Media and Government Narratives of Elite Criminality: Exploring the Social Construction of Financial Crime Control

• In Event: Exploring the Social Construction of Crime and Justice by the News Media

Abstract

This study examines how financial crime enforcement decisions are socially constructed through a qualitative content analysis of news articles and government communications pertaining to two specific cases: the Enron scandal of 2001 and the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. The study was guided by a theoretical framework that utilizes Barak’s (2017) theory of state-routinized crime control. The rigorous analysis of 394 news articles and government communication documents revealed that the media and the state rarely framed the subprime mortgage crisis as a criminal issue. Although the Enron scandal was frequently described as financial crime, journalists and government communicators were often reluctant to identify victims. These findings align with the theory of state-routinized crime control by demonstrating how communication techniques justify the selective enforcement of financial crimes. The analysis also discovered emergent qualitative codes that represent unique communication techniques used to obscure possible criminal behaviors. For example, descriptions of the subprime mortgage crisis attempted to universalize blame by extending culpability beyond Wall Street to include the actions of ordinary consumers or the general public. Overall, these results suggest that communication techniques play an important role in the social construction of financial crime enforcement decisions.

Author

• Dominic Zicari, Virginia Commonwealth University