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White collar crime can be a very complicated topic because of how fairly new it is. Edwin H. Sutherland helped coin the term white collar crime in December 1939, during his presidential address “The White Collar Criminal” (Friedrichs, 2010). Although white collar crimes had been happening throughout most of history, they didn’t get as much attention until more recently. Since white collar crime is still so new, all definitions have been under a lot of scrutiny. The definition that is currently most acknowledged comes from a group of criminologists that got together in a group, to come up with a definition for white collar crime and that would be accepted by the majority. This group defines white collar crimes as:
Illegal or unethical acts that violate fiduciary responsibility or public trust, committed by an individual or organization, usually during the course of legitimate occupational activity, by persons of high or respectable social status for person or organizational gain. (Helmkamp, Ball, and Townsend, 1996: 351)
This is a great definition because it covers a lot of areas that are considered white collar crime but can be seen as too specific. By stating that white collar crime is committed by “persons of high or respectable social status” (Helmkamp, Ball, and Townsend, 1996: 351) implies that only people with such status can commit these crimes. While for the most part these persons do commit the majority of the crimes, they are not the only individuals who partake in these illegal acts.
Seeing as white collar crime is still a relatively broad topic, criminologists have started using typologies to help narrow down each different area. There is generally considered to be five generic typologies that have a general asso...

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...ollar crime that the average citizen is most likely to come into contact with. This is because

Works Cited

Friedrichs, D. O. (2010). Trusted criminals: White collar crime in contemporary society (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Forti, F., and Visconti, A. (2007) “Cesare Beccaria and white-collar crimes’ public harms,” pp. 490-510 in H.N. Pontell and G. Geis, (Eds.), International Handbook of white-collar and corporate crime. New York: Springer.
Helmkamp, J., Ball, R. A., & Townsend, K. (1996). White collar crime?: Proceedings of the Academic Workshop Definitional Dilemma--Can and Should There Be a Universal Definition of White Collar Crime?. Morgantown, W. Va.: National White Collar Crime Center, Training and Research Institute.
Hodson, R., & Sullivan, T. A. (20120). The social organization of work (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.