such myths are generated to create alarm or panic about a particular aspect of the crime problem, such as drugs, organized crime, or serial murder, with the intention that a societal response will be forthcoming. crime myths necessarily shape the social and political agenda concerning crime, in terms of which crimes are targeted for public attention and how we should respond to them. the myths that we have generated about white-collar crime-our conventional wisdom-are, however, fundamentally different from those of conventional crime in two important respects. they do not involve unpopular or marginal groups in society, and they do not create panic and hysteria about a problem. quite the contrary, as kappeler and his colleagues (1993:102) argued, the mythology of white-collar crime justifies policies of less enforcement and weaker punishments. corollary to this, the mythology also serves to protect from the criminal justice system. the reasons for this differential treatment of conventional and white-collar crime are numerous and complex, and will be considered in a later chapter on the double standard of justice. meanwhile, we need to be cognizant of our conventional wisdom (crime myths), the role it plays in shaping our thinking, and how it affects our response to the problem. next, however, we will trace the evolution of white-collar crime as a concept within criminology and examine the two schools of thought that have emerged in the controversy over defining white-collar crime.
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