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Case studies of white collar crime
Case studies of white collar crime
Case studies of white collar crime
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The first social movement that helped change the perception of white collar crime was introduced by Sutherland. He believed that the crimes done by the elite needed to receive more public attention. Even thou he brought evidence depicting how white collar crimes affected the country the movement didn’t receive the appropriate attention from the people (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 17). Furthermore, even after evidence continues to be brought forward many cases regarding white collar crime will not be prosecuted. The reason behind this is that Congress has incorporated laws that allow big corporations to make decisions on our country by determining what consumers are allowed to see and hear. In addition, when something major happens within our boarders …show more content…
The reason being is that conventional crimes such as robberies, rapes, and murders help increase ratings but; on the other hand, white collar crimes such as embezzlement are portrayed as boring by the viewers which cause ratings to drop. In addition, white collar crime is a topic many people don’t fully understand. Therefore, in today’s society white collar crime is not perceived as an immediate treat by the lower social class. Instead people believe that when a crime is committed by the elite the outcome of the crime does not affect them directly. As a result, the public does not push for more media coverage on these types of crimes (Friedrichs, 2010, p. …show more content…
They risk being label as a traitor or killed if their identity ever becomes compromised. For these reasons many people will never help expose the crimes being made within the corporations. Yet, the whistleblowers who are willing to jeopardize their wellbeing do it for one of two reasons. First, form of whistleblowers believe that exposing the crime could benefit them greatly by allowing them to move up the chain of commanders or can grant them a monetary reward. The second form will come forward to revile illegal activity for ethical reasons. This type of whistleblower believe that what is being criminally done is morally wrong and therefore, they should help to stop these wrongdoings (Friedrichs, 2010, pp.
1. Reiman explains that the idea that white collar crime is taken less seriously is because it protects the elite classes. For example, if the public believes they should fear the poor more than the rich, the rich can commit more crimes and go unnoticed because the population is focused on the poor Reiman explains that that the way crime is explained does not exactly fit what we think crime is. He explains that the notion that white-collar crime being harmless is based on the idea that white collar crimes do not end in injury or death is false because more people’s lives are put at risk than “lower class” crimes. Reinman thinks it is necessary to re- educate the public on white-collar crimes for economic
Professor and Director of the Distance Learning Masters Program at The University of Cincinnati, Michael L. Benson has his Ph. D. in Sociology and is the author of "Denying the Guilty Mind: Accounting for Involvement in White-Collar Crime." In a classic study based on interviews with 30 convicted white-collar offenders all men, Benson examines the excuses and justifications used by White-Collar criminals to not only explain their involvement in the crime but also claim their innocence. It focuses mainly on the techniques that are used to deny they did anything wrong in categories separated by antitrust violators, tax violators, violations of financial trust and those committing fraud. Antitrust Violators focused on the everyday character and historical continuity of their offenses. They claimed to be following es...
The Eron Scandal is thought to be a standout amongst the most famous inside American history. An Eron of occasions is considered by numerous students of history and market analysts alike to have been an informal outline for a contextual investigation on White Collar Crimes. ("Enron Scandal Summary - Finance | Laws.com," n.d.)White Collar Crime is characterized as peaceful, monetarily based criminal action ordinarily attempted inside of a setting in which its members hold propelled training as to business that is thought to be prestigious. ("Enron Scandal Summary - Finance | Laws.com," n.d.) The accompanying occurred amidst the Enron Scandal. Eron had great success in their early years. Though the period regulation inside of a business and corporate
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be
white-collar crime” (Shapiro, S. P.). It is no surprise to anyone that positions of trust regularly decentralize to corporations, occupations, and “white-collar” individuals. Nevertheless, the concept of “white-collar crime” involves a false relationship between role-specific norms and the characteristics of those who typically occupy these roles. Most of the time, it is the offender that is looked at more than the crime itself and assumptions about the individuals automatically come into play. It has be to acknowledged that “ class or organizational position are consequential and play a more complex role in creating opportunities for wrongdoing and in shaping and frustrating the social control process than traditional stereotypes have allowed” (Shapiro, S. P.). The opportunities to partake in white-collar crime and violate the trust in which ones position carries are more dependent upon the individuals place in society, not just the work place. The ways in which white-collar criminals establish and exploit trust are an important factor in truly exploring and defining the concept of white-collar crime.
Today, worldwide, there are several thousands of crimes being committed. Some don’t necessarily require a lethal weapon but are associated with various types of sophisticated fraud, this also known as a white-collar crime. These crimes involve a few different methods that take place within a business setting. While ethical business practices add money to the bottom line, unethical practices are ultimately leading to business failure and impacting the U.S. financially.
Corporate crime is extremely difficult to detect for many reasons. One major reason is that many people do not realise a crime is being committed as corporate crime is often seen as a victimless crime. At face value this may seem to be the case but if you look deeper you will see that this is not true. Every year the FBI estimates that 19,000 Americans are murdered every year compared with the 56,000 Americans who die every year from occupational disease such as black lung and asbestosis (Russell Mokhiber 2000). Deaths Caused by corporate crime are also very indirect so it can be very difficult to trace the problem to the corporation.
Many other businesses may not want to do business as the company was involved with immoral behavior. The unethical business practices of the company will also gain exposure in the media and to the public (Nicol, 2015, n.p). Employees no longer keep unethical activities of the company to themselves. As a whistleblower, they may be perceived as a traitor, but in this case the senior executives are being traitors. They are taking money from immoral behavior and tarnishing the name of the company (Nicol, 2015, n.p).
We see it all the time something that a normal individual would be in jail for a celebrity gets a tap on the wrist and a “don’t do that again” for it. If an individual with power and money do time for their crime they do time in a prison that’s more like a resort you can’t leave. An average person and a rich person could commit the same crime at the same time and the average person would get in more trouble than the rich person. The judicial system is messed up, but there is nothing anyone can do about it. A regular criminal compared to a white-collar criminal, when arrested a white-collar criminal are more likely to have their cases dismissed by the prosecutor and less likely to have to put up bail. If convicted they are more likely to get probation rather than jail and more likely to get shorter
White collar crimes do not garner as much media attention as that of violent crimes (Trahan, Marquart, & Mullings 2005). This is an odd fact because white collar crimes cost society much more than violent crimes do (Messner & Rosenfeld 2007). While there are many different definitions for white collar crime, Schoepfer and Piquero describe it as a nonphysical crime that is used to either obtain goods or to prevent goods from being taken (2006). People who commit these crimes are looking for personal or some sort of organizational gain and are being pressured to be economically successful from the idea of the American dream. The authors suggest that there are two types of people who commit crimes, those who have an immense desire for control and those who fear losing all they have worked hard for (Schopfer & Piquero 2006). Both groups have different reasons for turning to crime, but both groups commit the crime to benefit themselves. It was found that higher levels of high school drop outs were directly correlated to levels of embezzlement in white collar crime (2006). Because they are drop outs, they are less likely to be successful legitimately and turn to crime more often than their graduate
White collar crime is viewed as non-violent and treated differently than other types of crimes; some that are even violent in nature. In general, personal and public perception can vary from one individual to another. “A recent survey conducted by the National White Collar Crime Center (NWCCC) confirm that the public considers certain white collar crimes as more serious than some street crimes, according to Drs. Marilyn Price and Donna Norris” (Perri, J.D., CFE, CPA, 2011, p. 23). Even though white collar crimes do not seem a violent as someone that commits murder; there is still major damage done. For example, a fraud victim goes through a lot of hardship. They can be harassed, have their identity stolen and lose everything. This in many cases can be looked at as a severe crime. Valuables taken during a burglary can be replaced easily, but someone’s identity and livelihood cannot be given back. Most white...
In the twentieth century, White Collar and Organized Crimes have attracted the attention of the U.S. Criminal Justice System due to the greater cost to society than most normal street crime. Even with the new attention by the Criminal Justice System, both are still pretty unknown to the general public. Although we know it occurs, due to the lack of coverage and information, society does not realize the extent of these crimes or the impact. White Collar and Organized is generally crime committed by someone that is considered respectable and has a high social status. The crimes committed usually consist of fraud, insider trading, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft or forgery. One person would not normally commit all of these but likely one or the other.
...occurrence of white-collar crimes in organizations. In this view, to combat white-collar crimes, the criminal justice system needs to devise interventions that target organizational structure, organizational culture, and personality traits in the prevention of white-collar crimes.
Morality is the biggest and best reason for this act because people generally want to do the good moral thing. If a person should have to blow the whistle on a company they should know that for every action there is a reaction, and the reaction of whistle blowing might lead to getting fired. One of the most controversial types of whistle blowing is that of impersonal. If a company is making products that are unsafe because they are trying to save a few dollars, an employee could see this as immoral and tell the public about it. The whistle blower would do this based on Kant's theory. It would be following the moral law to do so. If a company is cutting corners and hurting others, it would be morally unacceptable not to blow the whistle on this company. To knowingly let innocent people get hurt because of something that you could have stopped is morally wrong. A lot of people would blow the whistle on a company that is making unsafe products, but not all. A number of people would not inform the public of the company's wrongdoings. They would not do it out of fear that they might loose there job or even be blacklisted from the industry altogether. If they are not fired they will most likely be outcasts at their job and looked over at promotion time.