White-collar crime

White-collar crime refers to financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals.[1] Within criminology, it was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation". Typical white-collar crimes include fraud, bribery, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, embezzlement, cybercrime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery.

Definitional issues

Modern criminology generally rejects a limitation of the term by reference, rather classifies the type of crime and the topic:

Relationship to other types of crime

Blue-collar crime

Main article: Blue-collar crime

The types of crime committed are a function of what is available to the potential offender. Thus, those employed in relatively unskilled environments and living in inner-city areas have fewer opportunities to exploit than those who work in situations where large financial transactions occur and live in areas where there is relative prosperity.[4] Blue-collar crime tends to be more obvious and thus attracts more active police attention such as vandalism or shoplifting. In contrast, white-collar employees can incorporate legitimate and criminal behavior, thus making themselves less obvious when committing the crime. Therefore, blue-collar crime will more often use physical force, whereas in the corporate world, the identification of a victim is less obvious and the issue of reporting is complicated by a culture of commercial confidentiality to protect shareholder value. It is estimated that a great deal of white-collar crime is undetected or, if detected, it is not reported.

Corporate crime

Main article: Corporate crime

Corporate crime deals with the company as a whole. The crime benefits the investors or the individuals who are in high positions in the company or corporation. The relationship white-collar crime has with corporate crime is that they are similar because they both are involved within the business world. Their difference is that white-collar crime benefits the individual involved, and corporate crime benefits the company or the corporation.

One well-known insider trading case in the United States is the ImClone stock trading case. In December 2001, top-level executives sold their shares in ImClone Systems, a pharmaceutical company that manufactured an anti-cancer drug. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated numerous top-level executives, as well as Martha Stewart, a friend of ImClone's former chief executive who had also sold her shares at the same time. The SEC reached a settlement in 2005.[5][6]

State-corporate crime

The negotiation of agreements between a state and a corporation will be at a relatively senior level on both sides, this is almost exclusively a white-collar "situation" which offers the opportunity for crime. Although law enforcement claims to have prioritized white-collar crime,[7] evidence shows that it continues to be a low priority.[8]

When senior levels of a corporation engage in criminal activity using the company this is sometimes called control fraud.

Organized transnational crime

Organized transnational crime is organized criminal activity that takes place across national jurisdictions, and with advances in transportation and information technology, law enforcement officials and policymakers have needed to respond to this form of crime on a global scale. Some examples include human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling, illegal arms dealing, terrorism, and cybercrime. Although it is impossible to precisely gauge transnational crime, the Millennium Project, an international think tank, assembled statistics on several aspects of transnational crime in 2009:[5]

Occupational crime

Individuals may commit crime during employment or unemployment. The two most common forms are theft and fraud. Theft can be of varying degrees, from a pencil to furnishings to a car. Insider trading, the trading of stock by someone with access to publicly unavailable information, is a type of fraud.[5] The chairman of LAW & JUSTICE of Jahangirnagar University Mr. Robiul Islam told about it in his book "BLUE CRIMINOLOGY".

Punishment

In the United States, sentences for white-collar crimes may include a combination of imprisonment, fines, restitution, community service, disgorgement, probation, or other alternative punishment.[9][10] These punishments grew harsher after the Jeffrey Skilling and Enron scandal, when the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, defining new crimes and increasing the penalties for crimes such as mail and wire fraud. In other countries, such as China, white-collar criminals can be given the death penalty.[11] Certain countries like Canada consider the relationship between the parties to be a significant feature on sentence when there is a breach of trust component involved.[12] Questions about sentencing disparity in white-collar crime continue to be debated.[13]

See also

Further reading and references

References

  1. "FBI — White-Collar Crime". FBI.
  2. Friedrichs, David O. (2009). Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime In Contemporary Society (4 ed.). Wadsworth Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-0495600824. citing Kane and Wall, 2006, p. 5
  3. Appelbaum, Richard & Chambliss, William J. (1997). Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York: Longman Pub Group. p. 117. ISBN 9780673982797.
  4. Clarke, R. V. G. (1997). Situational Crime Prevention: Successful Case Studies (2 ed.). Harrow and Heston. ISBN 9780911577389.
  5. 1 2 3 O'Grady, William (2011). Crime in Canadian Context: Debates and Controversies (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195433784. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  6. Anderson, Jenny (20 January 2005). "S.E.C. Settles ImClone Insider Trading Case". New York Times. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  7. Anzalone, Charles (28 April 1991). "White-Collar Crime Has Become Priority of Law Enforcement". Buffalo News.
  8. "State's white collar convicts get lighter sentences". California Watch.
  9. Rubino, Esq. PA, Frank. "White Collar Crime - An Overview". Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  10. "Penalties for White Collar Crime". Blumberg & Associates.
  11. "Is China's White-Collar Death Penalty Fair?". The American Lawyer. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  12. "What is Breach of Trust in Canada?". Alexander Ejsmont. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  13. Podger, Prof. Ellen S. (21 February 2007). "Throwing Away the Key". Yale Law Journal. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  14. FBI.com
  15. Blueyonder.do.uk

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to White collar criminals.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.