White-Collar Crime

ChapterTwelve

White-Collar Crime

Industrial Revolution –Captains of Industry:Andrew Carnegie (Steel)J.P. Morgan (Banking)John D. Rockefeller (Oil)Cornelius Vanderbilt (Railroads)Muckrakers -Robber Barons, Criminaloids

White-Collar Crime

Edwin Sutherland – 1940’s coined the term “White-Collar Crime.”“…a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.”“…respectability and high social status”“…course of his occupation”

White-Collar Crime

White-Collar Crime – (Siegel)…illegal acts that capitalize on a person’s status in the marketplace.Illicit Entrepreneurship –Difference between White-collar crime and Organized Crime?

Illicit Entrepreneurship

White-Collar Crime-…illegal activities of people/institutions whose acknowledged purpose is profit through legitimate business transactionsOrganized Crime –…illegal activities of people/organization whose acknowledged purpose is profit through illegitimate business enterprise.

White-Collar Crime

Other Terms for White-Collar CrimeElite DevianceRespectable CrimeUpperworld CrimeTypes – Clinard & QuinneyOccupationalCorporate

White-Collar Crime

Clinard & Quinney – Types of WCCOccupational Crime –“…is committed by individuals in the course of their occupation for personal gain.”Corporate Crime –“…crime committed by corporations.”

Occupational Crime

Law Breaking for Personal Gain –Employee Theft –PilferageEmbezzlingFraud – (Professions)Physicians – Health care, improper billing, Medicaid Fraud, unnecessary surgery.

Occupational Crime

Fraud – (Professions) Cont’dLawyers –Billing clients for more time--- (Local examples)

Computer Crime -

Corporate CrimeOrganizational Criminality

Corporate Financial Crime –Price Fixing, Price GougingFalse AdvertisingCorporate Fraud – Antitrust violations

Corporate CrimeOrganizational Criminality

Corporate Violence-Workers and Unsafe WorkplacesConsumers and Unsafe ProductsAutomobile IndustryPharmaceutical IndustryFood IndustryPublic and Environmental Pollution

Components of White-CollarCrime

Other divisions of White-Collar criminality – Herbert EdelhertzAd-hoc violations – Committed episodically for personal gain.(Welfare fraud, tax cheating)Abuses of trust – Committed by a person in a place of trust in an organization against the organization. (Embezzlement, bribery,taking kickbacks)

Components of White-CollarCrime

Collateral Business Crimes-Committed by organizations to further their business interests. (Antitrust violations, use of false weights/measures,concealment of environmental crimes)Con Games – Committed for the sole purpose of cheating clients. (Fraudulent land sales, sales of bogus securities, sales of questionable tax shelters)