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Getting Tough on Corporate Crime? Paul's Talk on YouTube (plus some comments on subprime wrongdoing)

Back in 2004, I had the opportunity to write a piece with Jeffrey Reiman, A Tale of Two Criminals: We’re Tougher on Corporate Criminals, But They Still Don’t Get What They Deserve. It grew out of several invited lectures I gave, including a  Distinguished Visiting Faculty Lecture at Eastern Kentucky University. The folks there recorded the lecture and have just posted it on YouTube. If the embedded player doesn't work, here's the link for the playlist (six parts of about 10 minutes each). And just to make sure it's accessible - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part... continue reading »

Corrections Corporation of America Votes Down Transparency on Political Donations

As part of work for a new project (more details to come soon), I've been reviewing the Securities and Exchange Commission filings of the Corrections Corporation of America, which is the largest private prison company in the US. Each year, companies traded ont he stock exchange have annual meetings where shareholders get to vote on issues related to governance, which are reported in form 14A (definitive proxy). For 2007, the following proposal by a group of activist shareholder nuns caught my eye. What's in the box below is the exact writeup from CCA's 2007 14A (see p 29-31):  PROPOSAL 5... continue reading »

Domestic Violence Awareness Month & Survivor Art

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month there was a candlelight vigil at SafeHouse, where I am a Board member. That's motivated me to finally get this post together and upload some pictures I've taken of the survivor artwork they have.The usual question is "Why Does She Stay?" but we know the real question should be "Why Is He Violent?" Still, if this is the question you have, then read Why (Some) Women (Sometimes) Stay.  The issue is changing men's behavior, so I'd suggest checking out the resources on StopViolence.com about Men Working to End Violence Against Women.  For anyone... continue reading »

U.K. Corporate Manslaughter Statute

The U.S. tends to believe it can only teach the rest of the world and is slow to realize we may be able to learn something. I'm thinking specifically here about the Corporte Manslaughter Act passed by the English Parliament over the summer - something not even mentioned in the American press (Apparently not part of 'all the news fit to print'...)According to one write-up that has a good Q & A:The current law links a company's guilt to the gross negligence of an individual who is said to be the embodiment of the company. It has proved very difficult... continue reading »

Corrections Corporation of America (CXW): Hot Stock or High-Debt Timebomb?

Last fall, I continued by studies of private prisons by reading through some of the Securities and Exchange Commission filings for the Corrections Corporation of America (ticker: CXW). I was interested in looking at the overhead costs to get a better sense of why private prisons don't save much money over state run prisons. (For those wanting the quick answe, check out the Why Private prisons Don't Save Money page I made.)What's interesting is looking at the chart of their stock price, especially in light of discussion on various websites about how they're a hot stock and gaining rapidly. I... continue reading »

Columbus Day: A Critique of Celebrating Colonialism

This is the introduction to Chapter 7 on Victims and Victimology of the Class, Race, Gender and Crime book I co-authored (available at the end of this month). Because the deprivations of some minorities have been so extensive and/or are so profound, some argue that these social relations or conditions amount to “genocide,” a powerful word used to describe extreme cases of mass violence and victimization whose derivation comes from the Latin cide (kill) and the Greek genos (race or tribe). The underlying concept of genocide involves an attempt to exterminate a group that shares common characteristics and a common identity.... continue reading »

TicketBastards (TicketMaster Sucks)

While reading the Big Picture Blog's Linkfest, I saw a headline "Concert Giant Sees Cutting prices as Ticket to Success" (LA Times, 9/26/2006).Right on. (Well, maybe; it doesn't look quite as good as you keep reading) The article notes that average concert prices are now $57 per ticket, and some people feel this is causing people to attend fewer concerts or skip them all together. LiveNation, Inc CEO Rapino wants to lower prices and is battling TicketMaster to do that.  But to make good on his promise, Rapino must wrest power from Ticketmaster, a near-monopoly that built its empire locking... continue reading »

Ebbers' 25 Year Sentence for Worldcom Fraud Upheld. Good.

I'll confess to being a little frusted that after finishing page proofs on Class, Race, Gender and Crime, important events happen. But a function of this blog is to fill in the gaps between books and editions, as well as to have a conversation about the excellent questions raised by the White Collar Crime Prof Blog as well as the Second Circuit Sentencing Blog. Much of the attention around corporate fraud has been centered on Enron, which declared the largest corporate bankruptcy in history because of an orgy of multifaceted fraud. When "Worldcon" declared bankruptcy a month or so later,... continue reading »

Current Projects (Apologies for Light Posting Recently)

In the first posting of this blog, I used the opening from my forthcoming book, Class, Race, Gender & Crime. I've been busy going through the page proofs, which are the last chance to correct errors. It's actually difficult to look carefully at each sentence at this point because I've been through it so many times with writing, editing and copyediting (dealing with the editors questions and approving or rejecting their suggestions). But it is email off to the publisher now and we're wrapping up eveything. After what seems like hundreds of emails (but is probably a few dozen), we... continue reading »

Judge Removed from Indian Trust Case for Saying Interior Dept. Is Racist

File this under the general heading of speaking uncomfortable truths to power, or maybe 'what happens when the facts are biased.' The US govt, through the Interior Dept, collects royalties from mining and oil drilling on Indian reservations and is supposed to distribute the money to Native Americans. But they we doing a half-assed job what the court says was/is such a "hopelessly inept" job that Indians filed a class action to get them to do an audit and take an actual accounting of how much is owed to the native people. Almost ten years later, the case is still... continue reading »