Robert Tillman

Criminalizing white-collar misconduct

In this article we examine three explanations for the differential treatment of white-collar offenders by the legal system: (1) an organizational advantage argument in which offenders in “organizationally shielded” positions receive more lenient treatment, (2) an alternative sanctions argument in which civil sanctions replace criminal sanctions in the response to white-collar crime, and (3) a system capacity argument in which the legal response to white-collar crime is driven primarily by resources and caseload pressures. These three theoretical arguments are tested through an analysis of data on individuals suspected of having committed serious crimes against savings and loan institutions in the 1980s. We seek to determine the factors that influenced prosecutors to file criminal charges against some of these suspects and not others. We conclude that all three models may be limited in their ability to explain low rates of prosecution in cases involving white-collar crimes of the sort examined here, and suggest that these limitations may have to do with the circumscribed levels of analysis at which these explanations have been pitched.

Corporate Corruption in the New Economy

In popular usage the “New Economy” refers to developments in the late 1990s such as the rise of the Internet, a boom in tech stocks, an explosion of dot-com start-ups, and the appearance of new business doctrines and cultures. Countless revelations that surfaced after the boom came to an illegal end, suggesting that epic fraud was as much a part of the New Economy as the dot-coms had been. The epidemic of crime among the ranks of prestigious corporations and professionals puzzled observers across the intellectual spectrum. Federal Reserve Chairman Allan Greenspan, fonnerly an exuberant fan of the New Economy, rued its “infectious greed”. Law professor Frank Partnoy asked whether, in the wake of regulatory and cultural shifts, it was possible to convict business actors of financial crimes.1 Sociologist Paul Hirsch remarked that the participants in the frauds had occupied central positions but apparently “rejected” the “legal culture” of the mainstream.2 Robert Tillman and Michael Indergaard asked, “How was it that such a broad spectrum of Corporate America ended up a field of schemes?”3

Abandoned Consumers: Deregulation and Fraud in the California Auto Insurance Industry

This paper presents a case study of frauds committed by offshore companies in the California auto insurance market in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The opportunities for these crimes were created by two factors: the departure of legitimate insurance companies from the market and the adoption of deregulatory policies by state regulators. The case study illustrates some of the consequences of the increasingly common situation in the US in which consumers find themselves abandoned both by government and by legitimate providers of goods and services. The criminal consequences of this situation have also been observed in other markets.

Policing the Markets: Inside the Black Box of Securities Enforcement:

dents, engaging students from the heart in community and attending to the emotional climate of the classroom. Like Maparyan, hooks explicitly rejects the dehumanization not only of oppression but of academic culture that all too often creates a climate of fear. Gary L. Lemons, a black man teaching feminist studies who brings his own autobiography into his work and expects the same of his students, also challenges the common lack of experiential engagement in academic culture, arguing it leads to dry and lifeless discussion and timidity of self-expression, undermining the potential of education to be transformative when intellect, emotion, and spiritual energy are all brought into play. His chapter (written jointly with Scott Neumeister, a former student) illustrates this potential with pro-feminist men willing to question their privilege as men and contest sexist ideas. M. Thandabantu Iverson discusses a similar approach with working-class people of color, applying principles of intersectionality and simultaneity of oppressions and shifting the center from the perspective of dominant groups to create space for those who have been marginalized, devalued, and excluded to rethink and reshape their identities positively. Part IV, ‘‘At the Crossroads of Feminist Solidarity: New Coalitions, New Alliances,’’ addresses collaborative efforts across gender, race, class, and sexuality. Lemons gives a fascinating autobiographical account of the relationship between his personal life and work. As a black male intellectual working within women’s studies he theorizes his own position to include both the privileges of gender and heteronormativity on the one hand and outsider status by gender and race within academic feminism on the other. He explores his personal and professional journey from wounded black boy, much of whose complex vulnerability and humanity was unrecognized, to professor in women’s studies, rejecting along the way most of what he had been taught growing up in the South—the culture of white supremacy, patriarchy, and religious fundamentalism— and achieving at least a temporary sense of belonging within feminist solidarity. Both this chapter and Aaronette White’s on black feminist masculinities affirm the necessity of men’s active participation in feminism. A chapter by Aimee Carrillo Rowe and Ann Russo explores transracial alliances between white and black women. All make clear that solidarity cannot be taken for granted but must be actively built and sustained to overcome many challenges. Part V, ‘‘Practicing Anti-Domination Politics: Visionary, Soulful Interventions,’’ further explores feminist practices of intersectionality and their problematics, including an inspiring account by Analouise Keating of her personal view of teaching as spiritual activism for social transformation. She writes of living her early academic career in a ‘‘spiritual closet,’’ aware that mention of such concepts as soul, sacred, and spirit would likely result in her being seen as flakey and apolitical. She gradually came out to speak her own truth. Keating argues convincingly that a spiritual vision of the interconnectedness of all facilitates the use of intersectionality theory to go beyond a politics of difference based on conventional social identities and to enable more transformative relationships that recognize both our fundamental human interdependence and the limitations of categories and binary axes. It is always a challenge in edited collections to organize chapters into distinct sections with many recurring themes. It is equally a challenge to do justice to the richness this book offers and the real treats within it for anyone interested in the radical potential of education, despite the many ongoing challenges within the current contexts of higher education.

Politicians and bankers: The political origins of two local banking crises

This paper analyzes the role that political corruption played in banking crises in two states, Rhode Island and Maryland, where, in the 1980s and 1990s, private deposit insurance funds collapsed and state governments were forced to intervene to bail out member institutions. The argument is made that the collapse of these funds was not the result of abstract economic forces but rather was the outcome of structural weaknesses in the two banking systems, weaknesses that ultimately derived from close relationships and overlapping interests among bankers, politicians and regulators. These structural weaknesses are examined and the implications of these two case studies for private deposit insurance and self-regulation among financial institutions are considered. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A8806012 00002