Middle Class Crime Flashcards
What is white-collar crime?
Crime committed by a person abusing their position at work for personal gain
Usually associated with middle-class crime
What are the three types of white-collar crime?
Occupational crime
State crime
Corporate crime
What is occupational crime?
Crimes committed by employees at the expense of their organisation
What is state crime?
Crimes committed for the benefit of a government
What is corporate crime?
Crimes committed for the benefit of an organisation
What are the five types of corporate crime?
Crimes against consumers
Crimes against employees
Environmental crimes
Financial fraud
State corporate crime
What are crimes against consumers?
Include:
- the manufacture and sale of faulty goods
- breach of health and safety regulations
- counterfeit clothing
- sale of food and drink unfit for consumption etc.
e.g. Thalidomide - drug given to pregnant women as a cure for morning sickness, hadn’t been tested properly and resulted in physical deformities at birth
What are crimes against employees?
Includes failure to meet health and safety at work leading to injury or death of employees
What are environmental crimes?
Includes:
- companies who deliberately pollute water/air
- illegally dump hazardous/toxic waste
e.g. VW emissions scandal - cheated EU emissions test in order to sell cars
What is financial fraud?
Includes:
- false accounting
- insurance frauds
- false claims by sellers about benefits of pensions or saving schemes etc.
e.g. Enron, US energy company whose false accounting made them appear more successful than they were
What is state-corporate crime?
Crimes committed due to the cooperation of the state and businesses to pursue a common goal
e.g. Challenger disaster 1986
What do Marxists argue about crime in a capitalist society?
Argue its inevitable as powerful businesses pursue greater profits
Capitalism is criminogenic - some may turn to crime to achieve this
What do Marxists argue about the scale of corporate crime?
Scale of corporate crime is more serious than street crime
Involves far more victims and sums of money
What do critical criminologists argue about the state and corporate crime?
Argue the state ignores corporate crime and only focuses on street crime, making crime appear a WC phenomenon and ensuring crimes of the powerful are ignored
What are the criticisms of Marxist views of corporate crime?
Strength - recognises many incidents that may appear to be an ‘accident’ are actually the result of criminal actions
Weakness - left realists argue peoples real fears of crime are street crime not corporate crime
Weakness - overpredicts corporate crime, not all corporations will commit crime and punishments do occur
