White Collar Crime

white collar crime

sutherland definition- a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status within the course of an occupation FBI definition- those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which aren't dependent upon the application or threat of force or violence Conventional Definition- violation of the law committed by a person or group of persons in the course of an otherwise respected and legitament occupation

violent corporate crimes

-100,000 deaths every year ex. unsafe products (GM faulty ignition), medical negligence, unsafe job practices (construction companies, mining companies)

costs

-300 billion a year -the cost of WCC was over 25 times that of street crime -medicare and medicade fraud- 1 billion a year -other researches claim up to 1 trillion -fraud/deception costs taxpayers 150 billion (ex. enron) -bribary/corruption costs taxpayers 15 billion a year -antitrust violations cost 350 billion a year

WCC vs. Street Crime

-murder- 15,696 deaths vs. WCC 100,000 deaths offenders Street crime- young, black, poor, male WCC- male, white, rich - people commit crimes to which they have access -WCC includes much more money with much less risk victims Street Crime- similar to offender profile WCC- everyone

Enron People

Ken Lay -tried with skilling -6 criminal accounts -securities/wired fraud -convicted on all accounts -faced 45 years -fatal heart attack 6 weeks after conviction Jeffery Skilling -28 criminal accounts -security/wire fraud, insider trading, conspiricy -convicted 19 accounts -sentenced to 24 years -payed 630 million to gov -in appeal court, prosecuters take 10 years off sentence -scheduled to get out in 2019 Andy Fastow -98 criminal accounts -testified against Lay and Skilling -sentenced to 6 years -released in 2011 working as a clerk and does speaking engagements Lou Pai -left enron with 300 million -no criminal charges -faced criminal charges of insider trading

Types

Occupational- crime committed by individuals without the support or encouragement of the organization Organizational- offences committed by the organizations as a whole or by individuals with the support or encouragement of the organization

Violent crime vs. Corporate crime

VC- points at one thing/person CC-confusion on whose fault VC- includes hate crimes as a motivation CC- doesn't really target any groups VC- makes you be afraid of poor people CC- people dont look at white collar crime as a threat to society