Understanding White Collar Crime: Definition, Relevance, and Debates

Over the past several decades there has been a wide debate about what the correct definition for white collar crime should be, and even today, there is still a lot of confusion regarding the meaning of white collar crime. Currently, the definition of white-collar crime is still hotly contested within the community of experts, and this essay will discuss what is meant by the term white collar crime, as well as its legal standing and its importance in criminology.
Edwin H. Sutherland is credited for introducing the term in 1939 (Friedrichs, 2010), and his definition is "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Cornell University Law School, n.d.). A principle attribute of white collar

crime is that it consists of “violation of delegated or implied trust” (Sutherland, 1940, as cited by Friedrichs, 2010).

In order to coherently understand the meaning of white collar crime, Friedrichs (2010) states that it must be approached in stages. The first stage is polemical, and is related to the definition. The second and third stages are typological and operational. As previously mentioned, white collar crime has been quite heavily debated, and currently there is no definition that is generally accepted by criminologists. Some argue that the term white collar crime should be abandoned altogether, and another issue is where it is appropriate to draw the line between legal practices and illegal practices (Hayes & Prenzler, 2012; Dobovšek & Slak, 2015). Throughout time, the scope of white collar crime has broadened to include many other typologies of white collar crime, due to the fact that technology has and continues to advance. The most common types of white collar crime include occupational crime, corporate crime, state crime, financial

crime, and computer and technological crime. There are five criteria which allows differentiation between the types of white collar crime: the context in which the crime occurs, the status or the position of the offender, the primary victims, the principle form of harm, and the legal classification (Friedrichs, 2010). The third stage is the operational definition, which provides an initial assumption for comparative analysis or empirical research (Friedrichs, 2010).
Legal standing is the right to initiate a lawsuit against the defendant, and in order to do this the victim must be affected to an adequate degree. Legal action must also be able to resolve the case (The Lectric Law Library, 2015). Over time research has shown that legal proceedings such as lawsuits taken out against white collar offenders are in fact more effective in controlling white collar crime. White collar offenders, especially corporations, have been known to avoid prosecution by making a civil settlement of the claims against them with the victim. Civil settlements generally involve the defendant paying the victim settlements and other costs and terms (Friedrichs, 2010). The defendant may also have resources that allow them to make a powerful defence against the party that initiated the lawsuit, especially if they are part of a corporation, hence the party face a difficult challenge in successfully filing the lawsuit (Friedrichs, 2010). Victims of white collar crime generally seek compensation and sometimes punitive damages as a result of any harm or loss caused by the defendant, and these civil lawsuits are known as tort cases. Since the liberalisation of federal rules in 1966, large-scale civil suits and citizen suits against corporations have become much more common (Friedrichs, 2010). Large-scale civil suits often disadvantage individual plaintiffs, as major organisations have the resources needed to mount a powerful defence. However when a group of victims that have encountered the same harm come together, they have collective resources which does not put them at a great disadvantage against the major organisation (Friedrichs, 2010). In comparison, organisations fight back against citizen suits, initiating their own ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’, which is designed to stop those who initiated the citizen suit (Friedrichs, 2010). As criminal law is focused on regulating conduct that is threatening and harmful, it has been found that civil law better responds to white collar crime as it is focused on private, individual harms (Friedrichs, 2010).
One of the reasons for this is that in civil law the prosecutors do not need to prove culpability to the strict standards that criminal law involves. According to Simpson (2011), criminal law and criminal justice within the traditional conception is too narrow to accurately capture white collar crime. In criminal law, the term white collar crime is rare, only occurring in some obscure criminal statutes (Green, 2004). Gilbert Geis (1992, as cited by Green 2004) stated that “no such designation as ‘white collar crime’ is to be found in the statute books”. However, white collar crime does appear in substantive criminal law, even though it is rare. White collar crimes that are conducted without mens rea (criminal intent), fail to hold the individual or organisation responsible or to criminal liability, and this also means that their actions may not be regarded as wrongful (Green, 2004). White collar crime has been shown to be important in criminology as scholarly research allows criminologists to gain a much deeper understanding of these types of crimes and provides an insight into their complex nature (Friedrichs, 2010).
In conclusion, the debate surrounding an appropriate definition for white collar crime is still being highly contested, due to its complex nature.

It was found during research that white collar crime does not necessarily require a breach of law, as various forms of white collar crime can be committed without them being held criminally responsible, all due to the fact that they were conducted without criminal intent. This means that civil law is more effective in regulating white collar crime, as mens rea does not need to be proven unlike criminal law. Therefore, the definition for white collar crime should be defined as nonviolent forms of crime that is financially motivated and committed by businesses and governments, with or without mens

rea.