White-collar crime and the law in nineteenth-century Britain

Taylor, James (2018) White-collar crime and the law in nineteenth-century Britain. Business History, 60 (3). pp. 343-360. ISSN 0007-6791

[thumbnail of White-Collar Crime AAM]
Preview
PDF (White-Collar Crime AAM)
White_Collar_Crime_AAM.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (445kB)

Abstract

Rapid commercial development in Britain by 1800 inspired legislation rendering ‘white-collar’ crimes such as forgery, embezzlement, and obtaining money by false pretences criminally punishable. However, it was unclear how far this legislation applied to the managers and directors of companies, with the result that in practice, they could only be reached by actions in the civil courts. As the corporate economy grew, whether the criminal law should be extended to company managements became a pressing issue. This article explores these debates and examines the complex and tentative process of legal change which, though contested and controversial, resulted by 1900 in the effective criminalisation of a host of ‘white-collar’ offences.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Business History
Additional Information:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Business History on 20/06/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00076791.2017.1339691
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1401
Subjects:
?? corporate fraudwhite-collar crimecriminal lawlaw enforcementregulationbusiness, management and accounting (miscellaneous)historybusiness and international management ??
ID Code:
86618
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
06 Jun 2017 15:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
04 Mar 2024 00:58