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British Journal of Criminology Advance Access originally published online on October 29, 2008
British Journal of Criminology 2009 49(1):48-67; doi:10.1093/bjc/azn073
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The British Journal of Criminology 49:48-67 (2009)
© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Suite Revenge?

The Shaping of Folk Devils and Moral Panics about White-Collar Crimes

Michael Levi*

* Professor of Criminology, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK; Levi{at}Cardiff.ac.uk.


  Abstract

The utility of ‘concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality and volatility’ to understanding social reaction to different white-collar crimes is elaborated and reviewed. It is hard to generate and to sustain a moral panic about any white-collar crimes and criminals, but some populist areas such as ‘identity fraud’ and ‘investment fraud’ are good candidates, especially where individuals, ethnicities or ‘organized crime networks’ exist as folk devils already. Long time scales in fraud discovery, investigation and criminal justice actions, as well as real libel risks, inhibit the devilling and the moral panicking processes. By contrast with street crimes, key state actors manage ‘the problem of fraud’ mainly by data-sharing, compensation and regulation, plus some symbolic degradation ceremonies, calming the factors that might stoke ‘counterproductive’ reactions that might harm ‘the economy’.


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