White collar crime

Definition of white collar crime based on what a group of criminologist came up with

White collar crimes are illegal or unethical acts that violate fiduciary responsibility of public trust committed by an individual or organization, usually during the course of legitimate occupational activity, by personal or organizational gain.

Class

as originally conceived of Sutherland, white collar crime is of the upper or better-off class. -offenders usually have a legitimate job

corporate crime

offenses committed by corporate officials for their corporation and the offenses of the corporation itself.

polemical

the 1st stage, who society identifies to be criminals. Challenges popular tendency to associate criminality with inner-city residents, minorities, young men, and conventional illegal activities such as homicide, robbery, and burglary. Challenges the conventional crime consciousness.

Societies fears

we fear the things that often pose the least amount of risk and vice versa. lets take for example, we are all worried about living near a nuclear plant because of a melt down which is highly unlikely to occur, but we don't fear the air bag crisis that is going on today that is way more likely to occur and kill you.

Age

white collar criminal are more likely to be middle aged or older being that their offending starts at a later age. In this type of case we see that they are usually recidivist, if they believe they can get away with it they will continue. This type of crime doesn't follow the "age out" notion.

VICTIMS OF WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

- All of us are victims of various white collar crimes, often without being aware of it - We are generally less likely to be aware of the victimization than when victimized by a conventional crime o Workers and employees are victimized by hazardous and illegal conditions o Consumers are victims of price fixing and the sale of unsafe products. Air bag crisis in the us-> you tube Takata impact us on the daily bases and we are just simply unaware of it. - Most forms of white collar crime victimization are defined as accidents or "disasters" beyond human control - Victims of white collar crime who are aware of their victimization are often confused about how to report it and pessimistic about assistance from the criminal justice system.

The principal criteria for differentiating between the types of white collar crime, broadly defined are as follows:

- Context in which illegal activity occurs, including the setting(e.g., corporation, government agency, professional service) and the level within the setting(e.g., individual, workgroup, organization) - Status or position of offender(e.g., wealthy or middle class, chief executive officer or employee) - Primary Victims(e.g., general public or individual clients) - Principal form of harm(e.g, economic loss or physical injury) - Legal classification(e.g., antirust, fraud)

VICTIMIZATION SURVEY AND SELF REPORT STUDIES

- Crime data collected from sources less removed from the criminal event is more likely to be more accurate. - Victims may not always be aware of their victimization until much later. - In private surveys, btw 1/3-3/4 of the respondents reported having been deceived or defrauded my marketing schemes self-report studies involve respondents being asked to report anonymously on their own lawbreaking activities, and have releveled much higher levels of illegal activity than are suggested by official data. - For the most part, these surveys have focused on juveniles and not white collar criminals

The social movement against white collar crime

- Emerging movements on behalf of minorities, consumers, and the environment highlighted social inequities and injustices and fed into increasing attention to white collar crime - Conflict theory directed more attention to the crimes of the state and the economic elites and the disproportionate role of the rich and the powerful in the lawmaking process. - Moral entrepreneur there is people out there that have the ability to organize movement and raise this public conciseness about white collar crime, they condemn a form of behavior and are in a position to mobilize people to demand legal action in response to it

Studying white collar crime and assessing its cost

- How can we best study and understand the many different dimensions of white collar crime? - We can begin by recognizing that all studies of white collar crime explicitly or implicitly adopt assumptions about such matters as: 1. The nature of reality 2. Human nature 3. Basis of morality 4. The character of society

INDIRECT COST

- Indirect cost are higher taxes, increased cost of goods and services and higher insurance rates. - In conventional crimes, these cost are: o Cost of locks, gates, burglary alarms, etc. - The convectional criminal justice system expends proportionally less money on white collar crime than conventional crime, despite the much greater cost of white collar crime. - Residual economic costs of crime are also a consequence of white collar crime o For conventional street crime, the loss of business for retail stores in high crime areas is an example of a residual economic cost. o For WCC investors' confidence may suffer following an investment fraud by others. Even those not impacted by the fraud may take their money out of the markets.

OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH

- Involves direct observation of individuals, a group, or an organization over a period of time. - Its' use is limited in white collar crime because gaining access to either criminal enterprises or social control agencies is difficult. - When access is granted, individuals may behave differently because they know they are being observed. - Secondary data is not directly generated or collected by the researcher - It takes form of statistical information collected by various official agencies - The validity of any analysis of statistical data is limited by the quality and accuracy of the data.

Gaining access to research

- It is difficult to get powerful people and institutions to cooperate with research projects. - To obtain cooperation of an organization in a research project on aspects of corporation crime, the proposal must: 1. Be delivered in a non-threatening way 2. Incorporate a framework 3. Use terminology familiar to the organization 4. Be viewed as having some potential benefit or "payoff"

Challenges in studying white collar crime:

- Lack of agreement regarding the definition. - Complexity of some offenses o Large corporations potentially working together, conducting sophisticated transactions, over a long period . o May go on for long periods to the discovery - Difficult to identify offenders and gain permission to be studied - A lack of official statistics when compared with conventional crime. - Lack of research funding- especially at the federal level

Experiments

- Rarely used un the study of white collar crime. - Classical experiment calls for an examination of the effects of an independent variable o Control and experimental groups o Intervention or treatment o Ore and post-test o Random assignment - Laboratory experiments are highly controlled and have specific settings - Field experiments are carried out in real life setting rather than laboratory o car insurance repair examples from text book - Natural experiments allow the researcher to observe, but not manipulate, a real world situation in order to identify the effect of some relevant independent variable. o Compare number of workplace accidents following inspections to workplaces that do not have inspections

MEASURING WHITE COLLAR CRIME: HOW PREVALENT IS IT?

- Several studies of victims of consumer fraud have documented that such victims are unlikely to report the crime to police. - Many organizational victims of fraud are especially reluctant to file reports because they fear negative publicity and a public loss of confidence in them .

DIRECT COST

- Some economic cost of white collar crime are clearly direct cost o Bernie Madoff stole $20 billion - Financial losses are immense and dwarf those of conventional crimes o $250 -$600 billion for WCC (annually) o $4 billion for conventional forms of crime (annually)

SURVEYS

- Survey are another major research method - Can be used to study opinions, attitudes, beliefs and experiences - Three challenges: o Sampling and generalizability of results o Response rates o Asking questions that aren't loaded: Bad questions: did you embezzle money because you needed money to support your family? Response yes-no Better question: why did you embezzle money? • Support family yes/no • To gain material success yes/no • Because you didn't like your employer yes/no o Surveys have also attempted to establish the stigmatizing and deterrent effect of criminal sanctions for white collar offense Often uses scenarios and vignettes • Can ask about personality, perceived likelihood of being caught, manipulated different aspects of the scenarios and randomly distribute the scenarios to the sample

Case Studies

- The case study is the in depth study of a single case, drawing upon a wide range of sources and resources, including court records new reports and interviews. -The overriding advantage of the case study is that it can provide us with a concrete understanding of the dynamics and realities of a particular white collar case.

Scholar research and white collar crime

- The formal study of white collar crime has used variety of research methods - researchers might use a mixture of case study, interviews, direct observation and analysis of secondary data. o Secondary data is data that has already been collected which would be things like official statistic and information from the department of corrections. o Primary data would be us going out and doing our own data

criminal career

- The largest proportion of conventional crime offenders "age out" if such activity - As they get older ,they are less likely to engage in such activities as robbery or auto theft - These offenders have commonly been regarded as committing only one form of white collar crime - The offense is typically viewed as a relatively isolated incident in a legitimate occupational career - With the crime not being repeated after the offender has been caught.

CONTENT ANALYSIS

- The method that systematically analyzes the representation of something in the media. - Content analysis of newspaper and other such sources documents the high level of occurrence of white collar crime. - CJ Agencies pay more attention to conventional crime than to white collar crime. This impacts data quality. - Because regulatory agencies often focus their enforcement activities on corporations rather than on individuals, they often lack data on individual offenders.

Specific Forms of suffering of white collar crime victims

- The physical impact of white collar crime takes many forms o Development of painful and fatal conditions o Physical maladies ranging from birth defects to sterility to cancer o Minor injuries and illnesses - The physical suffering is different than conventional crime because: o The realization of victimization is likely to be more gradual, occurring years after the illegal event or process. o White collar crime is less likely to have a sharply defined target.

The role of the media explanations

- There are a few explanations on why there is little coverage of white collar crimes; 1. There is more indirect harm experienced by individual victims 2. Public resistance to viewing corporations as criminal 3. Large and wealthy media organizations may not be inclined to link other large and wealthy organizations with criminality. To preserve their own projection of respectability. - Exposing white collar crime 1. White collar crime, as a rule, is less visible than conventional crime 2. It comes to the attention of police because victims and witnesses report it and the police even observe some of it directly 3. It takes place behind closed door. Many of its victims are not aware that a crime has been perpetrated against them. It's not instant it takes a while for people to realize they have been victimized.

PHYSICAL COST

- These include a personal injury and loss of life - Are most immediately associated with conventional predatory crime - Physical cost of white collar crime exceed such costs for violent personal crime - Physical cost associated with white collar crime include: o Death and injury, pollution, Insafe working conditions, and unsafe products. - These include phycological trauma of victimization o "Every time we get the credit card bill, I start shaking just wondering what kind of charges will be on there." Elderly fraud victim in the Villages - For white collar crimes, these include distrust and erosion of confidence in major institutions o These may include alienation, de-legitimation, and cynicism The foreclosure crisis depressed voter turnout

Research methods for studying white collar crime

- We are all exposed to white collar crime through the media - The quality and credibility of reports vary greatly - There is an intrinsic bias in much of the media towards the sensational; getting a good story often takes precedence over a balance and thoroughly accurate representation of the facts - Major media have both formidable resources and the access that are often required for effective investigations of the illegal activities of high level-governmental or corporate officials - Journalisms played a major role in reporting and analyzing recent corporate scandals and alleged wrongdoing, at least in the wake of their exposure.

Respectability and white collar crime

- respectability is not easily defined, respectability can be faked and not linked with specific norms for acceptable behavior. For the purpose of this class we have 3 different meanings: -normative meaning or an assessment of moral integrity. -a status related meaning, a legitimate position or occupation -symptomatic or the outward appearance of acceptable or superior status.

Informant and Whistle blowers

-informants/informers- provide criminal justice system personnel with crucial information that can lead to the investigation, arrest, indictment and conviction of law violators. -they have provided information in exchange for payment, a favorable arrangement concerning criminal charges against themselves, or both Inappropriate lenience may be extended to informants who themselves have committed serious crimes Cases against major offenders often cannot be made w/o the assistance of informers Informers may use their status as informer to commit additional crimes with

Criminologist who study White collar crime have generally been in the agreement that it

-it occurs in a legitimate occupational context -is motivated by the objective of economic gain or occupational success -is not characterized by direct, intentional violence

Journalism

-journalist periodically expose wrongdoing but he powerful and privileged -investigators reporting of white collar crime is unappealing to television network executive. -most white collar crime do not provide vivid visual images -investigating these crimes are time consuming -many of the stories cannot be converted in the brief TV segments typically available -these is a strong temptation to go with sensationalistic stories rather than in depth investigations of complex white collar crimes.

The role of politician and political institutions

-political institutions are both the locus of major forms of corruption and illegal activity and a principle instrument for the exposure and prosecution of such activity -flint water crisis "judges corrupt health chief lyon heads to trial on flint crisis manslaughter charges" -Politicians often have a complex net of close ties with corporations and businesspeople whose improper and illegal activities they are sometimes compelled to expose -politicians have generally found it more attractive to attach street crime and call for "law and order" than to attack the crimes of powerful corporations -which may be among their biggest financial supporters.

Class-Yale university projected on white collar crime examined the membership of those formally charged with white collar offense and the result were:

-social status and class are much less of a factor determining the seriousness of white collar crime than is control over organization structure and resources. -manager are often more directly implicated in the most serious white collar crimes than are owners. -they are significantly more likely to be middle and upper class than are conventional crime offenders.

The role of the media

-the media are a crucial source of our understanding of crime because few people experience a wide variety of crime firsthand. - Crime is portrayed in the media, with an emphasis on sensational, especially violent crimes. - this serves the ideological function of deflecting attention from the structural and political sources of crime. - reporting of corporate crime did not generally attribute criminal wrong doing to the corporation

What do these have in common? -a pharmacist is convicted of diluting cancer drugs to enhance his profits. - a bookkeeper embezzles money from her employer to pay her bills.

-typical crimes don't come to mind. -the offender or offending organization enjoy a relatively high level trust and respectability at-least when compared to street crime. -these laws have not been a traditional focus on of the law and the justice system, which has responded to them in various ways **the term white collar crime is a source of confusion even though it is familiar to many**

Underlying assumptions and different perspective

1. Positivistic approach: draws on the tradition of the natural and physical sciences, generally assumes that white collar crime can be studied "scientifically" They believe that the best way to study white collar crime is through systematic observation and quantitative analysis. 2. Humanistic approach: rejects traditional scientific methods and looks to the tradition of humanities They belief that the best way to observe white collar crime is through interpretive observation and quality methods. • For example: you want to conduct a study on contract fraud , but there is no other studied that tell you how or what is important to measure. IF there was studies out there other studies might facilitate out analyses and interviews.

What is the multistage approach to white collar crime

1. polemical 2.typological 3.operational

Typology

2nd stage is to organize patterns of crime and criminal behavior into coherent or homogenous categories, to facilitate both explaining and responding to crime. -typologies provide a necessary point of departure for any meaningful discussion of white collar crime. occupational crime: Clinard and Quinney define it as a violation of the legal codes in the course of activity in a legitimate occupation. They considered this formulation more useful than Sutherland's conception of white collar crime, which is restricted to high status offenders. designated corporate crime as but distinct form of occupational crime.

How can we encourage whistleblowing?

A lot of it goes against their self-interest because you want to maintain you job and male friends so how can we encourage it? The institution puts policies in place and make it mandatory to engage in whistleblowing if they see unethical or fraudulent behavior. Management need to support this, When there are accusation there needs to be policies in place for anonymity and make sure that they won't lose their jobs and accusations need to be taken seriously. -whistleblowers pay a substation price for their action: -retaliation -traumatic personal consequences -suicide, divorce, loss of a home

Race

African Americans are disproportionately represented in FBI index crimes. -African American and other minorities are highly unlikely to be charged with white collar crimes such as antitrust or corporate wrongdoing.

Obtaining statistics

Because there is no real white collar crime equivalent to uniform crime report data must be obtained from various limited sources such as: - Government agency and annual financial reports - Newspapers - Journals Direct observation is the least effective method because of the large number of actors involved and their dispersal over time and place.

What sociologist inspired Sutherland?

E.A. Ross, in 1907 he promoted the notion of the criminaloid the businessman who committed exploitative, if not necessarily illegal, acts out of an uninhibited desire to maximize profit, all the while hiding behind a facade of respectability and piety. - there behavior was threatening to a just and decent capitalist society.

who is Edwin H. Sutherland?

He is generally given the credit for introducing the term white collar crime into literature in 1939 Alluded: crime in the upper or white collar classes, composed of respectable or at-least respected business and respectable men/ violation of delegated or implied trust.

Sex

Males greatly outnumber females in conventional crime offenders. -data indicates that the female arrest rate for white collar crimes has been one quarter or one fifth of the males arrest rates. -the male dominance of corporations and outside the home occupations, especially the most powerful positions, would seem to be clearly the most important factor explaining why males outnumber women.

Complex nature of white collar crime

Since the 1970 the unit of analysis in white collar crime studies has increasingly shifted from the individual to the organization. White collar crime is complex and involves large organization acting in concert with each other, numerous individuals occupying different position within these organizations and, a series of complicated transactions carried out over long periods of time. In comparison to street crime it's not that obvious when you are being victimized. When someone commit white collar crime the victim a lot of times don't realize right away that they are being victimized.

What were the examples of white collar criminality that Sutherland gave?

White collar criminality in businesses include various forms of misrepresentation, manipulation, embezzlement, and bribery. Sutherland suggested that white collar crime was a long establish American tradition. -He pointed out that the white collar classes have both special influence on the formulation of criminal laws and various means of minimizing the chances of criminal convictions.

Whistleblowers

is a related crucial source of info needed for the detection and ultimately the prosecution, of many white collar crimes Although WB have in common with informers an insider's perspective on the illegal activity WB are not engaging in the offense themselves -White collar criminal may work with colleagues and associates who are not committed to the illegal activity or are directly opposed to it. -Most of these associates will not "blow the whistle " People will not Blow the whistle for many reason: -Self-preservation ethos -Fear of social ostracism -Reverse whistleblowing

THE COST AND CONSEQUENCE OF WHITE COLLAR CRIME

measuring the economic cost of crime is more difficult for white collar crime than conventional and other forms of crime because: o Because of the ongoing debate about the definition of white collar crime o A high percentage of white collar crime is with not reported or officially identified compared to conventional crimes o There is no uniform way to measure costs even when a crime is identified and reported

Risk and White Collar Crime

the risk is a wage or the probability of an event occurring, a great danger and alludes to negative outcomes exclusively. - the chance of being caught is low, prosecution and sanctioning are even lower than that. -one distinctive element of much white collar crime is the absence of the specific intent to cause harm -Their main function is making the pursuit or economic efficiency paramount over all other objectives. -profits over safety of employees and the public ex: the buffalo creek disaster

Trust and white collar crime

the term trust refers to confidence in a relationship that the other party will act honorably and fulfill legitimate expectations. - this applies to the bank we use to the retail business from which we purchase goods.

Operational

the third stage: On this level, the objective of the definition is to provide a point of departure for focused empirical research or comparative critical analysis -it pay no attention to the power of the offender -it is most easily define in negative terms; it refers to illegal or harmful activity, that is neither street crime or conventional crime.

Why are corporation more likely to take risk in white collar crime?

they are more likely to take certain types of risks if they have reason to believe they can get away with it. -they tend to accept higher levels of risk of employees than to the general public. This is because accidents with the public are more likely to get media attention,

White collar crime 1949- Sutherland

this was his last major study before his death in 1950. In this book he focused on the 70 largest U.S. manufacturing, mining, and mercantile corporations with respect to the legal decision against them concerning allegations of wrongdoing. He concluded that 97% of the corporations, each with two or more adverse decisions, were criminal recidivist.