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Bribery and ethics
White collar crime versus street crime
White collar crime versus street crime
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It is customary to divide the categories of crimes, according to their violence ratio. For example, there are violent crimes, typically thought of as street crime, such as first degree, second degree, manslaughter and non-violent crimes such as blackmail, bribery, embezzlement, and forgery. However, the term “violent” can be applied to both street crimes and white collar crimes. Although street crimes are usually thought of as taking something by force, white collar crimes are typically perpetrated by a “respectable person”. The Department of Justice defines white collar crimes as “those classes of non-violent illegal activities which principally involve traditional ideas of deceit, deception, concealment, manipulation, breach of trust, …show more content…
For instance, any financial crime can leave individuals without shelter, money, or any reasonable quality of life due to the white collar offense. Therefore, white collar crime may not involve force, they still may affect people physically. As a matter of fact, white collar crime may result in a greater impact than street crimes. Nevertheless, we continue to operate on a dichotomy of beliefs regarding violent and non-violent crimes. In this paper, we will explore white collar crime as a non-violent crime. Those crimes under discussion are blackmail, bribery, embezzlement, and forgery. In addition, we will discuss violent crimes such as first degree, second degree, and manslaughter (Verstein, …show more content…
Bribery occurs when money, services, goods, information, or anything else of value is offered with intent to influence a person’s actions, decisions, or opinions of the accuser. Charges can be brought against an individual, whether they offered the bribe or accept it. Bribery and public corruption cases frequently make headlines new stories daily. Bribes can take the forms of gifts or payments of money in exchange for favorable treatment like awards of government contracts (Mince-Didler, n.d.). Government officials tend to gain a huge incentive with bribery while serving their term. Other forms of bribes may include privileges, services, various goods, property and favors. Bribes are always intended to influence or alter the actions of individuals with political and public corruption (Mince-Didler, n.d.). A written agreement is deemed necessary to prove the crime of bribery; however, prosecutors must show corrupt intent for proof of this crime. For the majority of situations, both parties such as the offering and the acceptance of the bribe will be charged with bribery. Bribery also occurs within the criminal justice system and traditionally it was limited to the judges who took money in exchange for ruling a certain way on a particular crime that was committed. In the past,
There are many reasons that bribery can be committed. Some are to influence the result of something, influence a person with power or to encourage someone of something (Page 172). Sometimes people are bribed to act a certain way or lean towards a specific point of view. The ultimate goal of a bribe to pay of someone to alter their perception. I personally believe, that bribery happens more often than the average citizen knows. It is harder to prove that someone was given a large amount of money or something of value to influence something. Though there have been several cases. For example, in recent news, with the elections of the newly elected leader for FIFA, an alleged bribery case has
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.
The forms of bribery and embezzlement have been around longer than dirt. The earliest white-collar crime, that was documented, dates back to the 15th century in England. The law was forced upon society in 1473 in response to embezzlement, or also recognized as the Carrier’s Case. In this situation, a wool representative gave a man his trust in transporting. Unfortunately, the man ended up attempting to steal some of the wool for himself. Although, these terms were known around this time, the concept of the crime wasn’t well understood until around the 20th century ("History of White-Collar Crime”).
Bribery and corruption are commonly thought of in relation to politics and governmental corruption. The truth is, bribery and corruption raise their ugly heads in a broad range of situations, from executive contracts, to gaining freedoms, services and nepotisms. Sports is another ground in which bribery and corruption commonly occur. Because the very nature of bribery and corruption is private, the general public absorbs only of those few schemes in which the parties have been caught.
In order to coherently understand the meaning of white collar crime, Friedrichs (2010) states that it must be approached in stages. The first stage is polemical, and is related to the definition. The second and third stages are typological and operational. As previously mentioned, white collar crime has been quite heavily debated, and currently there is no definition that is generally accepted by criminologists. Some argue that the term white collar crime should be abandoned altogether, and another issue is where it is appropriate to draw the line between legal practices and illegal practices (Hayes & Prenzler, 2012; Dobovšek & Slak, 2015). Throughout time, the scope of white collar crime has broadened to include many other typologies of white collar crime, due to the fact that technology has and continues to advance. The most common types of white collar crime include occupational crime, corporate crime, state crime, financial
White collar crime can be a very complicated topic because of how fairly new it is. Edwin H. Sutherland helped coin the term white collar crime in December 1939, during his presidential address “The White Collar Criminal” (Friedrichs, 2010). Although white collar crimes had been happening throughout most of history, they didn’t get as much attention until more recently. Since white collar crime is still so new, all definitions have been under a lot of scrutiny. The definition that is currently most acknowledged comes from a group of criminologists that got together in a group, to come up with a definition for white collar crime and that would be accepted by the majority. This group defines white collar crimes as:
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
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
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.
This Article exhibits that this claim is not accurate in any event not in the ways generally believed (Buell, 2014). Law and routine with regards to condemning, confirmation, and criminal technique cannot powerfully be depicted as privileging the white-collar offender. The substantive criminal law makes charges in white collar cases simpler to bring and harder to argue against than in other cases. Implementation organizations and the political economy in which they exist incorporate highlights that both shelter corporate guilty parties and uplift their exposure to criminal obligation. Corporate performing artists appreciate a vast preferred standpoint in legitimate guard assets in respect to others. That advantage, be that as it may, does not pay off as one may anticipate. A completely created case of benefit can be maintained just by demonstrating that essential American courses of action of criminal law and policing have been
With this being said, looking through a conflict theorist point of view white – collar crimes are easily avoided by finically wealthier and secure individuals. White – collar crimes are usually committed by upper class people or people in position of power whereas street crime is committed by lower class citizens. Like strain theory, these crimes are typically committed by opportunity and strain within a person life. However, those in positions of power tend to abuse their authority and because of their position get away with it rather than someone from a lower socioeconomic
Criminology is the scientific study of crimes and criminal behaviour. Criminological theories and research aim at giving us an understanding of the reasons and factors that influence why people commit crimes. There are two main types of crime: Blue collar crime and white collar crime. Blue-collar crimes is the term used to describe crimes that are committed primarily by people who are from a lower socioeconomic class while white-collar crime is usually committed by people in a higher socioeconomic class. The main difference between the two is “white-collar” crime is usually considered to be a victimless crime in which there is no one directly made to be in a worse situation than what they were in before . An example of the more common street
Fraud and white-collar crime are common forms of crimes that people commit in various aspects and positions in the corporate world. Fraud and white-collar crimes have similar meaning as they refer to the non-violent crimes that people commit with the basic objective of gaining money using illegal means. The cases of white-collar crimes have been increasing exponentially in the 21st century due to the advent of technology because fraudsters apply technological tools in cheating, swindling, embezzling, and defrauding people or organizations. White-collar crime is a complex issue in society because its occurrence is dependent on many factors such as organizational structure, organization culture, and personality traits. Thus, the literature review examines how organizational structure, organizational culture, and personality traits contribute to the occurrence of white-collar crimes.
In present day all around the world, bribery involving the courts are a huge problem. Many people will bribe the judges to persuade the case in many ways. Others just want to have a better case for themselves. Many of the things that happen in bribery is the many elements to why it happens, why people do it, things put in place to solve the solutions, and what people want for later on.
The complexness of the criminal justice system is without doubt caused by the complexness of crime. Crime is outlined as “Conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal, or an area jurisdiction, that there's no wrongfully acceptable justification or excuse.”. although several classifications of kinds of crime exist, four classes total up the kinds of crimes committed by most offenders; violent crime, social group, white collar crime and victimless crimes.