White collar and Corporate crime Flashcards
Describe the Volkswagen scandal that supports white collar crime
- global scandal
- 11 mill vehicles rigged to cheat emissions test
- management/ CEO blamed w/c engineers
- lied to police and customers
- environmental damage
What is white collar crime?
- laws is selectively enforced so higher class are less likely to be prosecuted then w/c
- crimes of the powerful
What did Edwin Sutherland define white collar crime as?
“Crimes committed by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupations”
What crimes did Edwin Sutherland class as white collar crime?
- Bribery
- tax evasion
- Fraud
- embezzlement
- breaking trade and safety regulations
- breaking food laws
- professional misconduct by laws
What is Bribery, tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement?
Bribery - corruptly giving or recording an item of value to influence a course of action
Tax evasion - effort to avoid paying taxes by illegal means
Fraud - deceiving another in order to obtain property or services
Embezzlement - stealing money that has been interested in peoples care
What 2 types of white collar crime did Sutherland state?
- occupational: committed by employees for person grain
- corporate: committed by employees for company
What’s an example of occupational and corporate crime?
Occupational: stealing from company/ customers
Corporate: mis selling products to increase company profit
What third type of white collar crime emerged?
- Croall added 3rd category
- organisational crime
- crimes cited by government or public organisation
How did Pearce and Tombs truly define corporate crime?
- not all corporate crime breaks the law
- therefore corporate crime is:
“Any illegal act that’s a result of deliberate decisions or culpable negligence by the legitimate business organisation and that is intended to benefit the business”
What does Pearce and Tombs say about corporate crime?
- more about who has the power to define an act a crime
- not about how harmful it is
- businesses can influence laws so actions are not criminalised
What are the 5 types of corporate crime?
- financial crimes
- crimes against consumer
- crimes against employee
- crimes against environment
- state corporate crime
What are examples of financial crimes?
- tax evasion
- bribery
- money laundering
- illegal accounting
- affects us as tax is for NHS
What are examples of crimes against consumer?
- false advertising
- selling unfit goods
France 2011:
- french gov recommended women w/ breast implants made by poly implant prothèse to have them removed
- filled w/ dangerous industrial silicon
What are some examples of crimes against employees?
- sexual discrimination
- racial discrimination
- violations of wage
- violation of health and safety laws
What are some examples of crimes against environment?
- illegal pollution of air, water and land
- toxic waste dumping
What are examples of state corporate crime?
- harms committed when government institutions and business cooperate to pursue goals
- private companies contracted to US military were accused of torture during the American occupation of Iraq
What is the abuse of trust in terms of crime?
Carrabine:
- p’s trust high status professionals w/ finances, health, security and Indian
- professionals positions give chance to abuse p’s trust
- accountants and lawyers have been employed by criminal organisations to launder criminal funds into legitimate businesses
- e.g KPMG admitted to criminal behaviour and played $456 for tax fraud
Describe how Harold shipman supports abuse of trust
- year 2000
- convicted of murdering 15 patients
- thought to have killed 200
- his status gave him the opportunity to do so
What are the 3 sociological explanations of corporate crime?
- strain theory
- differential association
- labelling theory
What is strain theory?
- m/c can achieve goals legitimately
- but they might still feel relatively deprived
- they want to have more success
- fuelled by greed and power to commit crime
What is differential association?
Sutherland:
- if p’s associate with other criminal they are more likely to commit crime
- aggressive management culture in business circles generate corporate crime
What is labelling theory?
Nelken
- corporate crime is not seen as ‘criminalI’
- corporate crime is similar to normal business practices
- powerful businesses employ accountants and lawyers to develop ‘techniques of neutralisation’
- this is to define their crimes as mistakes
Croall (2007)
- corporate crime does not intend to harm
- so they’re seen as less criminal than street crime e.g burglary
- e.g toxic waste dumping
