White Collar Crime by Edwin Sutherland, published in 1949, is a study in the theory of criminal behaviour. Sutherland states that this book is an attempt to reform the theory of criminal behaviour only, not to reform anything else. And although it may include implications for social reforms, this is not the objective of the book. Sutherland define white collar crime as ‘a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation’ (pp. 9). He adds that it excludes many crimes of the upper class, such as murder, intoxication, and adultery, because these are not usually part of their occupational procedures. He goes on to describe white collar crime as being similar to juvenile delinquency in the sense of the stigma generated from each crime. In both of these crimes the procedures of criminal law are altered so as not to attach stigma to the offenders. Finally, Sutherland writes that crimes are committed across all social classes, not just people in lower classes or living in poverty, contrary to popular belief at the time of publication.
This book attempts to conduct research in order to extend the field of criminology, not any other matter. Sutherland was attempting to bring attention to an area of criminal behaviour that criminologists had not previously studied. At this time, theories of criminal behaviour placed a large emphasis on poverty being the cause of crime or on other social conditions and personal traits which
White Collar crime is not a crime unto it self, but instead a criteria that has to be met in order for a crime to be considered as White- Collar Crime; (Blount, 2002) hence the reason why Corporate Crime is also considered as White- Collar Crime. At the same time, White Collar Crime and Corporate Crime can be seen as distinct criminological categories, however, in order to reveal this, this essay will firstly be exploring Sutherland's definition of white collar crime and the perplexity with this definition of white-collar crime. It will then be looking at the modification which had to take place with Sutherland's definition of white-collar crime in order to established a distinction between white-collar and corporate crime.
This essay discusses Sutherland’s concept of white collar crime in the light of whether it is still appropriate in the 21st century. It is worth noting that white collar crime is often perceived as a less serious crime in the society. This is based on several reasons including the fact that the crime receives less media coverage. This incomprehensive media coverage of white collar crime may be attributed to the complex nature of the crime, which makes many incidences go unreported. In other words, it is often difficult to pin point one person as the perpetrator of the crime as it would happen with the case of robbery, knife crime, or drug trafficking. However, white crime remains a serious crime and one that can have serious negative
He disagreed and argued that respectable people from the upper social classes committed a great deal of harmful criminal acts in the course of their occupations and in the furtherance of their economic and business interests (Quinney, 1964). According to Sutherland (1949), upper-class criminality was ignored by the government and the general public because the perpetrators did not fit the common stereotype of the criminal. A white-collar offender is referred to as a person who commits a financially motivated nonviolent crime through a business and/or governmental job (Braithwaite, 1985). Within criminology, the term white-collar crime was clarified further by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Quinney, 1964).
Most everyone goes home after a long day of work and watches the news. Think, what is usually reported? The weather, local activities, headline news, or daily criminal activity. Shootings, stabbings, homicides, etc. are all discussed by media anchors these days. This causes most everyone in our society to become familiar with crimes that are considered street crimes. What most people don’t hear about on the news is what is considered white-collar crime, sometimes known as corporate crime. White-collar crime not only is less reported in the media but also receives weaker punishments than street crime. This paper will first discuss the similarities between the two types of crime and then explain why their punishments are strongly
In his article, Edwin H. Sutherland examines “white-collar crimes.” Sutherland first starts the article off by defining what exactly is a “crime.” Sutherland goes on to describe and discuss the antitrust laws. Next, he describes the Sherman Antitrust Act, and that it states that any violation of the law is a misdemeanor. Then, he discusses the three methods that are used to enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act. He then goes on to explain the laws regarding infringements of the law. He also discusses the law in regard to financial manipulations. He goes on to discuss the stigma on white-collar crimes and juvenile delinquency. He the discusses the laws for business regulations, and the consequences in violating this laws. Next, he explains the three
A-Copy sales representatives solicit mail orders from target through random sales calls that include frequent overt misrepresentations. Dan advices that he uses this to get to the gatekeepers. Dan always discusses price terms in a straightforward matter before mailing. Dan stated he was good friends with Kathy and was not. He also stated that that he had much product that needed to be sold at a big discount, which was not true.
White-collar crime is defined as the financial motivations of non-violent crimes that are committed by professionals of business and those of the government. In the field of criminology, Edwin Suthelan (1939), a socialist who was the first person to define white-collar crime as a crime that respectable and those people of higher social status commit. The crimes include those associated with fraud, bribery, embezzlement, cybercrime, money laundering, theft of the identity and many more crimes that are nonviolent. For the white collar crimes, the offenses committed should produce some gains financially. The crimes are thereby committed by those persons holding various positions in businesses or organizations, and it is because of this position they can gain access to amounts of huge money that they get from the people like customers with whom they serve. The criminals involved are not caught in activities that are violent, involved in drug issues or illegal activities.
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.
White-collar crime was defined by Edwin Sutherland as a "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation." Since this term was invented by Sutherland in 1939 during his speech for American
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 crime is a serious issue in the United States. White-collar crime is “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” (cornell.edu). Examples of such offenses include bribery, credit card fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud, blackmail, extortion, forgery, securities fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, repair scams, Ponzi and pyramid schemes. These non-violent crimes are responsible for an estimated $250 billion to $1 trillion in economic damages each year (Martinez). Individuals who commit white collar crimes have an increased likelihood to experience injustice compared to those who commit a street crime as noted in multiple studies detailed in various scholarly articles. Also, street criminals have a greater chance of getting caught in their wrongdoings versus white-collar criminals. Those who commit white collar crime make their decisions based on the philosophy or idea that their actions have low risk and a high reward. We face a dilemma in the United States because white-collar criminals are treated with minimal, inequitable punishment due to their social status, whereas the street criminals are treated with the correct, impartial punishment.
The legal definition can be considered as the most accurate definition of crime when it occurs as it describes crime an act or behaviour that causes harm to others, however it is not without faults or weaknesses. One weakness of the legal definition of crime is the difficulty to identify and fully criminalise white collar crime. White collar crime is “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in his occupation” (Sutherland, citied in Haines 2016, p.174). While it is no longer completely under criminalised, it was difficult to identify this type of crime in the past as it did not seem to harm people in society. However, an example of white collar crime according to Potter (2001) is toxic crimes that put people in society
White collar crime has been recognized as something that is an issue since 1939 when it was brought up in a political meeting by Edwin Sutherland. Sutherland was interested in the fact that people of the working class were not being noticed for the crimes that some of them are involved in. The concern was that the criminal activity that was being addressed during this time were predominantly trivial crimes. While they were getting all the attention while corporate criminals were going virtually undetected. The definition Sutherland attached to these criminals was centered on the varieties of crimes that they committed. White Collar crime is defined as a criminal act perpetrated
The use of theories in explaining the various phenomena in society has always found sufficient backing not only in history but also in contemporary global affairs. Notably, both positivists and constructivist theories play a role in depicting variants in societal behavior. There are many deviant acts that are considered criminal or non-criminal behavior. White- collar crimes are considered a form of deviant behavior. These crimes rank among the various forms of crime existing within the context of society. According to Fredericks, McComas and Weatherby (2016), white-collar crime encompasses the nonviolent criminal activities committed for monetary gain within the financial situations. Therefore, as part of the criminal realms, white-collar crimes have a likely reason and course leading to the occurrence in the business and commercial world. Functionalism views the society as comprising the different sections working in unison (Holmwood, 2005) while conflict theory envisions a society where the interest of people and groups have a power completion (Bystrova & Gottschalk, 2015). This essay aims to illustrate the occurrence and the impact of law on white-collar criminals regarding the functionalist and conflict perspectives.
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)