ABSTRACT
With very few exceptions, race has been ignored by white-collar crime scholars. The lack of attention on Blacks as potential white-collar offenders is most likely due to the widely held stereotype of the white-collar offender as a middle- or upper-class White man and to the belief that Blacks generally have limited access to the white-collar-type jobs that provide opportunities for white-collar crime. However, using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, we show that Black involvement in particular forms of white-collar crime has increased since the 1970s, and they appear to be overrepresented in some of these forms. Further, we analyze data on the commission of white-collar crimes in an important institution in the Black community where Blacks have leadership roles—the Black Church. The chapter concludes with theoretical speculations on the significance of our results for the development of a Black Criminology.
