Social class - Crime and Deviance

Question 1

White collar crime - Sutherland

Answer 1

Definition he provides is vague and doesn’t differentiate between crimes against organisation and crime for benefit of organisation

Question 2

4 types of white-collar crime

Answer 2

Occupational - crimes committed at work from minor theft and computer fraud
Professional - career criminals often work in organisations with stable employers
Corporate - crimes committed to increase profit
State - carried out by government from torture to denial of human rights

Question 3

Example of white collar crime

Answer 3

UK MP expenses scandal - MPs abusing their powers to claim expenses through work e.g cost of mortgage payments on properties that have been paid off

Question 4

Explanations for white collar crime

Answer 4

Gross - people who were unsuccessful in large companies found shared personality traits which were ambition and undemanding moral code - more successful, lesser obligation to conform to legal obligations
Not all successful business people can be accused of having an undemanding moral code

Question 5

Subcultural Theory

Answer 5

Aubert - some groups believe criminal practices are normal
Braithwaite - practice is common e.g pharmaceutical companies bribing health inspectors (considered normal practice and accepted subculture)

Question 6

Marxist Approaches

Answer 6

Schwartz - capitalism = maximising profits so white-collar crime is based on the ideals of capitalism
Weisburd - ideology of capitalism promotes financial success so easy to overlook concerns about law-breaking
Box - R/c successful at promoting corporate crime being less of a problem then street crime and believes white collar crime ‘mystified’ and minor area of study

Question 7

Why it goes undetected

Answer 7

Hughes and Langan:
Low visibility - occurs in offices and hidden by public gaze
Complexity - large scale fraud highly complex to unravel and allocate blame
Diffusion of Responsibility - difficult to share blame because of so many people
Diffusion of victimisation - refers to victimless crimes, no obvious victims so less likely to be pursued

Question 8

Example

Answer 8

Rana Plaza Disaster in Bangladesh - demonstrates companies are willing to accommodate to immoral business practices in attempt to increase profits