Research Note: Assessing the Perceived Seriousness of White-Collar and Street Crimes

Abstract

Controversy surrounds the ranking of crime seriousness of white-collar crimes relative to street crimes, with early research suggesting the general public is indifferent to crimes of the elite, whereas more recent research indicates that the public thinks certain types of white-collar crime are serious. Building on prior research limitations and using data from a national random probability sample, this study compares the seriousness ratings of a number of white-collar and street crimes and examines the factors that distinguish seriousness ratings across the crime types. The analyses indicate that certain types of white-collar crimes are ranked as more serious than street crimes and that a limited set of demographic correlates distinguish seriousness ratings across the two crime types. Future research directions are outlined.

Predicting Israeli Public Support for Capital Punishment: Crime Type and Severity, Offender, Observer, and Victim Characteristics

“…The overwhelming majority (86%) of the scenarios in which participants supported capital punishment described terrorist acts. This pattern corresponds with our hypothesis (H 2 ) and prior research findings that capital-punishment support is stronger for highly violent crimes (Adriaenssen et al, 2018;Leeper Piquero et al, 2008). It represents "lex talionis" reasoning, which advocates that the punishment should fit the crime (Bergeron & Mckelvie, 2004;Tonry, 2018) and suggests that capital-punishment support is motivated by the need for retribution and retaliation (Sanjero, 2002;Santoro, 2013).…”

“…Generally, public punitiveness toward offenders is associated with crime type and severity. The public expresses more punitive attitudes toward violent-crime offenders than property-crime offenders (Adriaenssen et al, 2020;Leeper Piquero et al, 2008). Similarly, people tend to support harsher punishments for offenders of crimes that the public perceives as more severe such as murder, rape, and violent offenses, than for perpetrators of less severely perceived crimes such as white-collar and victimless crimes (Einat & Herzog, 2011;Herzog & Einat, 2016;Michel, 2016).…”

Attitudes toward food fraud in Israel and Germany

“…Lately there is a growing academic interest in food related crimes (Lord et al, 2017;Manning, 2017). However, studies on public AFF are scant, and the studies that focus on the seriousness of white-collar crimes tend to overlook FF (Leeper Piquero et al, 2008;Dodge et al, 2013). The few surveys that included an item on FF (Rossi et al, 1974;Cullen et al, 1982;Rosenmerkel, 2001) were conducted in the USA and present conflicting findings.…”

“…One of the factors that may influence public opinions is the type of fraud. Studies on citizen responses toward crimes show that public opinions on crime are affected by the type of crime (Holtfreter et al, 2008) and severity of harm (Cullen et al, 1982;Leeper Piquero et al, 2008;Adriaenssen et al, 2018). The public tends to rank crimes involving physical and psychological harm as more serious than property crimes and crimes with no immediate danger of individual harm (Holtfreter et al, 2008;Leeper Piquero et al, 2008;Adriaenssen et al, 2018).…”

“…Although FF is a type of white-collar crime (Rosenmerkel, 2001), studies on public opinions about white-collar crimes, (e.g. (Leeper Piquero et al, 2008;Dodge et al, 2013) tend to overlook FF. Second, our study is the first to compare different types of FFs.…”