Theories of Crime and Delinquency

Theories of Crime and Delinquency

Introduction

While white collar crime has existed for many decades, I have conducted research regarding the definition of white collar crime, the history of white collar crime, the different types of white collar crime that affect businesses directly and indirectly, goals of white collar crime, fraud statistics and the cost factors related to white collar crime. White collar crimes and business ethics play hand in hand with one another and often cross the line with one another into criminal behavior. White collar crimes have played a very instrumental part in our downward economy over the past five years, and the level of trust given by society to corporations and employers entrusted with their life earnings has changed dramatically. My research will include factors that contribute to this problem and how white collar crime affects the management and operations of business organizations; what part modern technology plays in white collar crimes being committed; and what positions our society and government have taken on dealing with this problem. I have also researched and examined the attractions and motivations that compel people to participate in WCCs (Friedrichs, 1996).

Lastly, the author has conducted research on WCC versus street crime and differences on how WCCs has its share of victims just as street crimes, but with a different twist. I have examined how these differences are viewed by society and our government. In a 1939 speech given by Edwin Sutherland, a criminologist, to the American Sociological Society, he defined the phrase “white collar crime” as a “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” E.H. Sutherland (1883-1950) is commonly regarded to as “the most important contributor to American criminology to have appeared to date”. Even though it was Sutherland's claim that his work on white collar crime was theoretical and scientific in purpose, his outrage at corporate criminality was a very strong motivating factor for his efforts. Sutherland's interest in WCC has been traced back to the 1920s, when he first produced the first edition of his celebrated textbook Criminology.

In order to understand WCC, one must first understand criminality or what makes individuals or organizations commit WCCs. The other thing that needs to take place is we must explain the crime, or the event itself that constitutes a WCC. Criminal behavior has been treated as both an individual (or organizational) propensity and as an event. Among the elements cited to explain criminal behavior are motivation (the will to deviate), freedom from social constraints (impunity relating to losses), skill, and opportunity. The factors may interact in different ways, but the role of opportunity is central to much WCC. Opportunities have both subjective and objective dimensions (Ellis & Walsh, 2000).

The last thing that must be explained is that criminalization, the process whereby particular activities, entities, and individuals come to be defined as criminal. This approach focuses on the origins of WCC laws and regulations and on the investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of ...