DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06540
title: White-Collar Criminal Careers, 1976-1978: Federal Judicial Districts
title: Archival Version

description: This study examined the criminal careers of 1,331 offenders
 convicted of white-collar crimes in the United States District Courts
 to assess the relative effectiveness of court-imposed prison sanctions
 in preventing or modifying future criminal behavior. The white-collar
 crime event that was the central focus of this study, the
 "criterion" offense, provided the standard point of entry for sample
 members. Researchers for this study supplemented the data collected by
 Wheeler et al. in their 1988 study (NATURE AND SANCTIONING OF WHITE
 COLLAR CRIME, 1976-1978: FEDERAL JUDICIAL DISTRICTS [ICPSR 8989]) with
 criminal history data subsequent to the criterion offense through to
 1990. As in the 1988 study, white-collar crime was considered to
 include economic offenses committed through the use of some
 combination of fraud, deception, or collusion. Eight federal offenses
 were examined: antitrust, securities fraud, mail and wire fraud, false
 claims and statements, credit fraud, bank embezzlement, income tax
 fraud, and bribery. Arrests were chosen as the major measure of
 criminal conduct. The data contain information coded from Federal
 Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal history records ("rap
 sheets") for a set of offenders convicted of white-collar crimes in
 federal courts in fiscal years 1976 to 1978. The seven federal
 judicial districts from which the sample was drawn were central
 California, northern Georgia, northern Illinois, Maryland, southern
 New York, northern Texas, and western Washington. To correct for a
 bias that can be introduced when desistance from criminality is
 confused with the death of the offender, the researchers examined the
 National Death Index (NDI) data to identify offenders who had died
 between the date of sentencing for the criterion offense and when data
 collection began for this study in 1990. This data collection contains
 three types of records. The first record type (Part 1, Summary Data)
 contains summary and descriptive information about the offender's rap
 sheet as a whole. Variables include dates of first entry and last
 entry on the rap sheet, number of separate crimes on the rap sheet,
 whether the criterion crime was listed on the rap sheet, whether the
 rap sheet listed crimes prior to or subsequent to the criterion crime,
 and date of death of offender. The second and third record types are
 provided in one data file (Part 2, Event and Event Interim Data). The
 second record type contains information about each crime event on the
 rap sheet. Variables include custody status of offender at arrest,
 type of arresting agency, state of arrest, date of arrest, number of
 charges for each arrest, number of charges resulting in no formal
 charges filed, number of charges dismissed, number of charges for
 white-collar crimes, type of sanction, length of definite sentence,
 probation sentence, and suspended probation sentence, amount of fines,
 amount of court costs, and restitution ordered, first, second, and
 third offense charged, arrest and court disposition for each charge,
 and date of disposition. The third record type contains information
 about the interim period between events or between the final event and
 the end of the follow-up period. Variables include date of first,
 second, and third incarceration, date discharged or transferred from
 each incarceration, custody/supervision status at each incarceration,
 total number of prisons, jails, or other institutions resided in
 during the interval, final custody/supervision status and date
 discharged from incarceration for the interval, dates parole and
 probation started and expired, if parole or probation terms were
 changed or completed, amount of fines, court costs, and restitution
 paid, whether the conviction was overturned during the interval, and
 date the conviction was overturned. A single offender has as many of
 record types two and three as were needed to code the entire rap
sheet.
description: The seriousness of white-collar crime and the
 damage caused by it is becoming increasingly apparent. Crime control
 theory, however, has typically ignored the white-collar offender
 because these offenders are generally portrayed as "one-shot
 criminals" who do not reoffend after their initial contact with the
 criminal justice system. Recent empirical studies instead show that
 those convicted of white-collar crimes are often repeat
 offenders. Despite these findings, virtually no empirical examination
 of the effects of sanctions on white-collar criminals has been
 conducted. This study examined the criminal careers of 1,331 offenders
 convicted of white-collar crimes in the United States District
 Courts. The data provide a detailed portrait of the offenders'
 criminal histories that allows the relative effectiveness of
 court-imposed prison sanctions in preventing or modifying future
 criminal behavior to be assessed. The following questions guided the
 research: (1) Who are the repeat criminals in a sample of convicted
 white-collar offenders and how are they different from street
 criminals or other white-collar criminals who do not reoffend? (2)
 How are their criminal careers similar to or different from offenders
 found in more traditional crime samples? (3) Can examination of the
 criminality of these offenders help to understand the dynamics that
 led to their initial or continued involvement in crime? (4) What is
 the impact of sanctions on white-collar criminal reoffending? and (5)
 What can be learned that can inform the debate about sentencing
 white-collar offenders, about deterrence theory, and potential
backfire effects of punishment?
description: The white-collar crime event that was the central
 focus of this study, the "criterion" offense, provided the standard
 point of entry for sample members. Researchers for this study
 supplemented the data collected by Wheeler et al. in their 1988 study
 (NATURE AND SANCTIONING OF WHITE COLLAR CRIME, 1976-1978: FEDERAL
 JUDICIAL DISTRICTS [ICPSR 8989]) with criminal history data subsequent
 to the criterion offense through to 1990. As in the 1988 study,
 white-collar crime was considered to include economic offenses
 committed through the use of some combination of fraud, deception, or
 collusion. Eight federal offenses were examined: antitrust, securities
 fraud, mail and wire fraud, false claims and statements, credit fraud,
 bank embezzlement, income tax fraud, and bribery. Arrests were chosen
 as the major measure of criminal conduct. The data contain information
 coded from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal history
 records ("rap sheets") for a set of offenders convicted of
 white-collar crimes in federal courts in fiscal years 1976 to
 1978. The seven federal judicial districts from which the sample was
 drawn were: central California, northern Georgia, northern Illinois,
 Maryland, southern New York, northern Texas, and western Washington.
 An extensive codebook was developed to record criminal history
 information from the rap sheets. The codebook underwent a number of
 revisions to accommodate the five different formats used for the FBI
 raps sheets and to allow the flexibility of recording a number of
 charges and an infinite number of arrests. To reduce error caused by
 complexities of the rap sheets (arrests without dispositions, prison
 terms without corresponding arrests, information not in chronological
 order, series of entries that actually comprised only a single crime),
 senior staff reviewed each rap sheet and delimited the events on the
 rap sheet according to specific criteria and knowledge of the criminal
 justice system. To correct for a bias that can be introduced when
 desistance from criminality is confused with the death of the
 offender, the researchers examined the National Death Index (NDI) data
 to identify offenders who had died between the date of sentencing for
 the criterion offense and when data collection began for this study in
1990.
description: This data collection contains three types of
 records. The first record type (Part 1, Summary Data) contains summary
 and descriptive information about the offender's rap sheet as a
 whole. Variables include dates of first entry and last entry on the
 rap sheet, number of separate crimes on the rap sheet, whether the
 criterion crime was listed on the rap sheet, whether the rap sheet
 listed crimes prior to or subsequent to the criterion crime, and date
 of death of offender. The second and third record types are provided
 in one data file (Part 2, Event and Event Interim Data). The second
 record type contains information about each crime event on the rap
 sheet. Variables include custody status of offender at arrest, type
 of arresting agency, state of arrest, date of arrest, number of
 charges for each arrest, number of charges resulting in no formal
 charges filed, number of charges dismissed, number of charges for
 white-collar crimes, type of sanction, length of definite sentence,
 probation sentence, and suspended probation sentence, amount of fines,
 amount of court costs, and restitution ordered, first, second, and
 third offense charged, arrest and court disposition for each charge,
 and date of disposition. The third record type contains information
 about the interim period between events or between the final event and
 the end of the follow-up period. Variables include date of first,
 second, and third incarceration, date discharged or transferred from
 each incarceration, custody/supervision status at each incarceration,
 total number of prisons, jails, or other institutions resided in
 during the interval, final custody/supervision status and date
 discharged from incarceration for the interval, dates parole and
 probation started and expired, if parole or probation terms were
 changed or completed, amount of fines, court costs, and restitution
 paid, whether the conviction was overturned during the interval, and
 date the conviction was overturned. A single offender has as many of
 record types two and three as were needed to code the entire rap
sheet.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: The sample was drawn from a 1988 study of white-collar 
 criminals conducted by Wheeler, Weisburd, and Bode (NATURE AND
 SANCTIONING OF WHITE COLLAR CRIME, 1976-1978: FEDERAL JUDICIAL
DISTRICTS [ICPSR 8989]).
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Summary Data
DS2: Event and Event Interim Data
description: Convicted white-collar criminals in federal judicial
 districts representing metropolitan centers -- specifically, central
 California, northern Georgia, northern Illinois, Maryland, southern
New York, northern Texas, and western Washington.
description: The user guide and codebooks are provided as a
 Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed
 by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
 software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to
obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Website.