Throughout history there has always been problems with company violations and the law. Big companies have been getting away with “fraud, bribe taking, price gouging, mislabeling products, or violation of tax” (Garcia and Butler, 2005, p. 904) to name a few. Since 1939 a man named Edwin Sutherland, who was a sociologist interested in the focus of professional and powerful individuals (Garcia and Butler, 2005, p. 905), was able to put a meaning to white-collar crime after the problems the large companies have created. Sutherland defined white-collar crime as a “crime committed by individuals who are engaged in professional activities and who participate in criminal activity to benefit either themselves or their employers” (Garcia and Butler, …show more content…
905). Each of the types of crime are crimes that benefit the individual in charge of the business. Occupational crime is “crime for the benefit of the organization” (Garcia and Butler, 2005, p. 905). State authority occupational crimes are “crimes committed by officials as a result of an abuse of government” (Garcia and Butler, 2005, p. 905). Third type is professional occupational crime which are “crimes committed by professionals in the course of their occupation and in violation of the trust given to them” (Garcia and Butler, 2005, p. 905). And the last type, which is individual occupational crime are “crimes committed by individuals who are not government officials or professional elites and who commit these crimes through their occupation for individual benefit” (Garcia and Butler, 2005, p. 905). These crimes are considered crimes but they are completely different than street crimes even though they can be violent to some …show more content…
It is proven that white-collar crime committers do receive less of a punishment than street crime committers because of the fact that white-collar crime is not a violent crime, even if other think it is, and the nature of their social and economic status (Benson, 2010, p. 86). Examples from 2001 that have received fines and ended up in prison for about ten years involved Enron an American energy service, WorldCom a telecommunication corporation, and the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen (Batten, 2010, p. 387). Each of the “corporate officers were convicted of fraud and given prison terms” according to Batten, 2010. On the same note, taxpayers owed over three trillion dollars in tax revenue just to makeup for the fraud these businesses
Schanzenbach, Max; Yaeger, Michael L., (2006). Prison time, fines, and federal white-collar criminals: The anatomy of a racial disparity. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 96(2), p757-793. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
As we lose ourselves and our values, worth, and identity as people in the corporate culture, the objectives of monetary profit, status within a company, and machine-like work ethics replace our ethical judgement and our values as people. Perhaps there is nothing we can do about it; after all Skilling and Fastow did not realize what they were doing is immoral and illegal until they were sentenced or even released from their sentence. We are all too absorbed in this capitalistic corporate world we live in. Just like the ancient Chinese philosopher Fu Xuan said, “He who is close to the ink will be stained black,” (Fu, “Prince Shao Fu Xuan”), We have been too used to the immorality and unethical practices of corporate culture that we’re not only numb to the wrongdoings of others within this capitalist society, but we also replace our values as people and our ambitions to do good with objectives of the corporate world. Prebbles posed us the question that after centuries of capitalism’s existence in our society, will our ambitions to do good prevail against our monetary desires and the corporate norm of only profit-driven decisions?
Richman, D. (2013). Federal White Collar Sentencing in the United States: A Work In Progress.
White collar crime is a term created by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 that refers to crimes committed by people of higher social status, companies, and the government according to the book “White-Collar Crime in a Nutshell” by Ellen Podgor and Jerold Israel. White collar crimes are usually non-violent crimes committed in order to have a financial-gain (Podgor and Israel 3). A very well known white collar crime that has even been taught in many history classes is the Watergate scandal. This is a white collar crime that was committed by government authorities. Watergate was a crime that shocked the nation.
White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be
2 Companies are exposed to crimes either from the inside, or the outside. White-collar crime is a complication; harming companies in our society, which costs millions. An example of a white-collar crime would be the Ford Pinto case. When gas prices were rising in the United States, people started to search for economical cars.
E.). There are various costs of white-collar crime, although an accurate measurement is not easy, they are hard to asses as well as very complex. There are enormous financial losses, sometimes physical damage as a result of negligence, as well as social costs: weakened trust in a free economy, confidence loss in political organizations, and destruction of public morality. “White collar crime could also set an example of disobedience for the general public, with citizens who rarely see white-collar offenders prosecuted and sent to prison becoming cynical about the criminal justice system” (Conklin, J. E.). White-collar crime is undeniably a crime and often encompasses elaborate
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.
Within a company, illegal practices can be seen by many as the “in thing” and the people working within that environment may not see what they are doing as morally wrong. The issue of the lack of media coverage of these types of crimes must also not be overlooked.
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,
Shover, N, & Hochstetler, A. (2006). Choosing white-collar crime. New York, NY: Cambridge 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
This case illustrated that there were real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. (He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.) His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere.
White-collar crimes and organizational structure are related because white collar-crimes thrive in organizations that have weak structures. According to Price and Norris (2009), the elites who commit white collar-crimes usually exploit weaknesses in organizational structure and formulate rules and regulations that favor their crimes. Makansi (2010) examines case studies to prove that white-collar crime is dependent on organizational structure. For example, the financial crisis that Merchant Energy Business faced in 2001-2002 occurred due to the liberal Financial Accounting Board, which failed to provide a standard model of valuing natural gas and fuel. Moreover, a financial crisis that rocked the securitization market in 2008 was due to fraudulence in the pricing of securitization products. These examples ...
The U.S. Department of Labor (2011) reported the national average of unemployment for 2008 was 5.8 percent. The rate dramatically increased in 2009 with an average of 9.3 percent and 9.6 percent for 2010. While unemployment rates have increased, the FBI’s preliminary reports for 2010 show that law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have reported a decrease of 6.2 percent in the number of violent crimes for the first 6 months of 2010 when compared to figures reported for the same time in 2009. The violent crime category includes rape, murder, robbery, and aggravated result. The number of property crimes also decreased 2.8 percent when compared to the same time last year. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson decreased 14.6 percent when compared to the same time periods of 2009 (FBI, 2011).