ABSTRACT
Although there have been few studies on public opinion and corporate crime (Cullen et al. 1982; Newman 1957; Reed and Reed 1975; Rossi et al. 1974; Schrager and Short 1980; Sinden 1980; Wolfgang 1980), they do provide a window on what can best be described as ‘collective ignorance’. The one indisputable fact these studies revealed is that the majority of those interviewed were not familiar with the extent of, or damage caused by, corporate crime and amongst the ‘knowledgeable’ minority, few were able to define it with any precision. Public awareness of corporate crime has certainly increased recently, but none the less there is still more misinformation and mystification about this type of crime than about ‘conventional’ crime.
