White collar crime exam 1

why did sutherland disagree with the criminological theory that crime was concentrated in the lower social class

1. doesnt explain lower class criminality 2. most poverty stricken people are not criminal 3. data taken from the poverty stricken classes are based on a biased sample that omits almost entirely the behavior of white collar criminals

self control theory

According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, the view that the cause of delinquent behavior is an impulsive personality. Kids who are impulsive may find that their bond to society is weak.

who wrote the most well known and influential example of what has been called the offender-based approach to defining white collar crime

Sutherland

non-prosecution or deferred prosecution agreements

the corporation agrees to institute reforms to prevent future offending in return for not being criminally charged

what creates societal strain

the emphasis placed on individual material success coupled with limited access to opportunities and legitimate means of achievement

offender-based definitions emphasize

the high social status, power, and respectability of the actor

conceptual acrobatics

the process of applying standard criminological theories to white collar crime

there has been an increase in

the proportion of white collar offenders with a college degree

what is the major challenge for those who measure white collar crime

there is no single centralized agency responsible for recording instances of white collar crime

white collar victimization

whenever you engage in a business transaction with any sort of professional, there is a potential for __________________.

Jay Albanese

white collar crime is "planned or organized illegal acts of deception or fraud, usually accomplished during the course of legitimate occupational activity, committed by an individual or corporate entity"

Personal crimes

crimes by persons operating on an individual, ad hoc basis for personal gain in a non-business context

abuses of trust

crimes in the courses of their occupations by those operating within businesses, government or other establishments, or in a personal capacity in violation of their loyalty and fidelity to their employer or client

business crimes

crimes incidental to and in furtherance of business operations but not the central purpose of such business operations

differential association theory

criminal behavior is learned in association with those who define such criminal behavior favorable and in isolation from those who define it unfavorably. a person in an appropriate situation will engage in white collar crime if the weight of the definitions favoring exceeds the weight of unfavorable definitions

why are members of the business community isolated from unfavorable definitions to their law violations

government, entertainment industry and news media have traditionally equated crime with the lower socioeconomic class

the seriousness of the offense that offenders commit has 2 dimensions:

harmfulness of the offense blameworthiness of the offender

criticism of Edelhertz's approach

have often resulted in studies that do not include the offenders and offenses that drew sutherland's attention in the first place have tended to ignore the white collar crimes that impose physical harm and violence on their victims

who commits environmental offenses?

high status executives and managers of powerful, multinational corporations AND by the economically struggling owners of small businesses.

what is one problem that arises from Sutherland's definition

if social status is a defining element of the crime, it cannot be used as an explanatory variable because it is not allowed to vary independently of the crime. social status is important because it influences access to opportunities for white collar crime and it is likely to influence offender motivation

what did steady employment mean in the yale study

individuals has uninterrupted employment during the 5 year period prior to conviction

disadvantage of the offense based approach

investigators who use these definitions often end up studying the relatively minor misdeeds of ordinary people of very modest financial means who somehow become caught up in the criminal justice system

social control theory

is RARELY APPLIED to corporate and white collar crime

high rate offending pattern

offended more often and more consistently than other 2 groups stereotypical criminals who occasionally commit white collar offenses

Herbert Edelhertz's definition of white collar crime

offense- based an illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by non physical means and by concealment or guile to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantage

white collar offenders are

older, more likely to be male, white, married, own their homes, financially secure, employed at time of offense

social and demographic characteristics of white collar offenders from yale study

overwhelmingly white overwhelmingly male avg. age is 40 over 80% graduated high school over 70% are NOT college graduates only small amount were unemployed at time of their offense

what influences access to high power positions

race and gender

why is emperical work in the field of white collar crime difficult to conduct

researchers rarely have the access to the federal funding of the research projects

brian forst and william rhodes study

sampled 2643 individuals convicted of 6 white collar crimes from 8 federal districts bank embezzlement bribery false claims mail fraud income tax violations postal embezzlement

8 offenses yale studies focused on (criterion offenses)

securities violations antitrust violations bribery bank embezzlement mail and wire fraud false claims and statements credit and lending institution fraud

Nikkos Passas

societies based on capitalistic economic principles have cultural and structural contradictions that promote widespread corporate deviance

what did the forst and rhodes study reveal

tax violations and bank embezzlers in both the yale study and forst study were virtually identical. Yale: avg age of tax violator 47 Forst: 48 Yale: avg age of bank embezzler: 31 Forst: 30

criminaloid

term coined by Edward Alsworth Ross powerful business owners and executives who exploit people and manipulate their marketplace out of uninhibited desire to maximize their profits, all the while pretending to be pious and respectable

Sutherland's definition of white collar crime

a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation

Presentence investigation report (PSI)

a document created by a federal probation officer whenever an offender is convicted in federal court contains the defendant's version of the case and the actual version of the case

a corporation is

a group of people authorized by a government to act as a unit considered to be a "person" that can be held legally accountable for its actions

offense-based definitions result in

a much larger number of cases than offender based

what was one of the most remarkable findings from forst and yale studies

about 40% had prior arrest

medium rate offending pattern

also offend infrequently, but more persistent than low rate group mostly made up of "opportunity seekers" people that actively look for opportunities and situations in which they would take advantage of others to make money

durkheim's anomie/strain theory

anomie is a breakdown or lack of regulations in society that leave individuals without moral guidance or a sense of normlessness

Merton's anomie theory

anomie referred to not only as a sense of normlessness but to a distinctive feature of american society-- its strong cultural emphasis on the desirability of material success and individual achievement

Susan shapiro

argued that the essential characteristics of the acts that are commonly called white collar crimes is that they involve violation or abuse of trust

Edward Gross

argues that organizations are inherently criminogenic because they are goal-directed entities and their performance is evaluated according to their effectiveness in achieving their goals

ones level of self control is

assumed to be established early in life and remain constant thereafter

rational choice theory

assumes all actors are self interested and make decisions about whether to engage in criminal or conventional behavior according to an assessment of the costs and benefits associated with each line of behavior

Yale studies on white collar crime

began by identifying 8 offenses in the federal criminal code that most scholars and lay people would agree were white collar type crimes

Who was Sutherland specifically talking about in his definition of white collar crime

business managers and executives

what led to the dramatic decrease of white antitrust offenders

caused primarily by a spate of antitrust prosecutions that focused on companies based in Japan and Taiwan

the sentencing commission

collects data on the age, race, sex, and educational characteristics of white collar offenders convicted of several offenses such as antitrust, tax, bribery, and embezzlement

Gottfredson and Hirschi's argument

white collar crime should be relatively rare compared to other street crime because persons with low self control are unlikely to hold white collar occupations

con games

white collar crimes such as a business or as the central activity of the business i.e. home improvement schemes

due to gender stratification in the workforce...

women do not commit as many white collar crimes as men, and the crimes they do commit are not as serious as those committed by men

fraud

wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in personal or financial gain

David weisburd and colleagues

"these are primarily middle class offenders"

low rate offending pattern

-commit very few offenses, offended infrequently and only under certain conditions -considered "crisis responders" those who commit white collar crimes out of desperation OR -"opportunity takers" those who find themselves in occupational position that enables them to enrich themselves illegally

2 types of social disorganization

1. anomie: lack of standards regarding behavior in specific areas of social action 2. conflict of standards: refers to the conflict between social groups with reference to specific practices

which 2 things define illegal business behavior in favorable terms throughout the business world

1. attitudes 2. cultural orientations

for what 2 reasons did sutherland believe that anomie was widespread in harmful and illegal business practices

1. business behavior is complex, technical, and difficult to observe. 2. america was founded on the ideals of competition and free enterprise, the public is ambivalent about government control of business activity

common law in the middle ages outlawed which 3 business related activities

1. regrating 2. engrossing-- involves a perversion of legitimate business activities to serve illegitimate ends to exploit others 3. forestalling

4 shortcomings of yale research design

1. selected only 8 federal offenses 2. researchers studied only 7 federal districts 3. only studied cases that resulted in a defendant being convicted in federal criminal court 4. conviction records give us only offenders who are unlucky or careless enough to get caught

variation in organizational crime results from several sources

1. the degree of accountability of an organization or subunit is directly related to the likelihood of rule breaking 2. pressure to engage in organizational crime is directly related to the objectivity of performance measures (performance measures=profitability) 3. within corporations, the more a subunit interacts with the organizational environment the more likely it is to deviate to achieve goals because of the uncertainty generated by the environment

2 important points of white collar offenders

1. they're not like common criminals 2. not all white collar offenders are alike

what are the problems with self control theory as applied to white collar crime

1. whether white collar crime is rare is debatable for emperical and theoretical reasons (not always self revealing) 2. no logical reasoning self control and the abilities associated with it would not be used to plan and execute a complicated criminal scheme especially if the potential take is large and the risk of discovery is small

what did the sample consist of in the yale study

1094 offenders -researchers also selected a sample of 210 individuals who had been convicted of nonviolent financially oriented common crimes (mail theft or forgery)

how many offending patterns are there

3- low rate, medium rate, high rate

what is the average age of criminal onset for white collar offenders and how long do their criminal careers last

35- onset 14 years long

Edelhertz identified how many basic types of white collar crime

4-- personal crimes, abuses of trust, business crimes, con games

what % of contemporary antitrust white collar offenders were white

55%

social control theory

Hirschi's view that deviance results from weak bonds to conventional social institutions such as family and schools

who originally developed anomie theory

Merton

sutherlands theory of white collar crime was based on what other famous theory of his

differential association

Lasley's social control theory

emphasizes that ties between executives, coworkers, and the company lowers the risk of white collar offending -as well as the belief in the rules of the company when all 4 of these are strong the risk of offending will be lowered

what was a shocking find about employment in the yale study

fewer than 60% of the white collar offenders had been steadily employed prior to conviction (this means more than 40% were not steadily employed

how is Sutherland's approach different from other studies in criminology

focuses mainly on the actor, not the act of the criminal

most corporate offenses are

litigated civilly or adminstratively and are not referred for criminal prosecution

what are the specific techniques sutherland describes for the misdeeds committed

misrepresentation of asset values duplicity in the manipulation of power

antitrust offenders, bank embezzlers, and bribers appear to be

much less caught up in a life of crime than people who make false claims, commit lending and credit fraud, or use the US postal system to commit fraud