ABSTRACT
Academic discussion of white-collar crime has generally been channeled along two different and mutually confusing avenues: the first being one in which "white collar" is attributable to the offender, and the second in which it refers to the offense. This chapter represents 101 middle-class prisoners, who were discharged from six prisons during the period from February to June, 1962. The only criterion governing their selection was that each man could be reasonably classified—in terms of his employment position and of his general cultural background—as being of at least lower-middle-class status. The typical image of the corrupt and unethical tycoon does not hold good for the United Kingdom—though one could easily argue that this sort of man does frequently infringe the law in his financial and commercial dealings. Another "typical" image of the white-collar criminal is that of the professional man who makes fraudulent use of his clients' or his employer's moneys to resolve those problems.
