. The researcher put a central question to the respondents, viz.: "How do you experience your admission to prison?" Data were analysed by means of descriptive analysis as described by Tesch. Anindependent coder was used to code and analyse the data. Consensus discussions between the researcher and the coder were held on the results. Obstacles and facilitative aspects were identified, which influence the white-collar criminal's ability to integrate in the prison community as part of the facilitation of the promotion, maintenance and restoration of mental health as an integral part of health...

No description available.