Resource Nationalism and the Violation of Indigenous Rights in Mexico’s Oil Industry: The Case of a Chontal Community in Tabasco

For decades, Indigenous communities living in Mexico’s oil-producing state of Tabasco suffered violence, environmental contamination, and the destruction of their traditional livelihood. The administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) taking office in 2018 promised to govern for the poorest people in Mexico, emphasizing the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. However, as part of his nationalist agenda AMLO is pursuing aggressive exploitation of hydrocarbons upon the lead of state-owned company Pemex. This article argues that the Mexican government still denies Indigenous peoples living nearby oil reserves the right to self-determination. We examine this phenomenon through the Chontal community of Oxiacaque in the state of Tabasco suffering environmental contamination and health problems caused by the oil industry. We emphasize the government’s use of resource nationalism to legitimize violence against Indigenous communities and their natural environments. Further, the expansion of social programs and infrastructure building serves to obtain Indigenous compliance with the unsustainable fossil fuel industry.

Some Determinants of Crime Reporting Among Economic and Financial Crime Victims: The Case of Azerbaijan

Relatively limited attention has been paid by scholars to explore the crime reporting behavior of white-collar crime victims, especially in developing countries, such as Azerbaijan, where some forms of white-collar crimes are widespread. Using the dataset of the first nationwide victimization survey (n = 1,214) in Azerbaijan, the current paper attempts to explore the determinants of crime reporting among 4 specific white-collar offense (fraud, request for bribery, sale of unsafe good and sale of unsafe food for consumption) among randomly selected, yet unrepresentative subsample of victims (n = 186). Offenses were categorized in two groups for analysis—financial/economic offenses and non-financial/economic offenses, hence two models in a binary logistic regression analysis. The results indicate that the extent of financial loss predicts the crime reporting behavior for victims of financial offenses. Those with a higher level of the perceived probability of being victimized by a violent crime were more likely to have notified the authorities of their victimization. Applicable for non-financial crimes only, the level of income has an inverse association with a decision to invoke the law. The relationship of a victim to an offender predicted a decision to contact the authorities—cases in which the offender was identified as a stranger were less likely to be reported to the law enforcement authorities than cases in which the offender had not been identified. No socio-demographic variable has a predictive capacity for either crime category. In addition, as the main motives for not mobilizing the law, almost half of the cases have been resolved in between the offender and victims, such as through compensation. The findings have several theoretical implications for white-collar crime literature. Suggestions for further research, as well as the limitations, are discussed toward the end of the paper.

What Are the Merits of Taking a Hybrid Regulatory Approach Toward the Enforcement of Corporate Financial Crime in the United Kingdom and United States of America?

This article focuses on the hybrid regulatory approaches used in both the USA and the UK for the enforcement of corporate financial crime. In particular, the article analyses the use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements, which typically impose a financial penalty and behavioral commitments on a corporate entity for a defined period of time in exchange for the deferral of a criminal prosecution. The article will examine the merits of the use of DPAs instead of the imposition of criminal penalties on a company. The article will also consider whether a hybrid use of competition law as well as, or instead of, financial regulation could achieve better outcomes for regulators when enforcing financial crime.

Social Roles and Organizational Culture: Attributions of Responsibility and Punitiveness for Financial Crime

A white-collar offender’s role and the organizational culture in which the crime occurs affects subjective evaluations of offender culpability. However, how they affect responsibility attributions and punitiveness is unclear. We examine attribution processes by conducting a factorial experiment to test a proposed model. We test attribution theory derived predictions using innovative methods of scale creation and nonparametric analyses. Participants attribute more responsibility and are more punitive of individuals and offenders in organizational cultures where illegality is atypical. Our five proposed dimensions of responsibility are predictive of responsibility attributions, and path analysis shows offender role and offense environment affect how the five dimensions of responsibility affect attributions. Our findings have implications for criminal justice and adjudication processes and corporate regulation.

Regulating the Wild West: Symbolic Security Bubbles and White Collar Crime in the Art Market

The study of crime and criminality in the art market has received increasing attention within criminology, however little has been written on the criminogenic values built into the structure of the art market. Despite increasing legislation to counteract instances of money laundering and fraud, the legal governance of the art market brings such ambiguity that actors in the market have formed their own responses to managing risk. In this article, we discuss how these actors rely on security bubbles and self-regulation and how this can have the unfortunate effect of adding to a criminogenic art market where white-collar crime is sustained. The dependence on self-policing created a field where powerful elites run things, and traditional policing agents have little purchase.

Dark personality traits and tolerance towards unethical behaviors on entrepreneurship: A comparison between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs create businesses and employment. However, their behaviors might generate negative outcomes. Since external funding for startups is vital and challenging to get, this ecosystem becomes a breeding ground for unethical behaviors. This paper will explore the association between the tolerance to unethical behaviors and the Dark Triad Traits (DT) of personality, as well as the moderator role of being an entrepreneur in this relationship. For that purpose, 84 entrepreneurs and 112 non-entrepreneurs completed a survey comprising the Dirty Dozen Scale to assess the DT and the new Tolerance to Unethical Behaviors in Entrepreneurship (TUBE) scale which was able to distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs. Findings suggest that entrepreneurs show higher levels of Machiavellianism and tolerance to unethical behaviors than non-entrepreneurs.

Applying Synthetic Control Method to Estimate the Impact of the Lava Jato Operation on the Worldwide Governance Indicators in Brazil

In 2014, the most prominent anti-corruption investigation in Latin America called Lava Jato, exposed a Brazilian corruption scheme with reverberations in 61 countries, resulting in legal judgments for nearly 5 billion USD in reimbursements thus far. This article applies the synthetic control method on data from 135 countries (2002–2018) to test the hypothesis that Lava Jato impacts the Worldwide Governance Indicators in Brazil. The findings reveal that Lava Jato negatively affects control of corruption, the rule of law, and regulatory quality. There are signs of possible improvement in at least the corruption and the rule of law measures. This paper brings value to the criminological body of literature, notably lacking in the Global South.