Occupational Crime Case Study

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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

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