Criminal Justice 9 26 14 White Collar and Corporate Crime The Concept of White Collar Crime The U S Congress defined white collar crime as an illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by non physical means and by concealment to obtain money or property or to obtain business or personal advantage The term was coined in the 1930s by Edwin Sutherland who defined it as crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation They are incredibly complex and acquire thousands of person hours and millions of dollars to unravel thus making them difficult to equate wit street crime in terms of being able to neatly discover tabulate and report them How Much While Collar Crime is There White collar crimes are absent from the yearly crime tally of the UCR and NCVS Tallies of occupational and corporate wrong doings are collected and distributed each year by state and federal regulatory agencies such as the FTC federal Trade Commission Types of Occupational Crime crimes committed by individuals in the course of their Occupational crime Professional Occupational Crime employment physicians and lawyers in the course of their practices a subdivision of occupational crime White Collar Crime crimes committed by professionals such as Defined as a violation of the law committed by a person or group of persons in the course of an otherwise respected and legitimate occupation or financial activity Examples of Occupational Crime Income tax violations Illegal financial manipulations Embezzlement and fraud Insurance fraud Insider trading kickbacks and tax evasion Corporate Crime Corporate Crime a violation of the law committed by an entire firm or occupational organization Examples false claims and advertising price fixing environmental crimes unsafe working conditions misuse of patents and copyrights The savings and loan scandal of the 1980s amounted to one of the most costly crime sprees in American history and is likely to cost the US taxpayers up to 473 billion The Enron Scandal did tremendous damage to the economy and created a crisis of investor confidence It was one if the largest securities fraud scandals in history As a result Enron was forced to file for bankruptcy in December 2001 Main difference between White Collar Crimes and Corporate Crimes White collar crime is committed against the corporation for reasons of personal Corporate crime is committed for the corporation to promote the interest profits gain of the corporation Organized Crime Organized Crime White collar Crime a group of professional criminals who rely on illegal activities as a way of life and whose activities are coordinated and controlled through some form of centralized syndicate purpose is profit through legitimate business transactions purpose is profit through illegitimate business enterprise illegal activities of people organizations whose acknowledged Illegal activities of people institutions whose acknowledge Organized Crime
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