EM FOCO
Sally S. Simpson
Interview with Sally S. Simpson
Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include corporate crime, criminological theory, and the intersection between gender, race, class, and crime. Simpson is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and,in 2008, was named Distinguished Scholar by the Division on Women and Crime, American Society of Criminology.
Simpson has served as President of the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice. She is former Chair of the Crime, Law, and Deviance Section of the American Sociological Association and past President of the White-Collar Crime Research Consortium. Recipient of the Herbert Bloch Award from the American Society of Criminology, in 2010 Simpson was named Woman of the Year by the President’s Commission on Women’s Issues at the Unviersity of Maryland.
June, 2020
What is your opinion about corporate crimes today? What are the main characteristics of economic (or business) crimes?
In a 2013 annual review of sociology article, I suggested that white-collar crime (and by extension, corporate crime) is a vexing area of study because it may be “the least understood but most consequential” of crime types. There is a lot about corporate/business crime that we do not know. However, some common characteristics have emerged from nearly a century of study: corporate crime is positively associated with firm size (although this seems to have more to do with bigger firms having more opportunities to offend), recidivism is high among offenders; and a small percentage of companies “own” a large proportion of overall offending.
Thus, there are a large number of law-abiding firms (generally good citizens) or, as John Braithwaite characterizes them, firms that want to do “good.” Bad citizens tend to violate the law a lot. They do not specialize in particular kinds of crime, but offend across the board. We might describe them as equal opportunity violators. This suggests that there is something in the structure, culture, leadership, and internal controls of the firm that give rise to these patterns.
A number of scholars have examined whether financial crises contribute to an increase in offending. This topic was popular following the global financial crisis and is re-emerging now amid Covid-19 and the current economic recession.
Certain types of fraud may coincide with the beginning of the recession as new opportunities to commit crime emerge (e.g., governmental assistance packages aimed toward small business), businesses are feeling pressured (motivation), and the assistance programs lack substantial oversight. Other kinds of corporate/white-collar crime may emerge later in the recessionary cycle in the form of accounting fraud as large businesses are required to report gains and losses in yearly financial statements.
Research that I conducted early in my career focused explicitly on anti-trust offending and I found that certain anticompetitive acts were more likely to occur during economic downturns (monopoly and unlawful pricing) but other kinds of crimes occurred during periods of economic growth (such as patent, warranty, and advertising violations) or were not associated with economic conditions at all. Much like there are leading and lagging indicators of recession and growth, there appear to be leading and lagging indicators of corporate crime.
What advice could you give to young students who want to understand the phenomenon of economic or corporate criminology?
This area of study, while vital to our field of criminology, carries with it enormous challenges. We lack good data. Theory remains less developed than in criminology or other social sciences more broadly. Solid scientific studies are difficult to conduct. However, that said, there are so many places in which students can make important contributions to the field.
I should also add that corporate crime scholars comprise a small community worldwide. We know each other and often work together. It is a good community and a gratifying field in which to make a difference.
So… my advice to students is to stick with it, read broadly, and think creatively.
How can academic scientific production help improve corporate practices? And in the performance of the criminal justice system on this topic?
I would like to see more evidence-based assessments of what interventions and practices have the best empirical results. This might require working closely with governmental agencies to participate in Randomized Controlled Trials for instance or convincing companies to experiment with different kinds of internal compliance programs and agree to be part of an assessment study.
We need much more contemporary work on criminal justice processing of corporate offenders and linked data that can compare processing decisions (and outcomes) across civil, regulatory, and criminal justice processing.
Could you give any advice for the development of criminology in Brazil?
Build your programs with strong interdisciplinary foundations and leverage relationships with other key partners (government, NGOs, businesses, etc.). This is a good start!