Crimes of the Powerful Flashcards
Define ‘white collar crime’
Sutherland suggests that it’s a crime committed by a person of high social status in their occupation. This aimed to challenge the stereotype that crime was a WC phenomenon
Describe the problem with Sutherland’s definition of white collar crime
Fails to distinguish between occupational and corporate crime
- Occupational: committed by employees for their own gain (stealing from the company)
- Corporate: committed by employees for the organisation (mis-selling products for more profit)
The definition of corporate crime was then adapted to include these types of crimes
Describe the types of corporate crime
- Financial crimes such as tax evasion, bribery etc
- Crimes against consumers through misleading advertisement, selling of unfit good.
- Crimes against employees, such as discrimination, violation of wages, breach of health and safety for those who work at the company
- Crimes against the environment, activities that directly/indirectly impact the environment such as illegal pollution
- State-corporate crime, harms done when government institutions and businesses cooperate to achieve their goals
Give an example of crimes against consumers
A French manufacturer of breast implants was found to be selling faulty, dangerous breast implants to women, they had used cheap unapproved silicone rather than medical silicone, which impacted hundredd of women worldwide who suffered the consequences
Give an example of crimes against employees
The Rana Plaza factory collapsed and around 1,000 employees died , despite an evacuation as cracks had appeared in the wall the day before the collapse, but due the factory owners negligence they told their works to continue their work as normal.
How can high-status professionals abuse our trust?
Carrabine et al note that we entrust high-status professional with our finances, health, security and our personal information. However, their position and status give them the opportunity to abuse this trust
Give an example of high-status professionals abuse our trust
- Accountants and lawyers can be be employed by criminal organisation, e.g. to launder criminal funds into legitimate businesses
- Their status, expertise and autonomy of health professionals also afford scope for criminal activity. e.g. In the UK, dentists have claimed payments from the NHS for treatments they haven’t carried out
Describe how the media creates the invisibility of corporate crime
- The media give little coverage to corporate crimes, reinforcing the stereotype that crime is a WC issue.
- When they do report crime, they use sanitised language, e.g. work-deaths become accidents rather than murder
Describe how a lack of political will creates the invisibility of corporate crime
There’s a lack of political will to tackle corporate crime, as politicians recycle the same rhetoric of being ‘tough on crime’ but follow this up by only tackling street crime
Describe how de-labelling creates the invisibility of corporate crime
Corporate crime is constantly de-criminalised, as their offences are often defined as civil, not criminal, and even in criminal cases, they’re given fines rather than jail sentences
Describe how under-reporting creates the invisibility of corporate crime
There are rarely individual victims, as many of their crimes can affect the environment
- Even if there are victims, they may be unaware they are crime victims or if they are, they’re reluctant to take on big businesses
How does strain theory explain corporate crime?
- Strain theory argues that deviance is due to the inability to achieve the goals that society’s culture prescribes them through legitimate means. The concept of innovation has been applied to corporate crime
- Box argues that if a company can’t achieve its goal of maximising profit by legal means, it may employ illegal ones. e.g. Clinard and Yeager found that law violations by companies increases as their financial performance deteriorates, suggesting a willingness to ‘innovate’ to achieve profit
How does differential association explain corporate crime?
- Sutherland sees crime as learned behaviour, as if we align ourselves with others with criminal attitudes, we’re more likely to become criminals
- So, employees are mor likely to commit crime if the company’s culture justifies doing so. e.g. Geis found that trainee stock brokers were socialised into price-fixing despite the practice being illegal
How does labelling theory explain corporate crime?
- Businesses and professional have the power to avoid labelling e.g. they can afford experts to help them avoid activities they’re involved in and avoid being labelled a criminal
- Also, the inability of law enforcement to investigate, reduces the number of offences officially recorded
