Crime Vs Green Collar Crime

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.
While white and green collar crimes have many similarities, both have different viewpoints that describes each set of crimes individually. First, white collar crimes were first defined by Edward Sutherland as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” (Seigel 2017). These crimes are commonly committed by the wealthy and high-end members of the business world. Oddly enough these crimes were not subject to criminal prosecution

until the latter years of the 1900’s. Most of these crimes were handled in Civil Court due to the victims attempting to recoup their lost earnings. Subsequently, because of the majority of white collar crimes never seeing criminal prosecution Sutherland also believed they were never studied by criminologists (Seigel 2017). As the future progresses, white collar crime has as well. The digital age has now started to shed light on the outrageously high numbers of white collar crime happening worldwide. These types of crimes impact society in a far worse way psychologically than normal crimes. First, moral and trust is lowered by what I call the “the small fish in a big pond” effect. The wealthy businesses that conduct white collar crimes often attack the smaller, less fortunate people in society. Giving the spotlight of a shark praying on its victim and once the scam or trap is set, they attack viscously.
While white collar crimes attack the business world, green collar crimes attack the environment.

Green collar crimes are often less heard of in today’s society but, frequently have a major impact. Green collar crimes are best defined as organizations trying to gain profits by avoiding the payment of governmental fees, logging in restricted areas, or poaching protected fish and animals (Seigel 2017). One of the most prolific and commonly used supermarkets in the United States is the perfect example of this scenario. Walmart, in 2013 pleaded guilty to multiple counts of illegally dumping hazardous materials outside of their stores. According to the FBI “Walmart did not have a program in place and failed to train its employees on proper hazardous waste management and disposal practices at the store level. As a result, hazardous wastes were either discarded improperly at the store level—including being put into municipal trash bins or, if a liquid, poured into the local sewer system” (FBI 2017). Although this crime seems petty and small in nature, Walmart profited by saving in program and disposal cost in all of their stores resulting in millions of dollars and causing major environmental damages by dumping in sewer

systems.
Blue collar crime are crimes committed by the lower social class of citizens (Seigel 2017) compared to white and green collar crime which seem to be committed by the higher social class. Often times, these crimes are committed by “occasional criminals” (Seigel 2017). Criminals, non-the less, these types of criminals commit crime by the basis of them not believing the crimes they commit are big enough crimes to be labeled as a criminal (Seigel 2017). These crimes impact society in similar way as white and blue-collar crimes. They cause havoc on everyday law-abiding citizens due to their nature. For example, Shoplifting. Even though shoplifting does not seem to effect law-abiding citizens but, it causes prices of consumer goods to raise due to the constant loss.
To conclude, these types of crimes are commonly pooled together without an understanding of financial and environmental turmoil each type causes. Without an understanding of criminology, the common citizen would have a hard time describing these into detail and how they impact there daily lives.