When the public demands “law and order” and when newspapers editorials talk about the "rising tide of crime,“ they have in mind mostly street crime committed by the poor. Even the massive report of the President’s Crime Commission, the Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, devoted only two pages to the entire subject of white-collar offenders and business crimes. The deep concern with street crimes is understandable. Unlike a swindler, who merely takes the victim’s money, an armed mugger threatens ’physical injury and even death. 46) Yet the fact remains that a great deal of crime in American society -- perhaps most crime, and certainly the most costly crime is committed by respectable middle-class and upper-class citizens. The term “ white-collar crime was first used by Edwin Sutherland in an address to the American ffociological Association in 1939. 47) “White-collar crime,” he declared, “may be defined
Law-and-order is the longest-running and probably the best-loved political issue in the U.S. history.
(46) Yet it is painfully apparent that millions of Americans who would never think of themselves as lawbreakers, let alone criminals, are taking increasing liberties with the legal codes that are designed to protect and nourish their society. Indeed, there are moments today when it seems as though the scofflaw represents the wave o the future. (47) Harvard Sociologist David Riesman suspects that a majority of Americans have blithely taken to committing supposedly minor derelictions as a matter of course. Already, Riesman says, the ethic of U.S. society is in danger of becoming this. "you’re a fool if you obey the rules. "
Nothing could be more obvious than the evidence supporting Riesman. Scofflaws abound in amazing variety. The graffiti-prone turn public surfaces into visual rubbish. Bicyclists often ride as though two-wheeled vehicl
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