WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

White Collar Crimes

Abstract

For a couple of years, an increasing number of white-collar crimes have been reported. Unfortunately, the influential and rich people are engaged in these types of crimes. They are unlike the traditional crimes with which people are familiar for ages. These are criminals who are apparently soft spoken, suave, well educated and socially respectable. The modern industrial capitalism increased the white- collar crime in the society. Their origin dates back o the eighteenth century in Britain. From the early nineteenth century they prospered in the European and North American countries. Only media write ups and government reports have addressed this issue so far. However, no research work on the spread of white- collar crime has been undertaken on a broad scale.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion2

Types of White- Collar Crimes2

Examples of White- Collar Crimes4

The Impact of White- Collar Crimes on Society5

Controlling White- Collar Crimes7

Penalties7

Increased Surveillance8

Judicial System8

Conclusion8

References10

White Collar Crimes

Introduction

Within the discipline of criminology, white-collar crime is one of the more challenging forms of law violations to operationalize. Edwin Sutherland, the sociologist who coined the term in a 1939 presidential address to the American Sociological Society (ASS), defined white-collar crime as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” In his influential 1949 text, White Collar Crime, Sutherland specifies that crimes committed by business managers and executives are the primary subjects of this field of study. Likewise, the sociologist, E. A. Ross, who reportedly had the greatest direct influence on Sutherland, popularized the typology of the “criminaloid”: the exploitive businessman whose pursuit of profit maximization lay hidden beneath his respectable status and pious demeanor.

Although the earliest attempts to define white-collar crime tended to focus more on the psychological or social-psychological characteristics of these offense types and offenders (relative to structural, organizational, and/or cultural explanations), many of the key attributes noted by Ross and Sutherland—particularly the offender's abuse of power and trust within his or her occupational context—are central components of white-collar crime studies today. In 1973, Marshall Clinard and Richard Quinney provided one of the most central definitional contributions to white-collar crime when they made the distinction between occupational crime and corporate crime. The former refers to a law violation for personal gain committed by an employee of any status level, and that is made possible through his or her engagement in a legitimate occupation. The latter refers to a law violation by higher-level corporate officers whose illegal behavior is committed on behalf of the corporation itself. Corporate crime also includes illegal acts committed by the corporation.

Discussion

Out of many employee crimes and fraud, White collar is one of the significant crimes. First coined by sociologist Bazley, White -collar crime refers to the crime committed by the person of a high society status and occupation. It is also known as business, economic or political crime, which tends to violate the civil law. White- collar crime overlaps with the corporate crime because the opportunity of fraud, computer crime, money laundering and forgery are open ...