Is_White_Collar_Crime_Serious

Crime, Culture and Society - Assignment, Semester 1 Is White Collar Crime, Serious' Before the severity of white collar crime can be assessed the term white collar crime, coined by Edwin Sutherland, must first be defined. White collar crime is a term which encompasses a variety of criminal activities in different parts of the social structure. White collar crime is associated with bribery, corruption and abuse of a person’s power and position. White collar crime is different to crimes of the powerful, as although Edwin Sutherland (1949) definitions states that “white collar crime is crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” The key to white collar crime is the abuse of a person’s power and position, as it doesn’t matter how little their power may be, or how high up their position is; abusing it is classed as white collar crime. The more recent definition of white collar crime by McLaughlin and Muncie (2006) supports the notion that white collar crime is different to that of the powerful by including in their definition “...committed by people of relatively high status, or enjoying high levels of trust...” as high levels of trust do not always relate to the powerful. Edwin Sutherland was adamant that white collar crime was not being treated as seriously as it should and by using the term white collar crime aimed to highlight the criminal aspect of the act. He claimed that white collar crime was either not detected or not prosecuted, and from his work white collar crime was regarded as criminal deviance of the middle and more powerful classes. Sutherland was highly criticised by other criminologists such as Tappan, he suggested that hidden or undetected crimes should not be considered in criminal statistics and in fact some of the acts Sutherland argued to be criminal, Tappan suggested were not deviant and in fact just normal business practice. Other critiques such as Nelken argues that Sutherland’s definition of white collar crime failed to encompass all aspects of the term, such as crimes committed for an organisation by a low status person or crimes committed against an organisation. Professor Laurie Taylor expressed very clearly her view of white collar crime on BBC Radio Four’s show, Thinking Allowed (4th November 2009) “Street Robbers flee the scene, the white collar criminal returns on a daily basis to his dishonest desk” According to Hazel Croall (2001) there are seven types of white collar crime; theft at work, fraud (benefit and tax frauds), corruption i.e. taking bribes and fixing contracts, employment offences i.e. low pay and safety crimes, consumer offences like pricing and advertising irregularities, food offences i.e. breaking hygiene regulation and environmental crime such as pollution. It is clear from Croall’s seven types of white collar crime that there are different levels of severity depending on the type of white collar crime committed. However the severity of a crime can also be judged by the implications it has to the public. This is something that can be seen in the crime prosecution service, as there are two factors that decide weather a case goes to court, one of these being public interest. A crime not only can have implications for the people directly involved, public outrage at a crime is a serious implication and has the ability to cause society to change certain behaviours. An example of this is the case of Jamie Bulger, where two pre-teen boys kidnapped, from his mothers side, and tortured a four year old boy. This cause public outrage and panic causing the majority of the public to buy and used toddler leads to prevent their child from being kidnapped. Another way to assess the severity of the crime is by economic losses; the US estimate a loss of between $300-600bn dollars annually, due to fraud, etc. As Sutherland suggested the levels of white collar crime are unknown, and thus it is hard to estimate the cost of white collar crime, hence the broad estimate for the US. One of the most publicised white collar crimes was the Enron Scandal; from the BBC’s report in August 2002 it was understood that, in 15 years Enron grew from an unknown to America’s seventh largest company. However Enron had lied about its profits and stood accused of a number of charges including concealing debts so they weren’t shown on the company accounts. As investors began to see the depth of the company’s deception they separated from the company causing the company to enter bankruptcy The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices of many corporations throughout the United States and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The legislation demanded new or improved standards for all public company boards in the US, supporters of the act say that the legislation was necessary and has restored some of the publics confidence in the nation’s capital markets. The Enron case clearly had serious implications for the economy’s public sector and dramatically effected peoples trust in the nation’s capital markets. This is obvious from the need to bring in a new act to improve control over companies accounts and the review of other public companies finances. The final calculations of the Enron scandal’s cost was $40bn dollars, that in itself shows the severity of the case. Another white collar crime that had a very serious impact for thousands was the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. On the 3rd of December 1984 there was a large gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, population 800,000. The gas was highly toxic and 20,000 people died instantly; it is thought that up to 300,000 people were injured. The leak was seen to be the result of a combination of human factors and an incorrectly designed safety system, it was found that a proportion of the safety equipment had been un-operational for four months and the rest of the equipment failed, with the alarm sounding an hour after the leak occurred. This clearly was due to grouse negligence and had extremely serious outcomes, the union carbide company paid out $470 million dollars in compensation to all the victims that made a claim. Although it is difficult to gage the seriousness of white collar crime as a whole, it is clear that white collar crime with the highest severity is the crime that effects society either individuals or the economy. It has been suggested that white collar crime increases three fold in recession suggesting that one of the main motives is personal gain. To assess the severity of white collar crime accurately each crime must b looked at individually, the factors involved are not only the number of people effected or the amount of money lost or involved but also the amount of trust or power abused as when trust is lost society is more likely to react as they feel insecure and vulnerable. Especially when it comes to lives being lost the case must be dealt with in a way to highlight the crimes committed and so the people involved feel they have received justice. The punishment rarely reflects the crime in cases of white collar crime, something that Sutherland was adamant to change due to the severity of the crimes committed. Severity in relation to white collar crime is in the eye of the beholder and is different dependent on the people involved including the victims and how society views the crime. This is the key factor society’s reaction determines the severity and it society which it effects not the people committing the offences, as they feel like they are in a position to do so. Bibliography Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Dale Sullivan, [online], Last accessed on 18th January 2010, at:http://www.hu.mtu.edu/hu_dept/tc@mtu/papers/bhopal.htm Definition of White Collar Crime, McLaughlin and Muncie. Sage Dictionary of Criminology, p462. 2006 Enron Scandal, [online], Last accessed on 18th January 2010, at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1780075.stm Professor Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio Four, Thinking Allowed, 4th November 2009. The social origins of White Collar Crime, John S. Baker Jr. [online], Last accessed on 18th January 2010, at:http://www.heritage.org/research/legalissues/lm14.cfm Understanding White Collar Crime (Crime and Justice). Hazel Croall, 2001. White Collar Crime, Edwin Sutherland, 1949.