I. INTRODUCTION
Shirley Lee was getting ready to retire when she found out, that her life’s savings was gone. Shirley and many from her community invested more than 90 million dollars into James Powell and Calwell Investment Company. The victims were told that their money would be invested in real estate however; their money was transferred to Calwell and Powell’s personal account, where they used the money on their families, vacations, and home re-modeling. The Ponzi scheme soon collapsed, Calwell passed away before ever going to trial, while Powell pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to only ten years in federal prison. People whom commit these types of white-collar crimes need be more rigorously perused and punished.
Ten years seem like a small punishment for all the damage Powel caused, and all the lives that were ruined. However, this is the normality, many schemers across the country, who are caught committing similar crimes get the same punishments. Shirley Lee can no longer retire, she lost all her life savings, and she will probably lose her home too. There are many more stories like Shirley Lee; many of them never see their perpetrator go to jail.
White-collar crimes like what happened to Shirley Lee are prevalent in today’s society. Many view white-collar crime as less threatening than typical blue-collar crime (i.e. robberies). Both crimes however, affect society in a negative way. White-collar crimes cause more direct financial harm than blue-collar crimes. Blue-collar criminals cause more physical harm and for that reason are often perused and punished more rigorously. Both crimes have significant emotional implications and should both be treated and prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law. The emotio...
... middle of paper ...
...of Civil RICO, 30 Harv. J. On Legis. 2.
Levi, M. (2012, March). Financial Crimes and the Criminalization Process. Nathanson Centre on Transnational Humor Rights, Crime, and Security. Lecture conducted from York University, Toronto, Canada.
Lewis, M. (2008). White Collar Crime, Preparing for Enhanced Enforcement. Philadelphia: Deloitte Forensic Center. Retrieved http://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/ML_Deloitte_WhiteCollar_WhitePaper_Enhanced_Enforcement.pdf
Reimen, J. Leighton, P. (2012). The Rich get Richer and The Poor go to Prison: Ideology, class, and Criminal Justice. Boston: Pearson.
Sanders, M. (1987). WNET & Films for the Humanities. Crime in the suites. Princeton, New Jersey: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Sherman, M. (2001). White-collar crime. Washington, D.C.: Federal Judicial Center
Sutherland, E.H. (1949). White Collar Crime. New York: Dryden Press.
The news article that I decided to do my assignment on is about a bank manager, Debra Anne Chapin, that embezzled 2 million dollars from a bank. The news article’s title is, “Former manager jailed for cheating bank out of $2M; Woman used cash to pay bills, gamble and feed her cocaine habit.” The crime took place in Calgary between June 1, 2006 and June, 30 2008. This embezzlement is a classic case of white collar crime and demonstrates numerous criminological theories.
In criminology there are numerous theories as to the causes of different types of crime. These theories are extremely important in the continuous debate of the ways in which crime should be managed and prevented. Many theories have surfaced over the years. These theories continue to be explored individually and in combination, as criminologists search for the best solutions in ultimately reducing types and levels of crime. These theories include rational choice theory, social learning theory, and biology amongst many others. In this case study strain theory will be used to describe the reasons behind the white collar crimes of Charles Ponzi.
The Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme is a well-known case and is known as one of the biggest Ponzi scheme’s. In summary the scheme occurred for many reasons that I will some up into 3 points; A lack in competency by regulatory agencies, a lack of regulation, and finally a breach in ethics by Bernie Madoff himself. To explain further, the regulatory agencies like the lawyers and SEC are supposed to prevent schemes such as this one from happening but because they lacked the skills to correctly assess the situation, interpreting the number of tips they had received regarding scheme that had been filed, and to act on those in an efficient manner. One of the tips was made by Harry Markopolos in 2000, of who correctly predicted that Madoff was guilty of fraud. Even after this tip from Markopolos, Madoff was not arrested until 2009. Many family members were also a part of the fraud along with some non-family members such as Frank DiPascali and a team known as the 17th floor team, who helped Madoff carry out his fraud. The idea behind Madoff’s fraud was that he would produce false statements of their investments and when people wanted to pull out their investments, the money wasn’t actually there, which rightfully rose more than a few eyebrows and ultimately led to his arrest.
Pollock, J. M. (2012). Crime and justice in America: An introduction to criminal justice (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Jeffrey Reiman, author of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, first published his book in 1979; it is now in its sixth edition, and he has continued to revise it as he keeps up on criminal justice statistics and other trends in the system. Reiman originally wrote his book after teaching for seven years at the School of Justice (formerly the Center for the Administration of Justice), which is a multidisciplinary, criminal justice education program at American University in Washington, D.C. He drew heavily from what he had learned from his colleagues at that university. Reiman is the William Fraser McDowell Professor of Philosophy at American University, where he has taught since 1970. He has written numerous books on political philosophy, criminology, and sociology.
Young, white, upper-class males who engage in crime are significantly less likely to serve jail time or even be arrested, than their black male counterpart. That being said, lower class white males are more likely to be arrested than their upper-class white counterpart. Is money truly the root of all evil? NO, it’s not. It is however what drives both sides of the criminal justice system. Of course, those with a higher SES or less likely to be arrested in general but there is more to it. In class, we discussed the issues of privatized jail and the revenue they make only when filled to capacity. The “If you build it, they will come!” mentality is fully functioning in the prison part of the criminal justice system. Many police forces are set up with numbers in mind, and in order to be successful a certain amount of arrest must be made. The War on Drugs spurred this ideology as the higher amount of arrest led citizens to think that crime was being lowered. Additionally, those with high-class status can afford to be represented properly in the criminal justice system and do not have to fear the extra fines placed on prisoners or even those just convicted of crimes. VICE – Fixing The System showcased stories of returning citizens who faced the stigmas of jail, the fines of the court, and were lead back into a life of crime just to make ends meet. This vicious cycle leads back into the criminal justice system with these returning citizens being rearrested or by violation of parole/payment, due to financial
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
4 Sims, A. Barbara. 1997. "Crime, Punishment, and the American Dream: Toward a Marxist Integration." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 34:5-24.
The installment of new security could even be a problem, for people who operate these new security systems could also be a potential thief. There is an approach among many enterprises that it is simpler to easily excuse the employee who committed the offense, instead of dealing with the law and the officers; and follow through with the money and time by prosecuting in order to seek restitution. Sometimes the firm does not to acquire the negative publicity that has to do with the internal offense, especially when their reputation is predominant to their company model. White-collar crime is often categorized as a crime without a victim, damaging only large, objective corporations. Recent news broadcasts portray nothing could be farther from the absolute truth.
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.
White collar and corporate crimes are crimes that many people do not associate with criminal activity. Yet the cost to the country due to corporate and white collar crime far exceeds that of “street” crime and benefit fraud. White collar and corporate crimes refer to crimes that take place within a business or institution and include everything from Tax fraud to health and safety breaches.
Shover, N, & Hochstetler, A. (2006). Choosing white-collar crime. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
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
This case illustrated that there were real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. (He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.) His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere.
Champion, D 2011, ‘White-collar crimes and organizational offending: An integral approach’, International Journal of Business, Humanities, and Technology, vol. 1 no. 3, pp. 34-35.