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Sutherland concept of white collar crime
Positives and negatives of sentencing guidelines
Sutherlands definition of white collar crime
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Are millions of middle-class Americans really white-collar criminals? The unauthorized importation of prescription drugs from a foreign country is a federal crime. So is “sharing” copyrighted material without permission. Assisting someone in the commission of a federal crime is also a federal crime. Countless
American seniors purchase prescription drugs from
Mexican and Canadian pharmacies. Millions of Americans, including teens using family computers, share copyrighted music without paying for it.
According to the Department of Justice, “White-collar offenses shall constitute those classes of non-violent illegal activities which principally involve traditional notions of deceit, deception, concealment, manipulation, breach of trust, subterfuge
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In his landmark book, White Collar
Crime,1 first published in 1949, Sutherland dismisses the traditional mens rea (criminal intent) requirement and the presumption of innocence.2
He suggests that the “rules of criminal intent and presumption of innocence … are not required in all prosecution in criminal courts and the number of exceptions authorized by statutes is increasing.”
3 If nothing else, his disregard for age-old foundational principles of criminal law should cast doubt on the balance of Sutherland’s work.
Sutherland goes on to construct a class-based definition of “white-collar crime.” He is concerned with who the alleged perpetrator was, rather than what that person might have done. “White collar crime,” says Sutherland, is “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.”4 With this radical redefinition, Sutherland attempted to drain the word “crime” of its meaning. He made distinctions not on the basis of an act or intent, but according to the status of the accused.5 Professor Sutherland’s supporters have stated:
The term white-collar crime served to focus attention on the social position of the
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Intent is not normally considered in such enforcement actions; thus many of
Sutherland’s “crimes” may have been inadvertent, unintended acts.16 Nevertheless, Sutherland was determined to classify such acts as crimes.
Sutherland’s influence is clearly evident in the contemporary substance and practice of federal criminal law. Many federal offenses prosecuted under the label of “white-collar crime” are regulatory or public welfare offenses, rather than true crimes.17 The principal architect of the U.S. Sentencing
Commission’s guidelines for sentencing organizations cites Professor Sutherland’s “social science research,” among that of others, to explain the need for the guidelines, namely the “evidence of preferential treatment for white collar offenders.”18
Stigma Without Sin
Often, when convinced that a person or class of persons is guilty of a crime, people become impatient with legal niceties. Sutherland and others who assume the guilt of much of the business world believe that the ordinary protections of the law
The news article that I decided to do my assignment on is about a bank manager, Debra Anne Chapin, that embezzled 2 million dollars from a bank. The news article’s title is, “Former manager jailed for cheating bank out of $2M; Woman used cash to pay bills, gamble and feed her cocaine habit.” The crime took place in Calgary between June 1, 2006 and June, 30 2008. This embezzlement is a classic case of white collar crime and demonstrates numerous criminological theories.
Professor and Director of the Distance Learning Masters Program at The University of Cincinnati, Michael L. Benson has his Ph. D. in Sociology and is the author of "Denying the Guilty Mind: Accounting for Involvement in White-Collar Crime." In a classic study based on interviews with 30 convicted white-collar offenders all men, Benson examines the excuses and justifications used by White-Collar criminals to not only explain their involvement in the crime but also claim their innocence. It focuses mainly on the techniques that are used to deny they did anything wrong in categories separated by antitrust violators, tax violators, violations of financial trust and those committing fraud. Antitrust Violators focused on the everyday character and historical continuity of their offenses. They claimed to be following es...
The TV show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, often addresses criminal deviance such as rape and murder. In the episode, “Scorched Earth,” an African immigrant maid becomes a rape victim of a rich, Italian prime minister named Distascio (Wolf). This episode highlights how status can affect perception of certain deviant behaviors. Additionally, it addresses contemporary America’s values toward types of deviant acts, and sanctions that go along with them.
An experiment by Gerhard Blickle, and Alexander Schlegel attempted to recreate results of Collins and Schmidt’s study about psychological influences on white-collar crime. The experiment involved personality tests on 150 managers currently working in German corporations and 76 white-collar criminals. They compared the personality results of the criminals to the non-criminals, much like Collins and Schmidt’s experiment in the United States of America. Blickle and Schlegel found that white-collar crime offenders were more hedonistic (Blickle et al., 2006). Hedonistic individuals are those who engage in the pursuit of pleasure. According to the Rational Choice Theory, individuals commit crimes when they perceive the reward is greater than the punishment. For those who tend to pleasure seek, crime would seem the most rational choice. The crime’s reward is worth the possible punishment to these individuals. Blickle and Schlegal also found that narcissistic tendencies were more common in white-collar criminals (Blickle, et al., 2006). Narcissism is described as having overindulgent self interest and care for one’s appearance. These traits can add to the temptations of criminal activity. Caring for only oneself would allow illegally soliciting money from
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
white-collar crime” (Shapiro, S. P.). It is no surprise to anyone that positions of trust regularly decentralize to corporations, occupations, and “white-collar” individuals. Nevertheless, the concept of “white-collar crime” involves a false relationship between role-specific norms and the characteristics of those who typically occupy these roles. Most of the time, it is the offender that is looked at more than the crime itself and assumptions about the individuals automatically come into play. It has be to acknowledged that “ class or organizational position are consequential and play a more complex role in creating opportunities for wrongdoing and in shaping and frustrating the social control process than traditional stereotypes have allowed” (Shapiro, S. P.). The opportunities to partake in white-collar crime and violate the trust in which ones position carries are more dependent upon the individuals place in society, not just the work place. The ways in which white-collar criminals establish and exploit trust are an important factor in truly exploring and defining the concept of white-collar crime.
Today, worldwide, there are several thousands of crimes being committed. Some don’t necessarily require a lethal weapon but are associated with various types of sophisticated fraud, this also known as a white-collar crime. These crimes involve a few different methods that take place within a business setting. While ethical business practices add money to the bottom line, unethical practices are ultimately leading to business failure and impacting the U.S. financially.
White collar and corporate crimes are crimes that many people do not associate with criminal activity. Yet the cost to the country due to corporate and white collar crime far exceeds that of “street” crime and benefit fraud. White collar and corporate crimes refer to crimes that take place within a business or institution and include everything from Tax fraud to health and safety breaches.
Peterson, R, Krivo, L, & Hagan, J. (2006). The many colors of crime. NY: New York University Press.
White collar crimes do not garner as much media attention as that of violent crimes (Trahan, Marquart, & Mullings 2005). This is an odd fact because white collar crimes cost society much more than violent crimes do (Messner & Rosenfeld 2007). While there are many different definitions for white collar crime, Schoepfer and Piquero describe it as a nonphysical crime that is used to either obtain goods or to prevent goods from being taken (2006). People who commit these crimes are looking for personal or some sort of organizational gain and are being pressured to be economically successful from the idea of the American dream. The authors suggest that there are two types of people who commit crimes, those who have an immense desire for control and those who fear losing all they have worked hard for (Schopfer & Piquero 2006). Both groups have different reasons for turning to crime, but both groups commit the crime to benefit themselves. It was found that higher levels of high school drop outs were directly correlated to levels of embezzlement in white collar crime (2006). Because they are drop outs, they are less likely to be successful legitimately and turn to crime more often than their graduate
1. Reiman explains that the idea that white collar crime is taken less seriously is because it protects the elite classes. For example, if the public believes they should fear the poor more than the rich, the rich can commit more crimes and go unnoticed because the population is focused on the poor Reiman explains that that the way crime is explained does not exactly fit what we think crime is. He explains that the notion that white-collar crime being harmless is based on the idea that white collar crimes do not end in injury or death is false because more people’s lives are put at risk than “lower class” crimes. Reinman thinks it is necessary to re- educate the public on white-collar crimes for economic
Imagine working over thirty-five years with a successful company; faithfully contributing to your own retirement. Only to find out those two weeks prior to your first retirement vacation your account has been depleted. This crime is known as white-collar crime. White collar crime was coined in 1939, by a man named Edwin Sutherland. Sutherland defines white collar crime to be a crime committed by the perpetrator during the course of his or her occupation( S. Rosoff, H. Pontell, R. Tillman). White collar crime is happening every day. In general terms, non-violent crimes for financial gain were stated in this subject as well. White collar crime is what many in society fail to express as other would if it was street crime. If society as whole were to become more knowledgeable and understanding of the magnitude behind white collar crime, then they too would realize and immediate affect behind a violent act is not more harmful than one such as white collar. White collar crime which often time take affect years
Henning, P. (2013, February 25). The challenge of sentencing white-collar defendants. New York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/the-challenge-of-sentencing-white-collar-defendants
...occurrence of white-collar crimes in organizations. In this view, to combat white-collar crimes, the criminal justice system needs to devise interventions that target organizational structure, organizational culture, and personality traits in the prevention of white-collar crimes.
MacDonald, H. (2010, January 4). A crime theory demolished. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870359090504574638024055735590.ht