User:Ladymobamba/White Collar Crime

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The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crimecommitted by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation". Typical white-collar crimes could include wage theft, fraud, bribery, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, labor racketeering, embezzlement, cybercrime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery. White-collar crime overlaps with corporate crime.

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Blue-collar crime[edit]

The types of crime committed are a function of what is available to the potential offender. Thus, those employed in relatively unskilled environments have fewer opportunities to exploit than those who work in situations where large financial transactions occur. Blue-collar crime tends to be more obvious and thus attracts more active police attention such as vandalism or shoplifting. In contrast, white-collar employees can incorporate legitimate and criminal behavior, thus making themselves less obvious when committing the crime. Therefore, blue-collar crime will more often use physical force, whereas in the corporate world, the identification of a victim is less obvious and the issue of reporting is complicated by a culture of commercial confidentiality to protect shareholder value. It is estimated that a great deal of white-collar crime is undetected or, if detected, it is not reported.

Corporate crime[edit]

Corporate crime benefits the corporation (company or other type of business organization), rather than individuals. It may, however, result from decisions of high-ranking individuals within the corporation. Corporations are not, unlike individuals, litigated in criminal courts, which means the term "crime" does not really apply. Litigation usually takes place in civil courts or by institutions with jurisdiction over specific types of offences, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that litigates violations of financial market and investment statutes.

State-corporate crime[edit]

State-corporate crime is “illegal or socially injurious actions that occur when one or more institutions or political governance pursue a goal in direct cooperation with one or more institutions of economic production and distribution.”[1]The negotiation of agreements between a state and a corporation will be at a relatively senior level on both sides, this is almost exclusively a white-collar "situation" which offers the opportunity for crime. Although law enforcement claims to have prioritized white-collar crime, evidence shows that it continues to be a low priority.

When senior levels of a corporation engage in criminal activity using the company this is sometimes called control fraud.

Organized transnational crime[edit]

Organized transnational crime is organized criminal activity that takes place across national jurisdictions, and with advances in transportation and information technology, law enforcement officials and policymakers have needed to respond to this form of crime on a global scale[2]. Some examples include human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling, illegal arms dealing, terrorism, and cybercrime. Although it is impossible to precisely gauge transnational crime, the Millennium Project, an international think tank, assembled statistics on several aspects of transnational crime in 2009:

  • World illicit trade of almost $780 billion
  • Counterfeiting and piracy of $300 billion to $1 trillion
  • Global drug trade of $321 billion

Red Collar Crime[edit]

When a white collar criminal turns violent, it becomes red collar crime. This can take the form of killing a witness in a fraud trial to silence them, or murdering someone who exposed the fraud. Such as a journalist, detective or whistleblower, for example. Perri and Lichtenwald defined Red Collar Crime as:

“This sub-group is referred to as red-collar criminals because they straddle both the white-collar crime arena and, eventually, the violent crime arena. In circumstances where there is threat of detection, red-collar criminals commit brutal acts of violence to silence the people who have detected their fraud and to prevent further disclosure.”

According to a 2018 report by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, Homicide is the third highest cause of death in the American workplace. The Atlantic magazine reported that red collar criminals often have traits of narcissism and psychopathy, which ironically, are seen as desirable qualities in the recruitment process. Even though it puts a company at risk of employing a white collar criminal.

One investigator, Richard G. Brody, said that the murders might be difficult to detect, being mistaken for accidents or suicides:

“Whenever I read about high-profile executives who are found dead, I immediately think red-collar crime,” he said. “Lots of people are getting away with murder.”

Occupational crime[edit]

Occupational crime is “any act punishable by law that is committed through opportunity created on the course of an occupation that is legal.”[3] Individuals may commit crime during employment or unemployment. The two most common forms are theft and fraud. Theft can be of varying degrees, from a pencil to furnishings to a car. Insider trading, the trading of stock by someone with access to publicly unavailable information, is a type of fraud.

Crimes related to national interests[edit]

The crimes related to the national interests consist mainly of treason. In the modern world, there are a lot of nations which divide the crimes into some laws. "Crimes Related to Inducement of Foreign Aggression" is the crime of communicating with aliens secretly to cause foreign aggression or menace. "Crimes Related to Foreign Aggression" is the treason of co-operating with foreign aggression positively regardless of the national inside and outside. "Crimes Related to Insurrection" is the internal treason. Depending on a country, criminal conspiracy is added to these. One example is Jho Low, a mega thief and traitor who stole billions in USA currency from a Malaysian government fund and is now on a run as a fugitive.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Rorie, Melissa (2020). The Handbook of White-Collar Crime. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 84. ISBN 9781118774885.
  2. ^ Williams, Phil (2012). Security Studies: An Introduction (PDF). Routledge. p. 505.
  3. ^ Friedrichs, David O. (2002). "Occupational crime, occupational deviance, and workplace crime: Sorting out the difference". Criminal Justice. 2 (3): 245–246. ISSN 1466-8025.