White collar

Question 1

What is White collar crime?

Answer 1

• Non violent and refers to financial crimes such as fraud, bribery, money laundering, that are committed by businesses and governments.

Question 2

Sutherland 1949

Answer 2

• ” A crime committed by respectable person of high social status, in the course of their occupation”

Question 3

Croall (2001)

Answer 3

“Crime” should not be in the definition, as they are not always criminal acts.
Status might not be important - it might just be in a position of trust that causes harm (e.g. a doctor abusing their patients)
They prefer “An abuse of a legitimate occupational role that is regulated by law”.

Question 4

Types of White Collar Crime

Answer 4

Occupational crime - crime committed by employees in the course of their jobs (e.g. defrauding your employer)
Corporate crime - crime carried out by businesses or corporations, usually as way to increase profits.
State crime - “crimes” carried out by nation states (countries) (e.g. war, genocide, arms trading) - Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Question 5

Why is white collar crime difficult to measure

Answer 5

• People in powerful positions are more able to hide their crimes.
• White collar crime is unlikely to appear in victim surveys because
  —-> Victims of same crimes, like fraud, may not be aware that they are victims
  —-> If a company is a victim (e.g. employee has stolen from them) they may not want to publicise this.

Question 6

Marxists view on white collar crime

Answer 6

• Criminal laws are created by the ruling class to serve their own interests.
• They criminalise activities they see as undesirable and allow activities that they do themselves.
  Box 1983
• white collar crime is not socially constructed as crime. society defines crime in a way that focusses on the working class. when we think of theft we think of a working class shoplifter, not a company charging extremely high prices for goods.

Question 7

Goldstraw-White (2010)

Answer 7

• conducted semi-structured interview with 41 offenders imprisoned for white collar crimes.
• The value of their crimes ranged between £18 million to £100 million.
• They didn’t see themselves as real criminals.
• They didn’t think that they did anything wrong.
• They didn’t feel like they had hurt anyone.

Question 8

The roles of risk - Friedrichs

Answer 8

• The chances of being caught or punished for white-collar crime are low, but deciding to do the activity is still a gamble. You have to which up the potential costs (prision) and benefits (profits).
• But weighing up costs and benefits is an important feature of business,.

Question 9

Explanations of white collar crime

Answer 9

Personality- basses approaches
- Certain personality traits are linked to being successful in business, but they could also be linked to being a successful criminals.
- This might explain why some are willing to break the law.
Differential association - Sutherland & Cressey
- When a person is frequently exposed to criminal activity norms and values - they are likely to learn and take on theses.
- If a person working in a business is surrounded by people breaking the law, they will eventually learn that this is acceptable and the norm.