Chapter 2 Understanding White Collar crime I The Essentials A An Evolving Concept 1 Edwin Sutherland pioneered of the study of WCC 2 Sutherland used the term white Collar criminaloid in reference to the Criminaloid refers to businessmen who engaged in harmful acts under the mask b Sutherland notes that these crimes cannot be committed readily by the Concept initially used by EA Ross a Criminaloid of respectability members of the lower class B Sutherland 1 Criticism on Sutherlands theories on white collar crime centered on 5 concerns b Empirical ambiguity a Conceptual ambiguity c Methodological ambiguity concept only minimally reflected reality and lacked wide Theory was too vaguely and loosely defined by Sutherland research he defined it as crime committed by members of the upper class but his research focused on all sorts of offenses committed in the workplace Legal ambiguity d e Policy ambiguity justice policy to combat crime is difficult certain crimes fall on both sides of the spectrum Because of the vagueness of definition to develop criminal C Defining WCC 1 Clinard and Quinney argues that white collar crime can be divided into two types illegal behavior that is committed by employees of a a Corporate Crime corporation to benefit the business benefitting the employee offender b Occupational crime 2 Further definitions law violations committed at work with the aim of a Organizational deviance actions contrary to norms maintained by others out side organization illegal acts of omission of individuals in a formal organization it accordance with the operative goals of the organization acts committed by persons from the highest strata of society b Elite deviance c Organizational crime D Modern Conceptualizations 1 Natural Law focuses on behaviors or activities that are defined as wrong because they violate the ethical principles of a particular group a Because white collar crime is a violation of moral or ethical ideal acts that clearly violate written criminal code 2 Violations of Criminal Law a Because of vagueness certain rule breaking that leads to harm doesn t fall under distinct written law ex Mortgage crisis 3 Because some rule breaking may not rise to criminal law it can still violate civil laws for instance bp wasn t tried criminally for the oil spill but when someone violates workplace rules like sanitary a Violations of Civil Law faces millions in civil suits 4 Violations of regulatory laws standards in a restaurant and fire codes in buildings a Largely associated with workplace deviance 5 All seen as causing social harm E Extent of White Collar Crime a First many WCC are not reported b Difficult because of the conceptual ambiguity 2 3 main ways we learn about the extent of WCC a Official statistics b Victimization surveys c Research studies 3 FBIs uniform crime report being the most easily accessible F Consequences of White Collar Crime 1 2 factors make it particularly difficult to accurately determine how often WCC occur refer to the losses that individual victims or business entail the total amount of losses incurred by society form 1 Individual Economic Losses experience due to WCC 2 Societal economic losses white collar crime a Costs the US 300 to 600 billion a year to public morale 3 Emotional Consequences stress from victimization violation of trust and damage 4 Actual Physical harm from unsafe products and unnecessary surgeries 5 Positive outcomes a Warning light syndrome b Boundary maintenance c d Community integration Social change Chapter 11 I Explaining White Collar Crime A The culture of WCC 1 Some argue industrial capitalism promotes a culture of competition and in turn upper class workers are presented with various opportunities for crime 2 Companies often bend or break federal regulations to become more competitive a When competition becomes extremely tight some individuals might slip over b Studies show that the more executive compensation the more likely there was the boundary of legality WCC 3 Hirschi and Gottfredson are extremely critical of cultural theory because they believe if this was our culture then more professionals would engage in it and wouldn t feel embarrassed when apprehended B Deterrence theory Rational choice theory 1 Deterrence theory can be traced to Cesare Beccaria he argued for punishment to be effective a Punishment must be swift b Punishment must be certain c Punishment must be proportional to crime 2 Assume individuals are rational beings 3 Rational choice theory considering humans as rational and suggests offenders will consider the benefits of offending weighted against negative consequences considers the limits of human rationality while still C Classical Strain theory structures 1 Traces the source of strain to interactions between the social and economic 2 Mertons version of strain theory based on 4 assumptions a Capitalism promotes financial success as a goal Individuals are socialized to follow legitimate means b c Some individuals face barriers or strain in efforts to attain financial success d When individuals experience strain they change either their goals or means 3 Mertons theory was developed to explain why poor individuals engage in crime 4 According to Merton five modes of adaptation characterize how individuals adapt to Accept the goals prescribed by society and follow legitimate goals accept the goal of financial success but replace legitimate means c Ritualists the way goals and means are prescribed a Conformists Innovators b with illegitimate means engaging in means prescribed means e Rebels societal prescribed goals and means with their own goals d Retreatists do not accept goals of society but go through the motions of white collar workers who accept neither goals of society nor the workers who reject the goals and means of society and replace the 5 Collective embezzlement organization a When workers developed failure as a goal so they can be bailed out or file as crime committed by the organization against the bankruptcy D Institutional Anomie Theory 1 A modern macro level approach to explaining how societal institutions promote crime 2 Messner and Rosenfeld note four values central to the American culture are a breeding ground for crime a Focus on achievement encourages Americans to always want more b Second universalism suggests that everyone should want material success c d Materialism refers to the way our society encourages us to be enamored of Individualism suggests that we should be able to