Despite research and policy efforts over the years to develop a comprehensive data system for white-collar crimes, there has never been a published article that chronicles them. In this paper we describe these efforts, emphasizing specific findings and recommendations from our 2015 report, funded by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, on building a national database for corporate offenses. We summarize recently proposed Congressional legislation, based on our recommendations, to establish the development of a national database for tracking these offenses over time. Noting other recent moves within the federal government in this direction, we conclude that, despite the continuing lack of such a database, the trend towards it has been positive over the past several decades.
Abt Global. (2024). Federal corporate offense reporting program feasibility study. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Unpublished Report submitted to.
2.
BarkowA. S.BarkowR. E. (2011). Prosecutors in the boardroom: Using criminal law to regulate corporate conduct. New York University Press.
3.
BensonM. L.SimpsonS. S.with RorieM.KennedyJ. P. (2024). White-collar crime an opportunity perspective (4th ed.). Routledge.
4.
BrownD. K. (2001). Street crime, corporate crime, and the contingency of criminal liability. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 149(5), 1295–1360. https://doi.org/10.2307/3312963
5.
ClinardM. B.QuinneyR. (1967). Criminal behavior systems: A typology. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
ClinardM. B.YeagerP. C. (2017 [1980]). Corporate crime. Routledge.
9.
ClinardM. B.YeagerP. C.BrissetteJ.PetrashekD.HarriesE. (1979). Illegal corporate behavior. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.
10.
EdelhertzH. (1970). The nature, impact and prosecution of white-collar crime. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Administration, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.
11.
GibbonsD. C. (1965). Changing the lawbreaker: The treatment of delinquents and criminals. Prentice-Hall.
12.
GottfredsonM. R.HirschiT. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford University Press.
13.
KluinM. E.Schell-BuseyN.SimpsonS. S.PierceJ. (2025). The benefit of longitudinal studies for understanding corporate criminal careers and the life-course. Working Paper.
14.
LauferW. S. (2006). Corporate bodies and guilty minds: The failure of corporate criminal liability: University of Chicago Press.
15.
McTamaneyR. A. (2003). New York’s martin act: Expanding enforcement in an era of federal securities regulation. Legal Backgrounder, 18(5), 1–4. https://www.wlf.org/upload/022803LBMctamaney.pdf
16.
MoffittT. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100(4), 674–701.
ReedG. E.YeagerP. C. (1996). Organizational offending and neoclassical criminology: Challenging the reach of a general theory of crime. Criminology, 34(3), 357–382. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1996.tb01211.x
19.
ReissA. J.Jr.BidermanA. (1980). Data sources on white-collar law-breaking. U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
20.
SimpsonS. S. (1987). Cycles of illegality: Antitrust violations in corporate America. Social Forces, 65(4), 943–963. https://doi.org/10.2307/2579018
21.
SimpsonS. S. (2002). Corporate crime, law, and social control. Cambridge University Press.
22.
SimpsonS. S.GarnerJ.GibbsC. (2007). Why do corporations obey environmental law? Assessing punitive and cooperative strategies of corporate crime control. Final technical report to national institute of justice. U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/220693.pdf
23.
SimpsonS. S.GibbsC.SlocumL. A.RorieM.CohenM.VandenberghM. (2013). An empirical assessment of corporate environmental crime strategies. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 103(1), 231–278.
24.
SimpsonS. S.RorieM.AlperM.Schell-BuseyN.LauferW.SmithN. C. (2014). Corporate crime deterrence: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 2014(1), 1–105. https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2014.4
25.
SimpsonS. S.YeagerP. C. (2015). Building a comprehensive white-collar violations data system, final technical report. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department Of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/bjs/grants/248667.pdf
WellfordC. F.BartonB. L. (1990). Toward a national uniform white-collar crime reporting system. U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
33.
WiedenbaumM. L. (1979). The future of business regulation: Private action and public demand. Amacom.
34.
WrightR. F.HuckP. (2002). Counting cases about milk, our “most nearly perfect” food, 1860–1940. Law & Society Review, 36(1), 51–112. https://doi.org/10.2307/1512193
35.
YeagerP. C. (1991, 2010). The limits of law: The public regulation of private pollution. Cambridge University Press.
36.
YeagerP. C. (1993). Industrial water pollution. In TonryM.ReissA. J.Jr. (Eds.), Beyond the law: Crime in complex organizations (pp. 97–148). University of Chicago Press.
37.
YeagerP. C. (2007). Understanding corporate lawbreaking: From profit seeking to law finding. In PontellH. N.GeisG. (Eds.), International handbook of white-collar and corporate crime (pp. 25–49). Springer.
38.
YeagerP. C. (2009). Science, values and politics: An insider’s reflections on corporate crime research. Crime, Law and Social Change, 51(1), 5–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9152-2
39.
YeagerP. C. (2016). The practical challenges of responding to corporate crime. In Van SlykeS.BensonM.CullenF. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of white-collar crime (pp. 643–661). Oxford University Press.
40.
YeagerP. C.KramK. E. (1990). Fielding hot topics in cool settings: The study of corporate ethics. Qualitative Sociology, 13(2), 127–148. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00989683
YeagerP. C.SimpsonS. S. (2009). Environmental crime. In TonryM. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of crime and public policy (pp. 325–355). Oxford University Press.
