Finally, it is worth noting that the academic treatment of
white collar crime may also contribute to its morally ambiguous
character. Criminologists going back to Edwin Sutherland have
complained that their colleagues neglect white collar criminality
in favor of street crime. A similar phenomenon can be observed
in the law schools. White collar offenses are almost never dealt
with in introductory courses in criminal law, and are only rarely
mentioned in the general literature on criminal law theory.
There are of course courses in “white collar” and “federal” crime
that deal with offenses such as mail fraud, perjury, and obstruction.
But to the extent that law school curricula deal at all with
the subject of regulatory crime, it is only in passing, in more general
courses on environmental, tax, securities, antitrust, intellectual
property, labor, and administrative law. The result is that
such offenses (if not white collar crime more generally) tend to
be viewed more as “violations” than as genuine “crimes.”