Elite Deviance

For courses in deviance and corporate crime. Elite Deviance is the only text in this area that takes a holistic view as it traces the causes of elite deviance to the structure of power and wealth in the United States. Elite Deviance includes both criminal and non-criminal elite acts that cause great harm. Unique in its scope, Elite Deviance covers not only corporate crime and political corruption in historical and contemporary contexts, but also the relationship between the two. Numerous current examples and case studies grab students’ interest and reinforce all major theoretical points in the book.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book, readers will be able to:

• The notion that elite deviance in and of itself is a great social problem in American life. Elite deviance consists of criminal and deviant acts by the largest corporations and the most powerful political organizations.
• Elite deviance stems from a system of political economy in which power and wealth are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a power elite.
• Within this power elite there has emerged a series of criminal and deviant acts that has been termed “the higher immorality.”
• Elite deviance is intimately interrelated to each and every type of non-elite deviance.
• The solution to the problems posed by elite deviance involves a serious restructuring of the major institutions of postmodern society: the policy, economy, and mass media.
  

David R. Simon earned a PhD in sociology from Rutgers University in 1975, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley's Alcohol Research Group in 1983-1984. Dr. Simon is the author of Elite Deviance (Tenth Edition 2012) and eight other books. He has also published over 50 scholarly articles, book chapters, and review essays. He has written over a dozen pieces in popular magazines and newspapers. He is currently retired and continues to write books and articles.