Journal article
Is White-Collar Crime White? Racialization in the National Press Coverage of White-Collar Crime from 1950 to 2010
Law & social inquiry, Vol.48(4), pp.1117-1137
11/01/2023
DOI: 10.1017/lsi.2023.2
Abstract
While much is written about racialization of street criminals in the American media, racial dimensions of the media framing of white-collar crime remain underexplored. To address this issue, we analyze the coverage of bribery, electoral fraud, tax evasion, and insider trading in five national newspapers between 1950 and 2010. Drawing on John Hagan’s (2012) work, we trace the racialization of white-collar crime in the press back to Richard Nixon’s presidency and the beginnings of the War on Drugs. We also find that race is a significant predictor of offenders’ individualization, or the length of description accorded to them by writers. We argue that by individualizing black offenders significantly more than white perpetrators, reporters connote their oddity in the context of white-collar criminality and contribute to their collective framing as an exception. Finally, we find that black perpetrators receive significantly more positive coverage than white offenders, which serves to further underscore their distinctiveness from stereotypical black criminals and their similarity to nonthreatening (white) Americans. These findings support Hagan’s (2012) argument that racialization of street crime is mirrored by the collective framing of elite economic crime as white and, by extension, a nonthreatening side effect of American capitalism.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Is White-Collar Crime White? Racialization in the National Press Coverage of White-Collar Crime from 1950 to 2010
- Creators
- Marina Zaloznaya - University of IowaAlexandria Yakes - United States Department of LaborJames Wo - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Law & social inquiry, Vol.48(4), pp.1117-1137
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- DOI
- 10.1017/lsi.2023.2
- ISSN
- 0897-6546
- eISSN
- 1747-4469
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/01/2023
- Academic Unit
- School of Planning and Public Affairs; Sociology and Criminology; International Programs; Political Science; Public Policy Center (Archive); Center for Social Science Innovation
- Record Identifier
- 9984521374302771
Metrics
6 Record Views