JUS-309 considers crime committed by corporations as well as white collar criminals: how such crimes are defined, who commits or is victimized by it, which moral, ethical, legal, and social contexts promote it, and how society responds. Additional procedural and policy considerations in the investigation and enforcement of relevant statutes are covered, including the concept of legal privilege, the role of the grand jury, and other preliminary matters.
Defining crime that doesn't look like typical crime
The course tackles the genuine definitional challenge of white collar crime — offenses that often don't involve violence or an obvious victim present at the scene, making them harder to recognize, prosecute, and prioritize compared to conventional street crime.
Corporate as well as individual offenders
JUS-309 covers crime committed by corporations alongside individual white collar criminals, recognizing that organizations themselves can be held accountable as offenders, not just the individuals acting within them.
Key topics in JUS309
- Defining white collar and corporate crime
- Moral, ethical, and social contexts of white collar crime
- Corporate criminal accountability
- Investigation and enforcement procedures
- Legal privilege and grand jury processes
- Victims of white collar crime
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Worked example: why white collar crime is harder to prosecute
- Conventional crime: A clear victim, physical evidence, and an obvious moment of offense
- White collar crime: Complex financial transactions, diffuse or unaware victims, and evidence often buried in documentation requiring specialized investigation
- Lesson: JUS-309 teaches that these genuine differences require distinct investigative and legal approaches, not the same techniques used for conventional street crime
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Frequently asked questions
Some genuinely harmful white collar offenses — corporate fraud, environmental violations, systemic regulatory noncompliance — stem from organizational decisions and cultures rather than any single individual acting alone, and holding only individual employees accountable while ignoring the corporate structures that enabled or incentivized the crime can miss where genuine responsibility and needed reform actually lie. JUS-309 covers corporate criminal accountability because this organizational dimension of white collar crime requires its own legal and investigative framework distinct from prosecuting an individual offender alone.
White collar crime frequently lacks the immediate physical evidence and clearly identifiable victim present at a conventional crime scene, instead requiring investigators to trace complex financial transactions, interpret specialized documentation, and often navigate legal privilege and grand jury processes to build a case, all of which demand different skills than typical crime scene investigation. JUS-309 covers these specific procedural considerations because effectively investigating white collar crime genuinely requires this distinct expertise, not the same techniques applied to conventional criminal investigation.