CRIMES

Crimes of the Powerful

Crimes of the Powerful

Introduction

When one thinks about those individuals who commit violence, dishonesty, bribery, extortion, theft and murder, people come up with the image of crime or criminal activities. Crime is considered to be a problem that represents unlawful act which must be punishable under the law and order by the state. Crime does not have any specific definition that is universally acceptable (Puah & Liew, 2011, p. 22). In some views, crime falls under the category if law has applied that action to be a crime. Another definition is that a crime is considered to be a criminal offence or an offence if an individual has performed harmful act with another individual or to the state or the community. Such acts are considered to be as crime, which are not allowed and must be punishable by the law and order (Liew, Puah, & Entebang, 2011, p. 21). This paper will discuss about the concept of white collar crimes or crimes of the powerful with the implications of Marxism criminology in defining the concept of crimes. Moreover, it will also give consideration to reasons why crimes of powerful individuals or organisations remains largely invisible and explore issues relating to defining the concept of 'crimes of the powerful'. In the end this will also consider what role each of us may play in allowing crimes committed by those in power to be neglected.

Discussion

White Collar Crimes

The term 'white collar crime' was first coined by Edwin Sutherland, a sociologist, in the year 1939. It was an exciting and new concept for the society at the time of the introduction of this concept (Fierlbeck, 1998, p. 12). It allowed the ruling elite to put some control by protecting their financial interest. White collar crime is considered to be a crime that is committed by an individual of high social status and respectability within the line of occupation (Muncie & McLaughlin, 2001, p. 5). Usually white collar crimes may include forgery, theft, identity, money laundering, copyright infringement, cybercrime, embezzlement, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, bribery, and fraud.

White collar crime is carried by criminal who looks decent and can be disguised as hardworking individual who wear neat dress, white collar shirt, and looks smart. They gather less attention as compared to other criminal who is trespassed house breaker (Foucault, 1979, p. 20). This crime has an effect on major areas of contemporary life. Scandals related financial such as pension frauds and falling down of major banks raise the question of legitimacy on the world (Pearce and Tombs, 2009, p. 32).

If we look at the crime such as money laundering, it is not possible to complete the act of money laundering that requires the senior officials of banks to take participate. Such crime cannot take place without the participants of senior officials of banks (Puah & Liew, 2011, p. 22). Public sector and tax fraud minimizes resources of government for welfare, education and health (Muncie & McLaughlin, 2001, ...