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While most believe that white-collar crime is prosecuted only by federal agencies, local prosecutors are playing an increasingly important role in the social control of corporate violators. Yet many are reluctant to take legal action at the local level because such cases often entail unique challenges and difficulties. Michael L. Benson and Francis T. Cullen present exhaustive research that combines quantitative data on cases with qualitative information on the procedural and legal constraints facing local enforcement. Drawing on extensive interviews, they investigate how local prosecutors respond to corporate crime (or whether they do at all) within a community context. As watchdogs of community morals, district attorneys and others decide which lawbreakers to pursue, but as elected public servants they may hesitate to indict companies on whose stability the community depends. Factors such as population size, region, crime rate, economic conditions, and legal culture influence a community's attitude toward corporate crime, which, in turn, influences the decision to prosecute. The authors also show that questions concerning jurisdiction, resource allocation, or appropriate punishment may dissuade local prosecutors from pursuing some cases. They address the limitations of the federal government in prosecuting corporate crime and offer suggestions to facilitate more positive action at the local level, including better access to laboratories, more information exchange and networking, and improved training. An insightful work on a too-long neglected aspect of white-collar crime, this is essential reading not only for students of criminal justice and public administration butalso for practitioners who confront these special problems and obstacles every day.

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CHOICE Review

Two outstanding criminological scholars have here produced a landmark work on the response of the criminal justice system to corporate crime. Systematic study of this response is in general a fairly recent enterprise; most of the literature on the criminal justice system focuses on the processing of cases concerned with conventional and organized crime. Although corporate crimes have been disproportionately addressed by agencies of the federal justice system, this study documents the recent significant involvement of local prosecutors. Drawing on research carried out over many years, Benson and Cullen systematically explore this involvement, with special emphasis on the social context of corporate crime prosecution and the factors involved in prosecutorial decision-making. They conclude with some policy recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of such prosecution. Complements the case history approach of F. T. Cullen, W. J. Maakestad, and G. Cavender's Corporate Crime under Attack, as well as Kenneth Mann's Defending White-Collar Crime (CH, Jul'85) and S. Wheeler, K. Mann, and A. Sarat's Sitting in Judgment (CH, May'89), although the latter two books focus principally on individual white collar offenders. An essential acquisition for criminal justice collections. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. O. Friedrichs University of Scranton