Deck 17: Corporate and White-Collar Crime

Question 1

What factor is indicated in the text as unique to white-collar crime that likely explains its positive correlation with class position?

A) urgency
B) creativity
C) complacency
D) power

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What is another name the textbook uses for corporate crime?

A) professional crime
B) organizational crime
C) industry crime
D) employee crime

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to the textbook,which of these is true of the Westray disaster,according to Justice Richard's inquiry?

A) Westray managers displayed a certain level of disdain for safety.
B) The president of Curragh Corporation was found responsible.
C) The company involved,Curragh Corporation,was just about to improve safety practices.
D) The government warned Curragh Corporation on numerous occasions to improve safety practices.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

According to Shover and Hochstetler (2006),which factors can encourage misconduct in a corporate culture?

A) level of danger inherent in the job tasks required
B) competition and insecurity about job performance and stability
C) a mixture of migrant and domestic employees
D) ignorance and lack of skill

Question 5

What is the name applied to white-collar crimes committed with the support and encouragement of a formal organization and intended at least in part to advance the goals of that organization?

A) occupational crime
B) white-collar crime
C) organizational crime
D) institutional crime

Question 6

From the list of corporate and white-collar crimes listed in Table 17.1,which category does violation of workplace health and safety laws fit into?

A) offences against employees
B) corporate and business crime
C) offences against the organization
D) crimes by individuals and professional practitioners

Question 7

Table 17.1 of the textbook identifies numerous types of corporate and business crime.Which of the following is considered a corporate or business crime against the public?

A) price-fixing
B) tax fraud
C) violation of labour laws
D) rouge trading

Question 8

Given the high number of deaths in workplaces that are a result of the violation of health and safety regulations,some feel that these incidents should be recognized as a form of murder.What is the term sometimes used to describe such deaths?

A) criminal negligence
B) business murder
C) occupational harm
D) corporate homicide

Question 9

Which of the following refers to white-collar crime committed by an individual or group of individuals exclusively for personal gain?

A) business crime
B) organizational crime
C) corporate crime
D) occupational crime

Question 10

According to the textbook,which of the following statements is true when comparing the costs of white-collar and corporate crime to street crime?

A) White-collar and corporate crimes are much more costly in dollar terms than street crime.
B) White-collar and corporate crimes are much less costly in dollar terms than street crime.
C) White-collar and corporate crimes incur around the same costs in dollar terms as street crime
D) There are no reliable estimates that allow one to compare the two.

Question 11

Which of the following is an assumption that was found to be untrue when the concept of white-collar crime was introduced and applied to crime data?

A) police are overworked
B) crime happens primarily among the middle-aged
C) the poor are more criminal than the rich
D) bribery is a harmless act

Question 12

The chief marketing officer of a tire-manufacturing corporation meets with his counterpart from a competitor company and they make a deal to divide up a sales region and fix the prices of the tires they sell to retailers.What is this an example of?

A) executive disengagement
B) occupational crime
C) organizational crime
D) blue-collar crime

Question 13

Which of the following statements is true when comparing the frequency of deaths related to occupational safety and deaths resulting from murder?

A) There are far fewer occupational deaths than deaths resulting from murder.
B) Occupational deaths outnumber deaths resulting from murder.
C) The number of occupational deaths is around the same as deaths resulting from murder.
D) There are no reliable estimates of occupational death or murders.

Question 14

From the list of corporate and white-collar crimes listed in Table 17.1,which category does false advertising fit into?

A) offences against the organization
B) corporate and business crime
C) offences against employees
D) crimes by individuals and professional practitioners

Question 15

Which of the following is an example of occupational crime?

A) collaboration between convenience store owners to fix their gas prices
B) having a robbery happen at a grocery store while you are working
C) stealing money from the register while working as a cashier at a convenience store
D) failure to protect workers from hazardous work conditions

Question 16

Which of these social theorists introduced the concept of white-collar crime?

A) Goff and Reasons
B) Clinard
C) Sutherland
D) Hirschi

Question 17

According to Wheeler and Rothman,if the gun or knife is the tool for the common criminal,what is the tool for white-collar criminals?

A) the corporation
B) the contract
C) the telephone
D) the stock market

Question 18

What is the term for crimes committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation?

A) white-collar crime
B) environmental crime
C) high status crime
D) fraud

Question 19

According to Shover and Hochstetler (2006),which of the following is one of the three components of the middle and upper class lifestyle that contributes to criminal behaviour?

A) a free spirit (having fun is the only thing that matters)
B) a naïve understanding of harm (not appreciating the consequences)
C) a sense of entitlement (thinking they deserve what they stole)
D) a good lawyer (to help them escape prosecution)

Question 20

Which of the following best explains why employers fail to implement safe working conditions?

A) The penalties for management of guilty companies are often very light.
B) Few countries have workplace safety laws to protect employees.
C) Administrators cannot agree on how to implement new conditions.
D) Too few deaths and injuries result to make this a priority issue.

Question 21

Which of the following is said to be an incentive for senior managers and directors to remain uninformed about illegal activities happening in large corporations?

A) Lack of contact with management leaves workers feeling happier.
B) Courts have not imposed a duty on directors to uncover corporate wrongdoing.
C) The modern corporation is far less criminogenic.
D) Corporations with more than 50 employees do not require the same regulation as smaller companies.

Question 22

Which of the following is true about the nature of corporate crimes?

A) they almost always involve uneducated workers trying to please by engaging in auditor fraud
B) they enable the achievement of larger crimes than what can be accomplished by individuals acting alone
C) they are punished more often in North America than anywhere else in the world
D) they most often involve insider trading that is difficult to track

Question 23

Alini reported that over 200,000 people in Canada had their tax returns adjusted by Canada Revenue Agency.What was the reason their tax returns were adjusted?

A) They inflated charitable tax deductions.
B) They "accidentally" miscalculated their taxes due.
C) They invented dependants.
D) They did not report tips and gratuities.

Question 24

"Corporations are subject to the same laws as natural persons." What is the common term for the legal concept expressed in this statement?

A) authoritarian personality
B) bureaucratic personality
C) juristic person
D) rational governance

Question 25

Which of the following best represents the "criminogenic market structure"?

A) the underground trade in prohibited goods
B) tradespeople who perform work "off the books" so they don't have to pay taxes on the revenue
C) competitive markets which pressure companies,managers & employees to break the law
D) companies that become involved in illegal underground markets

Question 26

Which type of blue-collar business appears to have significant fraud associated with it?

A) hotel cleaning companies
B) plumbing companies
C) technology stores
D) auto repair businesses

Question 27

What has been the impact on Canadian Volkswagen executives as a result of their fraudulent representation of the "clean diesel"?

A) they refused to fix the cars
B) a class action lawsuit resulted in a multi-billion dollar settlement but no charges were laid
C) they immediately contacted all owners of the cars to offer gasoline models
D) they have suffered with a significant decrease in sales

Question 28

What was the decision by the Ford Motor Company when they discovered that drivers of the Ford Pinto could die in fires ignited by the car being rear-ended?

A) They immediately recalled all of the cars to repair the defect.
B) They decided it would be cheaper to pay for lawsuits brought by the families of Ford Pinto drivers who had been burned to death than to fix the design flaw that caused the fires.
C) They immediately contacted all owners of the cars to ensure they did not drive the car until the defect was repaired.
D) They decided to stop making the Ford Pinto.

Question 29

Which of the following is the term for a type of fraud where stock promoters take a worthless company,invent a story about how profitable the company will be,spread that story so that people to buy the stock,and then sell the stock realizing a profit?

A) abuse of trust
B) pump and dump
C) fictitious trust
D) insider trading

Question 30

According to the textbook,what were the most widely publicized cases of unprofessional conduct in recent years?

A) falsification of research findings by academics
B) malpractice by doctors
C) cars sold with major defects
D) sexual abuse by members of the clergy

Question 31

Which of the following best describes a belief held by judges who have sentenced white-collar offenders relatively leniently?

A) The offenders are treated differently because they are just scapegoats and the real offenders are the laws and the corporations.
B) The offenders are treated differently because they are apt to be rehabilitated.
C) The offenders are treated differently due to the belief that their loss of a job,professional license,or status is sufficient punishment.
D) The offenders are treated differently because they did not cause any physical harm to a victim or the community.

Question 32

What strategy is perceived to be the most effective in reducing misconduct among large corporations?

A) monitoring the bank accounts of executives
B) aggressive regulation and enforcement
C) reducing the size of corporations
D) infiltration by undercover law enforcement

Question 33

What is the name of the fraud in which investors are promised substantial returns on an investment,but there is in fact no investment and existing investors are paid off with money from new victims.

A) abuse of trust
B) the pump and dump
C) Ponzi scheme
D) insider trading

Question 34

What was the nature of the accounting scandal that Enron executives were engaged in?

A) ignoring payment for consumer safety issues
B) overpayment for a number of smaller companies purchased
C) manipulation of stock options
D) selling faulty products

Question 35

Which of the following best represents an example of "executive disengagement"?

A) the corporation that refuses to provide benefits to new employees
B) the sales clerk who has been told that her employer will lay her off if she admits that she is pregnant
C) the corporate executive who disregarded the fact that employees were making unethical financial decisions
D) companies that become involved in illegal underground markets

Question 36

About what percentage of the Canadian workforce reported either having committed fraud against their employer or witnessing someone committing fraud during the previous year,according to a 2001 survey by Ernst & Young?

A) 15
B) 25
C) 35
D) 45

Question 37

The social movement against white-collar crime beginning in the 1970s has resulted in a move toward which of the following in Canada?

A) tougher legal sanctions for white-collar offences and more government regulation of corporations
B) tougher legal sanctions for white-collar offences but no move toward more government regulation of corporations
C) more government regulation of corporations,but no move toward tougher legal sanctions for white-collar offences
D) neither tougher legal sanctions for white-collar offences nor more government regulation of corporations

Question 38

The textbook argues that the justice system does not deal with white-collar crimes effectively.Which of the following is one of the reasons given as to why these crimes are not dealt with more effectively by the justice system?

A) The public is afraid that convictions will result in higher prices for goods.
B) White-collar crime is complex and costly to prosecute.
C) White-collar criminals have powerful connections with judges and regulatory agencies.
D) White-collar criminals rarely appear in court when summonsed.

Question 39

According to the textbook,why are civil suits against corporations often unsuccessful?

A) There is little news coverage or political will to prosecute the small fry.
B) The liabilities borne by modern corporations in civil suits are limited.
C) Judges are especially sympathetic to such individuals because they represent the best examples of entrepreneurship.
D) Damage judgments against corporations affect their salaries so they are extra careful in their actions.

Question 40

What was the focus of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's investigation?

A) insider trading and its impact on the economy
B) selling stocks to unqualified buyers
C) abuse of Indigenous children living in residential schools
D) fraudulent prescriptions for opioids

Question 41

The crimes committed by Enron and Nortel resulted in convictions and jail time for executives.

Question 42

The law treats corporations as a juristic person,thus making them formally liable to the same laws as "natural persons."

Question 43

White-collar crime theorizing and research has not had much influence on the field of criminology.

Question 44

Based on an understanding of white-collar crime,we can no longer assume that the poor are necessarily more criminal than the rich.

Question 45

Large compensation packages and attractive stock option packages for executives of large corporations have helped reduce corporate crime in recent years.

Question 46

Consumer safety issues with products from China stem partly from little quality control in Chinese factories,which in turn is the result of demands for cheap consumer products from that country.

Question 47

Corporate involvement in crime is a relatively new phenomenon.

Question 48

While costly to society,there are few deaths or injuries stemming from corporate crime and irresponsibility.

Question 49

Sales reps and doctors were found to be innocent despite suggestions that they were complicit in the spread of opioids.

Question 50

An employee stealing cash from the register of the retail store where she works is an example of occupational crime.

Question 51

Workplace accidents and occupational deaths are often the result of employer carelessness or unsafe conditions.As such corporate executives are frequently held accountable in Canada through serious penalties,including imprisonment.

Question 52

Executive disengagement occurs when employees do not inform superiors of certain actions so the superiors cannot be held responsible.

Question 53

Occupational crime is another name for corporate crime.

Question 54

White-collar crimes committed with the encouragement of a formal organization and intended,at least in part,to advance the goals of that organization are referred to as organizational crime.

Question 55

Social class is an irrelevant issue when analyzing white-collar and corporate crime.

Question 56

The term "criminogenic market structure" refers to embezzlement that takes place in the service industry.

Question 57

A company that understates its revenues while over-stating its expenses as a means to make it appear more profitable than it really is a classic example of accounting fraud.

Question 58

The increased regulation that Wall Street has been subject to in recent years is cited as one of the major causes of the financial crisis of 2008.

Question 59

What is the name the textbook applies to an individual stock trader who,without authorization,gambles with his company's money through unauthorized deals?

A) rogue trader
B) maverick trader
C) insider trader
D) stock manipulator

Question 60

The cost to society of white-collar and corporate crime is far greater than the costs of street crimes.

Question 61

Canadian medical authorities do not always make it easy for the public to access information about the previous misconduct of their doctors.

Question 62

Canada has one of the most honest political reputations.

Question 63

The Catholic Church has aggressively pursued allegations of sexual misconduct by its priests.

Question 64

A Ponzi scheme is where investors are promised substantial returns but existing investors are actually paid off with money from new victims.

Question 65

Employers and managers are the most likely individuals to lose their jobs after conviction for a white-collar crime.

Question 66

Rogue traders have cost investors millions but their behaviour has not negatively impacted on the financial institutions they work for.

Question 67

White-collar offenders who are incarcerated often receive parole early because they are perceived to be low-risk offenders.