July 20, 2015

White Collar Crimes and Their Reflection In Film

Geraldine Szott Moohr, University of Houston Law Center, is publishing White Collar Movies and Why They Matter in the Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law (2015). Here is the abstract.

This article discusses how movies about white collar crimes can influence public perception of such crimes and the criminal justice system that enforces them. A change in public attitudes can ultimately affect not only the popular culture, from which such movies spring, but also popular understanding of legal culture. To evaluate how movies matter, the article reviews the basic tenets of federal white collar criminal law and presents the social theory that traces the relation between entertaining films and the popular culture. This relation is examined through an analysis of four films (Wall Street, Boiler Room, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Margin Call) that contrasts individual culpability and sole responsibility, individual and firm responsibility, and systemic problems for which no individual or firm bears responsibility. Finally, the issues raised by the films are related to current issues in addressing white collar frauds. 

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

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