CRM 370 White Collar Crime
Required
Readings (All bookstores receive the book order for this class)
David O. Friedrichs. 2009. Trusted
Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society, 4th
edition. Belmont: Thomson-Wadsworth. NOTE that we are using the fourth edition;
earlier editions are cheaper because they are out of date. You will be
responsible for the content in this edition, which includes updated numbers and examples. If you buy an earlier edition, try to make it the 3rd ed, not the 1st or 2nd. (The link goes to
amazon.com for easy purchasing. The publisher also rents
the book and sells eBooks.)
Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton. 2013. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison (10th Edition), 10th ed. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon. NOTE that we are using the tenth edition;
earlier editions are cheaper because they are out of date. You will be
responsible for the content in this edition, which includes updated numbers and examples. If you buy an earlier edition, try to make it the 9th ed, not one earlier than that. (Link goes to amazon.com for easy ordering)
-
How
to Find Cheaper College Textbooks (NY Times)
-
If you have problems
keeping the right files with you, check out SugarSync.
- Paying student loans late can damage the credit scores of young adults. And one big reason it's happening is the fact that many among the indebted simply aren't sure how many loans they have, how and when to pay them back correctly and how to find and use programs for people who can't afford the full payments. [Article is helpful in by providing an overview of what you should do and links to information.]
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The Study
Hacks blog teaches students how to do (very) well without burning out. It
preaches the idea that you should: do
less; do better; and know why.
20 Tips to Reduce Academic Procrastination ~ book: Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change
~ Procrastination Research Group - Students’ “on-task behavior” (studying) started declining around the two-minute mark as they began responding to arriving texts or checking their Facebook feeds. By the time the 15 minutes were up, they had spent only about 65 percent of the observation period actually doing their schoolwork. Evidence from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience suggests that when students multitask while doing schoolwork, their learning is far spottier and shallower than if the work had their full attention. They understand and remember less, and they have greater difficulty transferring their learning to new contexts.
- Continuous partial attention arises from the desire to "connect and be connected." But "in large doses, it contributes to a stressful lifestyle, to operating in crisis management mode, and to a compromised ability to reflect, to make decisions, and to think creatively. In a 24/7, always-on world, continuous partial attention used as our dominant attention mode contributes to a feeling of overwhelm, over-stimulation and to a sense of being unfulfilled."
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Recommended Reading
Reiman and Leighton, The
Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: A Reader. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon. 0205661793 Matt Taibbi,The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
or Griftopia. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Robert Wittman, Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures Broadway Books 2011. [“Priceless” can read at times, not unpleasantly, as if an art history textbook got mixed up at the printer with a screenplay for “The Wire.” notes the NY Times]
Barry Ritholtz. Bailout
Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street. New
York: Wiley. 0470520388
Ronald Burns, Michael Lynch and Paul
Stretesky. 2008. Environmental
Law, Crime and Justice. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.
9781593322762
James Munton and Jelita McLeod. The Con: How Scams Work, Why You're Vulnerable, and How to Protect Yourself. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. 1442207310.
Penny Green and Tony Ward. 2004. State
Crime: Governments, Violence and Corruption. London: Pluto
Press. 0745317847.
Neal Shover and John Wright. 2001. Crimes
of Privilege. New York: Oxford U Press. 0195136217.
David Simon.. Elite
Deviance, 9th ed. Boston: Pearson. 0205571956
Stephen Rusoff, Henry Pontell and Robert Tillman. Profit
Without Honor: White Collar Crime and the Looting of America,
4th ed. Prentice Hall. 0131722328. |
Recommended Blogs
|
Date |
Required
Reading |
syllabus (.pdf) | Career
& Job Info
Student
Conduct Code | University guidelines, policies, and procedures |
1/4 |
Introduction &
Greeting |
I would recommend bookmarking this page for
further reference. You may need to hit the Reload/Refresh button to get
the latest version.
How the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry Turns Fans Into Suckers (on DraftKings, 89.3 percent of players lost money, and in the first half of the 2015 Major League Baseball season, 91 percent of the prize money was won by a mere 1.3 percent of the players).
Chipotle food poisoning problems: Inside Chipotle's Contamination Crisis (Bloomberg News) ~ Food Safety News
Mark Fiore animations: Wall
Street Air (More seriously, see Executive Excess: Nearly 40 percent of the CEOs on the highest-paid lists from the past 20 years were eventually bailed out, booted, or busted for fraud) ~ Looting:
It's as American As Apple Pie
Columbia Economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs speaks candidly about corruption in the United States |
1/9
|
Friedrichs, Ch
1 |
Clip from The Corporation: Investigative
journalism and corporate power [Monsanto and milk] (10 min YouTube.com).
For more, see the milk
info from preventcancer.org and organic
valley (they produce organic milk, so do have an interest, but they cite
many of the original medical studies). The bovine growth hormone was made by
Monsanto,
which is the subject of a devastating expose; it notes that: "Another
former Monsanto scientist said that after company scientists conducted
safety studies on bovine growth hormone, all three refused to drink any more
milk, unless it was organic and therefore not treated with the drug."
ProPublica -
nonprofit, award-winning investigative journalism (They spent two years and $750,000 covering the dangers of Tylenol and acetaminophen that Johnson and Johnson wanted downplayed. Recommended start: Overdose)
Public Citizen -
even if you're skeptical about Nader for President, the organization does
some great work. |
1/11 |
Friedrichs, Ch 2
you only need to read p 34-37 and 44-59 |
The Project on Government Accountability
Whistlebower.org [See the video of their conference on food integrity featuring several whistleblowers, a 30 minute video on retaliation against whistleblowers, ]
Daily
Show on the identity of Watergate whistleblower 'Deep Throat.'
A Force to Be Reckoned With (Fraud Magazine). |
1/16 |
NO CLASS - MLK Day |
|
1/18
|
Friedrichs, Ch 3 start |
Love Canal - background and update (11 min video) ~ one of the biggest toxic disasters was the thousands killed by a chemical gas release in Bhopal, India
Many
firms didn't pay taxes (Washington Post) ~ The Daily Show discusses GE paying no federal corporate income tax
The
Birth of the Corp from The Corporation DVD (via You Tube - [see
complete playlist])
~ Recalls.gov ~ Center
for Food Safety ~ BarfBlog
(food safety blog).
How AT&T and T-Mobile may be overbilling their prepaid customers
Safety limit for lead is 300 parts per million in leather goods and 200 p.p.m. in vinyl products. Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe and Forever 21, sold fashion accessories that contained more than 10,000 p.p.m. of lead or higher. Yellow belts approached 50,000 p.p.m.
In
Settlement, A Warning to Drugmakers. ~
a good discussion of "predatory
pharma" (check out the many links) and an overview of the many
recent legal settlements involving pharmaceutical companies ~ prescription
project ~ How Big Pharma Keeps the Meth Cooks in Business ~ Merchants of Meth ~ cheating by companies in drug trials (last seven minutes of this TED talk) Overdose [acetaminophen/Tylenol toxicity] John Oliver (This Week Tonight) Pharmaceutical Industry and Tobacco
The Honey Launderers: Uncovering the Largest Food Fraud in US History
Peanut Processor Ignored Salmonella Tests ~ the Food Safety Modern Act, which was passed after PCA's problems. Congress is not funding all FDA to implement all the new requirmments Congress is taking credit for implementing to keep food safe: "it's classic Washington—doing something big and not following through and getting funding."
IN CLASS QUIZ #1:Read: How Corporations Get Away with Rampant Wage Theft. Your quiz will ask: 1) The landmark survey of low-wage workers in three cities, what percent had been paid less than the minimum wage the week before they were interviewed; 2) [a] who is the ‘main cop on the beat’ and [b] how much have they recovered in back wages in the last five years; 3) when workers are misclassified as independent contractors, “the worker loses _____, while the employer escapes _____, _____, _____, and _____; 4) T or F – some states do no enforcement of wage and hour laws at all; 5) In California, workers whose claims were upheld were only able to collect back pay in ____% of cases [8 points] Remember – the in class quizzes are to be completed in class. You prepare answers and study before class, then I will give you a sheet with these questions on it and you will write out the answers during the part of class where we do the quiz. You need to be in class when the quiz is distributed to take it. |
1/23 |
Friedrichs, Ch 3 finish |
Multinational
Monitor site ~ Blast at BP Texas Refinery in ’05 Foreshadowed Gulf Disaster ~ Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (12 min video)
Bureau of Labor Stats - workplace
injuries (why
the real numbers are higher than reported)
Study Finds Violations of Wage Law in New York and California. If you are interested, there is good FAQ on wage and hour laws, and a report claiming that wage theft costs employees $50 billion a year. New economy fallout – ‘wage theft’ from paychecks
~ When the boss steals your wages: The invisible ($19 billion a year) epidemic ~ More Workers Are Claiming 'Wage Theft' ~ Workplace Bullying Institute (abuse by employer at work) ~ If there's a noncompete clause, you may not be able to work for a while after you leave that job. Cheerleader Lacy T v Oakland Raiders claims many violations of labor law. She was right - Raiders settle for $1.25 million and a much improved contract for future pro cheerleaders (Similar suits at other teams in progress). (5 min interview)
The Long Shadow of Bad Credit in a Job Search (Nearly half of employers use credit checks when making a hiring decision)
Confessions of a Corporate Spy
In the fall of 2007, Peabody Energy Corp., the coal-mining giant, spun off all its unionized mines into a new company. In the process, it got rid of the promises of health care it had made over generations to coal miners and their families - people who had accepted lower wages in exchange for health care needed because of occupational hazards. America's dirtiest coal company and its strategic bankruptcy.
Frontline will air a documentary, League fo Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis. It explores the issue of what the NFL knew about head injuries and whether it covered up information important for players' protection. Book excerpt ~ 4 min interview with the authors of League of Denial. BusinessWeek has an excellent article on the background, charges and possible outcome of a lawsuit filed by 4,000 players. Forbes has a copy of the actual complaint along with their article noting the NFL faces "tobacco-like dmages" ~ N.F.L. Agrees to Settle Concussion Suit for $765 Million.
How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers (Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and Commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year.)
Michigan Minimum wage law; paycheck deduction requirements; Wage and Hour complaint info
|
1/25 |
Friedrichs, Ch 4 |
Michigan Attorney General warns of buying flood-damaged used car: The National Salvage Vehicle Reporting Program, an independent third party standards body for the federal government's comprehensive database on vehicle damage history, reports that thousands of water/flood damaged vehicles have been sold at auction, including some then resold without disclosure that they were flood-damaged.
Floods can damage vital parts of a car including airbag sensors, brakes, and electrical system-and the damage may not show up right away. Don't put your hard-earned money into a flood-damaged lemon. [Some of the flooded cars you see in these pictures end up being towed the airport storage facility shown here (lots of cars!) then sold at auctions nationwide. [The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) is designed to protect consumers from fraud and unsafe vehicles and to keep stolen vehicles from being resold.]
Global offshore money maze - understanding your options for stashing cash in tax havens
The motorized wheelchair Medicare scam
Major publisher retracts 64 scientific papers in fake peer review outbreak
4 Cancer Charities Are Accused of Fraud
IN CLASS QUIZ #2: Read The Problem with Pre-Season (and Couture): Extravagant Trips, Biased Reviews & FTC Violations. Your quiz will ask 1) the FTC is tasked with _______, and _______, 2) Under the FTC Act, the FTC is empowered to _______, 3) Under the law, an act or practice is deceptive if it ________, 4) If a movie studio gives free tickets in exchange for a review, that arrangement must be __________ in the review, 5) Does the college student who has a reputation as a video game expert need to disclose free equipment or games in his/her reviews [yes or no] [6 points]
You do not need to read it for the quiz, but there is a follow-up piece: Organizations Join to File FTC Complaint Against Instagram Influencers |
1/31 |
Friedrichs, Ch 5 start |
COINTELPRO - FBI program against black activists - 9
minute provocative YouTube video or 54
minute Google video. There are also some explanations
of the program at The Public Eye (Stealing the secret COINTELPRO files - 12 min NY Times video)
FBI Files on well known people (Beatles, Einstein, MLK, etc)
Judge
Removed from Indian Trust Case for Saying Dept of Interior Is Racist
Whistleblower Frank Serpico exposed NYPD corruption decades ago and says "The police Are Still Out of Control"
The NSA’s Alarming Misbehavior
Head of Anti-corruption organization Global Witness TED talk on global corruption and its hidden players (14 min)
|
2/1 |
Friedrichs, Ch 5
finish/ start Ch 6 |
Interview
(59 minutes) with Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation (good discussion of the causes of the financial crisis)
Interview
with the director of the documentary of Food, Inc. (24 min video)
Exotic Animal Trade
Looting
Main Street, Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone); also by Taibbi in Rolling
Stone: Wall
Street's Bailout Hustle.
|
2/6 |
Friedrichs, Ch 6 finish
|
PBS Frontline Video: Bigger
Than Enron
The 'Getting
Tough on Corporate Crime' piece I did with Reiman was part of an invited
lecture I gave that is available on YouTube, via my blog.
Fortune magazine: What's
Wrong with Wall St and How to Fix It.
EPA
says life is worth less (agency calculates value of life for
cost-benefit analysis and recently lowered the value of life - thus creating
fewer benefits for life saving regulation) [Washington Post, 18 July 2008,
A1]
Defending
Science.org (Project of Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy) works to
correct the distortions in knowledge introduced by industry in law making.
See also the Center for Science in the
Public Interest and The
Pump Handle public health blog.
Chocolate's
Bittersweet Economy: Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child
labor, little progress has been made (Fortune.com, Feb 08)
Ticketmaster-Live
Nation: A Sour Note ~ $13.50
'ticket fee' + the actual ticket price ~ NJ
Congressman requests FTC investigation of Ticketmaster and reseller
Tickets.now. ~ Ticketbastards
The 182 Percent Loan
IN CLASS QUIZ #3: Read the Federal Trade Commission's page on Debt Collection. Your quiz will ask: 1) what does the FDCPA stand for and what three general practices does it stop debt collectors from using 2) what are the hours during which debt collectors can call 3) what three pieces of information are in a validation notice 4) can debt collectors say that you'll be arrested if you don't pay 5) what is ONE of the three places you can report violations. [9 points]. |
2/8 |
TEST 1 - remember
to be on time
because no one will be admitted to take the final after the
first person has left
There will NOT be extra credit later in the semester, so take this test seriously and study for it.
BONUS: What is this article about and what does it have to do with class? [Max 3 points] |
2/13 |
Friedrichs, Ch 7 - you only need to read p 200-218 |
'The Confidence Game,' by Maria Konnikova (book review)
One example of the problems with telemarketing fraud.
Payday lenders charging 720% interest and helped by big ("legitimate") banks. The Payday Playbook: How High Cost Lenders Fight to Stay Legal (see also ProPublica's Debt Inc series. John Oliver (Last Week Tonight) exposes payday lending.)
Understanding student loans and Student Loan Debt Relief "Industry" Targets Desperate Borrowers.
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse page on Social Networking Privacy
The "Work at Home Scam"
Fraudulent charities in the wake of disaster
Financial Self-Defense for Seniors (good for others, too) by the Certified Financial Planner Board |
2/15 |
Friedrichs, Ch 8 start |
Understanding the Fraud Triangle ~ Interview with Bill Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One (28 min) ~ Black developed the idea of control fraud: "It explained how a CEO optimized "his" S&L as a weapon to loot creditors and shareholders. The weapon of choice was accounting fraud. The company is the perpetrator and a victim." ~ detailed powerpoint oncontrol fraud by Black. See also Looting and Bankruptcy for Profit (73 pages). Implicitly Assuming that the CEO is Not a Crook Misses the Problem.
Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath (neuroscientist who discovers he is a psychopath from his brain scan)
The returns of promoted stocks and info on pump and dump scams
Identifying Psychopathic Fraudsters.
|
2/20 - 2/26 |
WINTER RECESS - NO CLASS |
|
2/27 |
Friedrichs, Ch 8 finish |
Communities
and Environmental Laws focuses on how citizens can learn about the
environmental laws and how these laws can be utilized to help the people
make their communities healthier places in which to live. (20 min video)
FTC charges weight loss companies with fraud |
3/1 |
Friedrichs, Ch 9 |
Scalded by Coffee, Then News Media: In 1992, Stella Liebeck spilled scalding McDonald’s coffee in her lap and later sued the company, attracting a flood of negative attention. It turns out there was more to the story.
The country that literally invented the internet (U.S.) is now behind Estonia in terms of download speeds: lack of competition |
3/6 |
Friedrichs, Ch 10 Start |
A partial list of agencies mentioned int he chapter (links go to agency mission or jurisdiction unless noted otherwise): FBI and US Postal Inspection Service.
We need to update Friedrichs on the jurisdiction of the Secret Service and the investigative aspect of the dual mission. See also the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has info on Student Debt Relief Scams
In case you need it: Citizens United v FEC and Burwell v Hobby Lobby
Inside a $250 million conterfeit scam
National Consumer Protection Week, in case you missed it (great resources on a number of topics).
Federal Trade Commission blog - Don't click on a link in a text message you get on your phone that says you've won a terrific prize or a gift card - Fake funeral notice can be deadly for your computer
WORKSHEET #1: Download the worksheet, the follow the links to the relevant parts of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Please type your answers on the worksheet and turn it in today in class or before. |
3/8 |
Friedrichs, Ch 10 finish/ start Ch 11
|
Energy Drinks Promise Edge, but Experts Say Proof Is Scant
The $13 billion shakedown-witch hunt-scalping-jihad against JP Morgan Chase (5 min video, The Daily Show)
You can understand the role state Attorneys general can have with white collar crime by examining all the groups lobbying and donating money to them.
Fair
Mortgage Collaborative? criticism of
self-regulation
How Business Crooks Cut Their Jail Time.
Mortgage Fraud Task Force Stats (actually the fraudulent mortgage fraud stats)
|
3/13 |
Friedrichs, Ch 11 finish/ start Ch 12
|
QUIZ #4: Read Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice Your quiz will ask:1) Arbitration clauses do what (they bar people from __________); 2) what is one of the four class actioned mentioned that were thrown out because of arbitration clauses; 3) Attorneys general in 16 states warned that __________ could flourish with the spread of arbitration clauses; 4) the rules of arbitration largely favor________, which can even_______________. [8 points]. |
3/15 |
Friedrichs, Ch 12 finish/ review
|
Read the information on the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007 from the UK's Ministry of Justice.
|
3/20 |
TEST 2 - remember
to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the
first person has left
There will NOT be extra credit later in the semester, so take this test seriously and study for it.
BONUS QUESTION. The Michigan Attorney General’s office has a consumer complaints division. Use your favorite search engine to find their website and locate the CONSUMER COMPLAINT/INQUIRY FORM. For extra credit, print off the first page of the .pdf form or the first page of the online form and bring it to class the day of the test with your name on it. You can only get extra credit for bringing it to the test and turning it in with your test. You are not allowed to leave the test and bring it back. |
3/22 |
Reiman and Leighton, Introduction
|
In 1980, the last year of Jimmy Carter's
administration, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)
commissioned a series of three 30-minute films about worker safety. In
1981, Reagan appointed a construction executive, Thorne G. Auchter, who
proceeded to systematically dismantle the agency. Evidently, the 3
films disturbed Thorne greatly, because OSHA issued a recall, threatening to
withhold OSHA funds from any organization that did not return their copies
of the films, which were promptly destroyed. But, a
few union officials defied the ban and "stole" copies, which are
now available on the internet (longer description and embedded YouTube
video). Or see archive.org: The
Story of OSHA; Worker
to Worker; and Can't
Take No More.
Steven Levitt: Crack Cocaine Economics (20 min video)
|
3/27 |
Reiman and Leighton, start Ch 1 |
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for Ch 1
Smart on crime: why crime declined and what else we can do.
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead (Mother Jones, Feb 2013)
Want to Reduce Crime? Get Rid of Cash - Wall St Journal ~ Washington Post
Inside the Federal Bureau of Way Too Many Guns
John Oliver (Last Week Tonight) on prison:
WORKSHEET #2: Download the worksheet and read Soto v Bushmaster Firearms. Please type your answers and turn it in today in class or before. [12 points] |
3/29 |
Reiman and Leighton, finish Ch 1 |
Canada's Insite is a safe injection site for drug users. (4 min video + Canada Supreme Court ruled that not allowing the clinic to operate under an exemption from drug laws would be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.)
Alex Stevens has studied drug policy in five countries and summarizes the key points in this 7 minute video ~ A short summary of Portugal's decriminalization program. Lowering the Deadly Cost of Drug Abuse (NYT debate). The three deadliest drugs in America are all totally legal. "Buying your drugs online [dark web] is good for you"
What a sane drug policy looks like...
Switzerland's Proposal to Pay People for Being Alive (goes much further than a minimum wage or our current welafare system)
Mayors Against Illegal Guns ~ visualization of years of life lost by gun violence
Start thinking about prison differently (my TEDxEMU talk) ~ you can also read the article: “A model prison for the next 50 years”: The high-tech public-private Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center. Justice Policy Journal, 11(1). Abstract ~ pdf of article [see also 15 Years In Environment Of Constant Fear Somehow Fails To Rehabilitate Prisoner]
How to buy a gun in Canada: Armed and reasonable (vice.com video)
|
4/3 |
Reiman and Leighton, start Ch 2;
Recommended: Appendix
2 (Why Criminology Needs Philosophy) |
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for
Ch 2
NY Times article, When
Workers Die: U.S. Rarely Seeks Charges for Deaths in Workplace.
Are There Toxins in Your Makeup? (Yes, Probably)
Robyn O'Brien talk about food allergies. She is the author of The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It - check out her website.
You Are a Guinea Pig: Americans Exposed to Biohazards in Great Uncontrolled Experiment: Synthetic materials are now firmly embedded in our lives and our bodies. Most have been deployed in our world and put in our air, water, homes, and fields without being studied at all for potential health risks, nor has much attention been given to how they interact in the environments in which we live, let alone our bodies. The idea that they should prove their products safe before exposing the entire population to them seems to be a foreign concept.
Bill Moyer's Trade Secrets: A two-hour special report on how chemical companies have collaborated to keep from American workers and the American public the full truth about the impact of chemicals on health and safety.
Popcorn
lung coming to your kitchen? and EPA
microwave popcorn emissions study finally published. If you are interested in more information about this issue, the pump Handle
blog has a popcorn
lung category for all their posts on that topic, and Defending
Science has a case study on the topic. The author of The Pump Handle
articles is David Michaels, who has written a book called Doubt
Is Their Product which is excerpted at Hazards magazine.
A criminal justice reform agency took officials from three states to see the prisons in Germany and Norway. Read the report. One of the state officials who went on this trip wrote a piece, Treating Prisoners With Dignity Can Reduce Crime |
4/5 |
Reiman and Leighton, finish Ch 2 (start ch 3?) |
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for Ch 2
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for Ch 3
See We're in contact with uncontrolled chemicals. (Good summary and list of several specific chemicals)
Artificial dyes in Kraft Mac & Cheese banned by other countries because of cancer concerns, but present in US version.
IN CLASS QUIZ #5: Read the Crimes of Lead (Chemical and engineering News). Your quiz will ask: 1) what are two actions the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took to reduce lead, 2) What does Nevin's 2007 research show, 3) what are the three "executive functions" that lead can interfere with, and 4) what is one additional way that lead affects the brain that can result in crime? [8 points] |
4/10 |
Reiman and Leighton, Ch 3
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for Ch 3
Frontline examines why executives have not been prosecuted for the finanical crisis (53 min video. )
Class and the effects of marijuana prohibition (Matt Taibbi, "Yuppie prohibition League" in Rolling Stone)
Ebbers' 25 Year Sentence for Worldcom Fraud Upheld. Good.
How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank
"...in between the important cases, I found myself spending most of my time prosecuting people of color for things we white kids did with impunity growing up in the suburbs."
|
PLEASE NOTE: Professors do
not have regular office hours after the last class. Make sure to get
in touch before classes end if you have an important issues to
resolve. All back work should be turned in before the end of the last
class. The late penalty escalates sharply at this point; papers turned
in after the last day of class will be worth a maximum of 1 point.
Work turned in at the final exam will only be counted if you have made
prior arrangements with me.
|
4/12 |
Reiman and Leighton, Ch 4
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for
Ch 4.
This 6 min video shows the ideal, perceived and actual distributions of wealth from the data in the Building a Better America article. Building a better America (pdf) - a look at what people believe the distribution of wealth should be, what they believe it is - and what it actually is.
White Collar Crime Representation in the Criminological Literature Revisited, 2001-2010.
"I got myself arrested so I could look inside the justice system"
Or John Oliver on the wealth gap (Last Week Tonight):
|
4/17 |
Reiman and Leighton, Conclusion
|
Companion website for the Rich Get Richer has chapter
summaries and links for the Conclusion.
My thoughts about a 'post-warehouse prison'
The radical humaneness of Norway's Halden Prison: The goal of the Norwegian penal system is to get inmates out of it
John Oliver looks at the problem of cities using criminal justice fines and fees to raise money from the poor: Municipal Violations
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|
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It's not rquired but you may be interested in my TEDxEMU video and discuss the rehabilitative features of the Japanese prison I visited.
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4/24 |
Final Exam
|
9:00 - 10:30 [NOT REGULAR CLAS TIME]
BONUS FOR FINAL: Here's why you should give a shit about the Panama Papers. (Vice.com - if your workplace is uptight, do not access from there.) So, why should you care?
remember
to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the
first person has left
|
If you're graduating, congratulations.
Whether or not you are graduating, check
out the commencement address given by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. He
discusses dropping out of college (he never graduated), getting fired from
Apple (a company he helped start) and dealing with cancer.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Ryan Holiday did not give a graduation speech but
I’ve hired my fair share of people now (fired them too) and having been through the ringer of young-person-just-starting-out close to a half dozen times, I figure I know it better than just about anyone. You’re scared but overconfident, clueless but eager to learn, just glad to be given a shot. I tried to think of a few things I wish I’d been told when I was just starting, things that would have saved me from screwing up. These are the things I still tell myself.
7 Essential Books on the Art and Science of Happiness
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