| Abstract: | The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exposure to information about white-collar crime among college students on changes, if any, in their opinion toward it. The research design employed a one-group pretest–posttest design. Undergraduate students enrolled in a college course on white-collar crime answered a survey that measured their level of knowledge about crimes of the powerful and general sentiments toward them both on the first and last day of the semester. With the notable exception of environmental racism, subjects’ knowledge about white-collar crime—which was already high at time 1—did not statistically increase during the course of the semester. Similarly, attitudes toward white-collar crime remained both negative and stable. Correlational analyses between knowledge gains and changes in sentiments revealed that better-informed subjects were generally more likely to consider white-collar crime a serious issue and to recommend tougher sanctions against its perpetrators. |
