Prosecuting and sentencing white-collar crime in us federal courts: Revisiting the yale findings

The Yale Studies of White Collar Crime in the 1970s and 1980s provided a broad view of how white-collar crime was identified and responded to by investigators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in the United States' federal regulatory and criminal justice systems. These studies provided the foundation for decades of subsequent sentencing research. However, much has changed in the federal system in the years that followed, including the imposition of criminal sentencing guidelines. This chapter re-evaluates the prosecution and sentencing of white-collar crimes relative to comparable financial crimes to determine whether white-collar status confers advantage or liability in federal courts today. The results partially conform to the Yale Studies conclusions: white-collar offenders are at an increased risk of incarceration relative to offenders committing other financial crimes, but they are not differentially likely to receive a negotiated plea in US federal courts.