Respectable Citizens - Shady Practices: The Economic Morality of the Middle Classes

by Stephen Farrall, Susanne Karstedt

Respectable Citizens - Shady Practices seeks to explore a previously neglected aspect of crime in modern society - namely those crimes that are committed by otherwise 'respectable' citizens in the market arena. The book delves into the 'grey zone' where illegal, unfair, unethical and 'shady' practices from the retailers who see themselves as victims of customers who take unfair and often illegal advantage of generous offers, to the consumers sold 'useless' insurance and financial packages and 'defrauded' by 'small print' clauses.The authors outline the contours of the contemporary moral economy, driven and shaped by technological innovation as much as new economic policies, and ask, is a 'predatory society' emerging from the central sphere of consumption?

328 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2020

About the author

Dr. Stephen Farrall is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Law, Politics & Justice, Keele University. He previously worked at Center for Criminological Research, University of Oxford and the Department of Law, University of Sheffield. Stephen has several years experience of quantitative data analysis, and is the author or co-author of over 50 books, articles and reports.