Dishonest Dollars - by Terry L Leap (Hardcover)

About the Book

In an environment where corporate scandals fill the headlines and ethics courses have suddenly become standard fare in business schools, Terry Leap offers welcome insights into and useful ways of thinking about a critical problem that permeates our...

Book Synopsis

In an environment where corporate scandals fill the headlines and ethics courses have suddenly become standard fare in business schools, Terry Leap offers welcome insights into and useful ways of thinking about a critical problem that permeates our society. His main contribution is an integrative model of white-collar crime, which smoothly incorporates influences from sociology, psychology, public policy, and business. As he explains the process that occurs across the many different categories of crimes within organizations, he finds that there are more similarities than differences between "criminals in the suites" and "criminals in the streets."Leap's definition of crimes within organizations and the people who commit them are laid out in his first chapter. He then goes on to discuss the causes of and events surrounding white-collar crime, types of crimes and criminals, the decision-making processes of white-collar criminals, and the impact of these crimes. His concluding chapter predicts future trends in corporate crime, including an explanation of why we are likely to see more crime in health care. Throughout, Leap presents numerous specific examples and cases--from famous meltdowns such as Enron and WorldCom to less-publicized incidents including a weight-loss franchisee mislabeling doughnuts as low fat and a CEO of a South Carolina regional transportation authority misusing taxpayer money for lavish meals, personal expenses, and world travel.

Review Quotes

"Dishonest Dollars is a provocative, useful, and readable book."

--D. Quinn Mills, Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr., Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

"Drawing skillfully on several disciplines, the author presents a complete up-to-date analysis of factors that contribute to white-collar crime and its costs to individuals, organizations, and society at large. In the wake of the most recent corporate scandals, this book will prove to be an invaluable resource in several areas, including business ethics, business and society, organizational behavior, corporate governance, public administration, sociology, and criminology. Given the increasingly high profile of white-collar crimes, this book is a must-read for all who want to understand and prevent the social harms inflicted by this type of behavior. In particular, all business degree candidates should be required to read this book prior to graduation, given the ethical dilemmas they will face in the workplace. It is a book whose time has come."

--Diane Swanson, The von Waaden Business Administration Professor and Founding Chair, Business Ethics Education Initiative, Kansas State University

"I have spent more than thirty-six years evaluating and treating offenders--men and women from nearly all walks of life who have committed almost every kind of crime imaginable. I found this book to be insightful, thought provoking, and full of information that was new to me. This practical book will have wide appeal. It addresses all aspects of the problem, from the mental makeup of the criminal to the attitudes of the public toward white-collar offenders. This comprehensive and compelling book will appeal to the general public as well as professionals in law enforcement, corrections, and mental health. One would also anticipate that officers and board members of both large and small businesses would read Dishonest Dollars and encourage their employees to do the same."

--Dr. Stanton E. Samenow, author of Inside the Criminal Mind

About the Author

Terry L. Leap is Lawson Professor of Business and Head of the Department of Management, University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is the author of Phantom Billing, Fake Prescriptions, and the High Cost of Medicine: Health Care Fraud and What to Do about It and Tenure, Discrimination, and the Courts, also from Cornell.