Exercise 3: White Collar Crime In a looking glass of a sociologist, we can see white collar crime in our everyday world. When it presents itself; the victims are left hurt and the rest in awe of their awful actions. White Collar Crime is defined as “White collar crime overlaps with corporate crime because the opportunity for fraud, bribery, insider trading, embezzlement, computer crime, and forgery is more available to white-collar employees.” stated by James Henslin. White Collar Crime can be seen in the Libor Scandal, as a prime example. The Libor Scandal began in the year of 2012. In 2003, a major outbreak investigation started due to reliable banks being a prime source of manipulation of interest rate, affecting many in the benefit of …show more content…
There by contributing to white collar crime because states have as grey of spectrum to commit these crimes as well. Libor scandal can also be associated with: strain theory, differential association, conflict theory, and control theory. Strain theory: “a theory that addresses the relationship between having socially acceptable goals and having socially acceptable means to reach those goals.” (Mcbride, James) Inferring, that the Libor Scandal had to get approved by the most powered, associates below were pressured to meet these requirements to fit in the business social world (trying to reach major profits) there on leading to commit these crimes. Differential association theory: “a theory that states individuals learn deviant behavior from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance.” (Mcbride, James.) Looking up to someone in power can influence and push a lifestyle of breaking the roles. Making it okay due to role model of higher statue doing so. One associate following all the behaviors, to reflect outcome of the higher statues role model. This could have been mimicked in the Libor scandal due to one person doing so and many others then following to reach goals that could be achieved if just doing basic manipulation. Leading actions to turn into crimes but socially excepted by the social circle. Conflict theory: “a theory that examines social and economic factors as the
Secondly, these individuals or organizations truly believe they will accomplish their illicit act(s) and not get caught. Finally, all too often, individuals or people belong to organizations committing white-collar crimes try and keep up with their lifestyle, don’t want to be viewed as a failure, or have a propensity toward low self-control or complete control. Sadly, often they usually only have to pay a fine and the people involved are rarely prosecuted. And if they are arrested, they don’t receive lengthly sentences. In addition, people engaged in white-collar crime fly under the radar often-negotiating plea deals; therefore, the public’s interests in these crimes are short lived. If white-collar crimes made there way to the mainstream media as much as violent crimes, and the news media followed-up on the damage these crimes caused to their victims, legislators might be compelled by their constituents to amend the sentencing guidelines making the consequences for these criminals a lot more
The LIBOR manipulation took place during economic upswing (2005-2009) and global recession (2007-2009). Before crisis the rates were manipulated on the both sides, lower and upper. The traders requested to increase as well as to decrease the rate depending on their bets. If the traders managed to get the rates higher before the financial crisis then the consumers suffered.
This scandal was unique in itself as it shook the foundation of the sacrosanct $2.2 trillion government securities market which was considered too big to rig. The conventional wisdom was shaken to a great extent and regulations tightened for all the 40 primary designated dealers of T-bills and government bonds.
White collar crime is often associated with crimes committed within businesses. These include different forms of fraud such as tax fraud, welfare fraud, money laundering, and property crime (Simpson & Benson, 2009: 42). These forms of white collar crime often have a huge impact on the welfare of the society in profound ways. For instance, according to an article authored by McGrath, a company that suffers losses from fraud must make up for this loss by for example raising the prices of its products. Hikes in prices would mean that consumers would be required to dig dipper into their pockets thus affecting their finances. The loss from fraud could also make the affected company to take drastic measures such as layoffs or implementing salary cuts for the employees (McGrath, n.d).
When I say white collar crime a few ideas usually will fill the average persons head. Many will immediately think of Bernie Madoff. This scumbag ran a ponzie scheme spanning multiple decades and made over 60 billion dollars in the process. He was eventually caught and thankfully is spending the rest of his natural born life in prison. Someone might also think of Martha Stewart. Martha, to the surprise of her fans, was much more than that loveable women on the home shopping network or the cooking channel. Martha was caught committing an act called insider trading. According to (The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), insider trading is when an individual has knowledge not known to the public about what is going to occur within a company
Most people, when they hear the word “crime,” think about street crime or violent crime such as murder, rape, theft, or drugs. However, there is another type of crime that has cost people their life savings, investors’ billions of dollars, and has had significant impacts of multiple lives; it is called white collar crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines white collar crime as
In 1939, American sociologist Edwin Sutherland introduced the phrase “white-collar crime”. White-collar crime is a nonviolent crime committed by a business or large corporations. They are usually scams or frauds to gain wealth in society. The people who are guilty of this crime lie, cheat and steal from investors of their company or business. Even though these crimes are non-violent, they have major impacts on the society. Their companies become non existent and families get destroyed. All of their life savings and savings for their children get taken away, and they become bankrupt. Not only does it affect their families, the investors who believed in their business lose millions or even billions of dollars.
This is opposed to strain theory which argues that social and personal strain “force the hand” of individuals and cause them to commit crimes. However, the weakness of this theory in regards to white-collar crime is the question of why those who've already gained financial success wish to seek more of it through illegitimate ways, particularly if they earned their initial success in a legal manner.
In this day and age, a corporation, family, or individual always has a potential risk of encountering fraud within their money supply. On average, fraud and abuse costs U.S. organizations more than $400 billion annually (Federal Bureau Investigation, 2010). Many may think that white collared crime is only money laundering or stealing, but that is only two out of the sum that countless culprits get away with. The term “white-collar crime,” originally coined in 1939 is synonymous with the full range of frauds committed by business and government professionals (Federal Bureau Investigation, 2010). These frauds include anything from bankruptcy fraud, money laundering, identity theft, corporate fraud to a wide number of threats all circling
Edwin Sutherland coined the term ‘white-collar crime’ and defined it as “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Black, 2010). While Sutherland focused on the perpetrator and his/her characteristics and roles in committing the crime, there were flaws within this definition in that it would not endure the progression of white-collar crime. By focusing on the individual and paying more attention to the actual crime, criminologist and scientist Herbert Edlehertz defined white collar crime as; “an illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by nonphysical means and by concealment and guile, to obtain money or property, to avoid payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantage.” (source) This is a significant modification because there is an increase in junior ranking individuals committing white-collar crimes. Although there are still convictions of executives, crime such as credit card fraud, forgery, identity theft, internet schemes and telemarketing fraud, do not necessarily require the perpetrator to be management personnel within a company. One other important shift in the understanding of white-collar crime, which this journal aims to contradict, is the notion that white-collar crimes are non-violent and are committed by people who are non-violent in nature. This journal’s purpose is to debunk this and discuss this misconception as it implies all white-collar crimes
White-Collar Crime consists of occupational crime and corporate crime. Occupational crime refers to offences committed against legitimate institutions businesses or government by those with "respectable" social status. It includes the embezzlement of corporate funds, tax evasion, computer crime and expense-account fraud. It is not every day that we hear about white-collar crimes but these non-violent crimes are on the rise to the top. Federal Bureau of Investigation states that USA, for example recorded white collar crimes amounting $300 billion every year (Cornell University, 2010). White-collar crime is relatively a new idea. It has many aspects that are practical for study and further interpretation to clear some of its dark areas. White-Collar Crime was once introduced by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 during his speech in American Sociological Society. The following crimes actually performed are Bribery, Extortion, Insurance, Fraud, Embezzlement, Cybercrime etc. People who participate in these criminal activities are highly powerful and respectful among the society. The following activities include description about White-collar Crime, Investigation of White Collar Crime and The Consequences of committing a White-collar Crime.
In this paper the exciting criminal phenomenon known as white-collar crime will be discussed. Corporate Crime and Computer Crime will be discussed in detail. Crime preventative agencies such as the NCPC (National Crime Prevention Council) will also be researched. White Collar Crime The late Professor Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime about 1941. Sutherland defined white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Siegel 337) White-collar crime includes, by way of example, such acts as promulgating false or misleading advertising, illegal exploitation of employees, mislabeling of goods, violation of weights and measures statutes, conspiring to
There has been numerous white collar crimes in the El Paso, Texas area, some of the most publicized cases involve a former El Paso Independent School Superintendent, a former Ysleta Independent School Superintendent, a former El Paso County Commissioner, a former El Paso County Park Manager, the New Mexico Security of State, the Dona Ana County Clerk and a recording and licensing lead, and two document technician also from Dona Ana county, a former Socorro City Councilman, several former United States Border Patrol Agents, and a former Fort Bliss Commander. Charges has been filed in all these cases some are still making their way through the justice system. We will examines Lorenzo Garcia the former El Paso Independent School District
In this paper the exciting criminal phenomenon known as white-collar crime will be discussed. Corporate Crime and Computer Crime will be discussed in detail. Crime preventative agencies such as the NCPC (National Crime Prevention Council) will also be researched. White Collar Crime The late Professor Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime about 1941. Sutherland defined white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Siegel 337) White-collar crime includes, by way of example, such acts as promulgating false or misleading advertising, illegal exploitation of employees, mislabeling of goods, violation of weights and measures statutes, conspiring to
White-collar criminality is generally considered to be crimes of the rich and powerful. It can be extremely hard to study the levels of these types of crimes due to many reasons. These can include the idea that they usually go under the radar because nobody suspects respectable conformers to commit a crime and suffer the possible loss of attained assets. The notion of sample bias also comes into play as it a vast area of criminal statistics exclude upper class crimes. Lastly because the upper class are seen to be ‘immune because of the class bias of the courts and thei[r own personal] power’. (Sutherland: 2004: 7)