White-Collar Crime

Catalog description

This course examines white-collar crime and organizational misconduct as social and organizational phenomena rather than individual moral failures. Students analyze how organizational structures, professional norms, incentive systems, and institutional environments shape unethical and illegal behavior in corporations, nonprofits, and public agencies. Topics include fraud, regulatory violations, corruption, whistleblowing, and the normalization of deviance, with attention to power, inequality, and organizational culture. Through case studies of major corporate and institutional scandals, students learn how misconduct emerges, how it is justified or concealed, and how organizations respond to legal and public scrutiny.