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Crime Law Soc Change (2009) 51:163174
DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9142-4
John F. Galliher & Teresa J. Guess
Published online: 8 October 2008# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract Edwin Sutherland published his famous White Collar Crime in 1949 where he excoriated leaders of American firms for their war crimes. The names of all corporations were deleted, however, from the book by the threat of legal action. The unabridged version was published in 1983 when the Sutherland files at Indiana University were unsealed. These files can now be compared with both the 1949 and 1983 book, as well as with other evidence of corporate war crimes during World War II.
The publication event of the decade
Censorship and fame
White Collar Crime was over 20 years in the making with Sutherland beginning data collection for this book in 1928 [3]. Just prior to publication the legal counsel for Sutherlands publisher, the Dryden Press, insisted that the names of the 70 corporations studied be deleted. The publisher feared law suits stemming from reference to this as white-collar crime since most of the corporations had not technically been convicted of crimes. Indiana University also demanded deletions since it feared that the book would alienate wealthy business contributors ([3]:x).
Even with these deletions the book became a classic and was responsible for adding white-collar crime to the American vocabulary ([3]:xiii). The book was the highlight of the 1940s in criminology, and was regarded by leading writers in the field as the most important contribution made in that decade ([3]:xxviii) and it remained in print for over 30 years.
J. F. Galliher (*)
Missouri University-Columbia, 312 Middlebush Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211-6100, USA e-mail: [email protected]
T. J. Guess
University of Missouri-St. Louis, 601 SSB Tower, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA
Two generations of Sutherlands white-collar war crime data and beyond
164 J.F. Galliher, T.J. Guess
Sutherlands book contained chapters on restraint of trade, discriminatory rebates, infringement of patents, trademarks and copyrights, misrepresentation in advertising, unfair labor practices, financial manipulations, offenses of power and light firms, and war crimes. Sutherland explained that this last offense type contained many of the other offenses when committed during time of war.
Sutherland ([31]:234) wrote that the data at hand suggest that white collar crime has...