White-Collar and Corporate Crime

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor and tutor: Sappho Xenakis
• Assessment: a 4000-word essay (100%)

This module examines the legal, political, social and economic dimensions of white-collar and corporate crime, from national as well as international perspectives, exploring its causes, its complexity, the challenges that exist to its effective detection, measurement and interdiction, and the obstacles that impede its effective suppression.

Indicative module syllabus

• What is white-collar and corporate crime?
• The causes of white-collar and corporate crime
• State-corporate crime
• Money laundering and the financial services industry
• Violent corporate crime
• Corporate and organised crime
• Environmental corporate crime crime
• The scale and impact of white-collar and corporate crime
• National and international regulation: strengths and limitations

By the end of this module, you will:

• be familiar with the key debates and literature on white-collar and corporate crime, appreciate the tensions particularly relating to the definitions, causes, magnitude and available strategies to combat such offences
• be able to analyse contemporary news stories relating to white-collar and corporate crime through the lens of the analytical debates we have covered in the module, and use your own critical reflection skills to argue how these should be applied and evaluated
• be able to synthesise pertinent literature to address questions that relate to cross-cutting themes in this area
• be able to navigate, interpret and reflect upon advanced academic scholarship in this area, and to synthesise such research in an essay.