Crime Vs Green Collar Crime

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Crime as we know it, is forever changing in society today. The “colors of crime” provide a limited but, very detailed scope of crimes. Blue, White and Green collar crimes shows us a scope of crime that has existed for centuries but, still thrives to this day. While white and green collar crimes have many similarities, both have different viewpoints that describes each set of crimes individually. First, white collar crimes were first defined by Edward Sutherland as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” (Seigel 2017). These crimes are commonly committed by the wealthy and high-end members of the business world. Oddly enough these crimes were not subject to criminal prosecution …show more content…

Green collar crimes are often less heard of in today’s society but, frequently have a major impact. Green collar crimes are best defined as organizations trying to gain profits by avoiding the payment of governmental fees, logging in restricted areas, or poaching protected fish and animals (Seigel 2017). One of the most prolific and commonly used supermarkets in the United States is the perfect example of this scenario. Walmart, in 2013 pleaded guilty to multiple counts of illegally dumping hazardous materials outside of their stores. According to the FBI “Walmart did not have a program in place and failed to train its employees on proper hazardous waste management and disposal practices at the store level. As a result, hazardous wastes were either discarded improperly at the store level—including being put into municipal trash bins or, if a liquid, poured into the local sewer system” (FBI 2017). Although this crime seems petty and small in nature, Walmart profited by saving in program and disposal cost in all of their stores resulting in millions of dollars and causing major environmental damages by dumping in sewer

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