ABSTRACT
Legal Remedies Traditional street crimes are controlled almost exclusively by the criminal law, but in the case of white-collar crime, two other kinds of legal systems-regulatory and civil-can also come into play. ese three systems operate in distinct ways, with di erent philosophical approaches, legal standards, policing, and sanctioning methods. In this section, we focus on these di erent legal systems and how each of them intersects with opportunity structures. We distinguish among the legal interventions and between di erent sanction targets (individuals versus organizations). We then discuss some of the failures and limits of law, especially the danger of over-criminalization (i.e., unnecessarily broadening the scope of the criminal law) and what some have called creative compliance (McBarnet, 2005) or cultures of resistance (Bardach and Kagan, 1982). If law is perceived as illegitimate, unnecessarily restrictive, or overly punitive, rms may “ ght back” through noncompliance and challenge the legal system. On the other hand, because much of the regulatory arena is not black and white but shades of gray, companies may seek out legal gaps to exploit in their favor. We conclude this chapter with suggestions for how the legal systems could be changed to become more e ective in the ght against white-collar and corporate crime.