...S E C T I O N II Understanding White-Collar Crime Definitions, Extent, and Consequences S ecti on Hi g h l i g h ts •• •• •• •• •• •• White-Collar Crime: An Evolving Concept Modern Conceptualizations of White-Collar Crime Extent of White-Collar Crime Consequences of White-Collar Crime Public Attitudes About White-Collar Crime Characteristics of White-Collar Offenders A 34 s noted in the introduction, Edwin Sutherland created the concept of white-collar crime more than 70 years ago to draw attention to the fact that crimes are committed by individuals in all social classes. As will be seen in this section, one of the largest difficulties in understanding white-collar crime has centered on an ongoing debate about how to define white-collar crime. After discussing various ways that white-collar crime can be defined, attention will be given to the extent of white-collar crime, the consequences of this illicit behavior, public attitudes about white-collar crime, and patterns describing the characteristics of white-collar offenders. Section II Understanding White-Collar Crime 35 As a backdrop to this discussion, consider the following recent white-collar crimes described in the media: •• A jury convicted [then-Baltimore mayor Sheila] Dixon . . . of embezzling about $500 worth of gift cards donated to the city for needy families. Dixon then pleaded guilty last month to lying about thousands of dollars in gifts from her former boyfriend, a prominent developer...
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...White Collar Crime and Accounting Standards in the Nigerian Public Sector Nenyiaba, Ile Charles Faculty of Management Sciences Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria E-mail: nenyiabaic@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This survey examined the spate of white collar crime in the Nigerian public sector and the extent to which existing accounting standards are helping to stem the occurrence of the crime. Two null hypotheses were formulated and the primary data used to test the hypotheses were obtained using structured questionnaire while secondary data were obtained from annual accounts of State Governments and reports from similar studies. The study used averages, percentages, chisquare and Spearman’s ranked correlation coefficient tested at 5% level of significance for analyses of the data obtained during the study. It also made use of averages and simple percentage. The study revealed that noncompliance with accounting standards is responsible for the increasing spate of white collar crime in the Nigerian public sector and that absence of forensic accounting courses in the training programme of practicing accountants are responsible for inability of auditors to detect, early enough, white collar crime in the public sector thereby aggravating the scam. The study also revealed that flexibility of principle based on standard is a serious threat to enforcement of compliance with the standards especially in a developing economy such as Nigeria. Hence, forensic accounting courses...
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...8-1-2012 Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A StateCorporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Elizabeth A. Bradshaw Western Michigan University, brads2ea@cmich.edu Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Bradshaw, Elizabeth A., "Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill" (2012). Dissertations. Paper 53. This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. DEEPWATER, DEEP TIES, DEEP TROUBLE: A STATE-CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME ANALYSIS OF THE 2010 GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL by Elizabeth A. Bradshaw A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology Advisor: Ronald C. Kramer, Ph.D. Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 2012 THE GRADUATE COLLEGE WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN June 29, 2012 Date WE HEREBY APPROVE THE DISSERTATION SUBMITTED BY Elizabeth A. Bradshaw ENTITLED Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill AS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF...
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...Types of White Collar Crime Angela L. Langley LEG 200 – White Collar Crime in Government, Business, and Labor Professor Thomas Demko Strayer University May 28, 2012 Assignment 1: Types of White Collar Crime A white collar crime is illegal and unethical, which violates the public trust. It deals with lying, cheating, and stealing by high profile individuals. A single con can destroy a business, hurt families by cleaning out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars. “Devastating losses in relation to homes, businesses, jobs, retirement funds, and college savings were widespread. “It was clear that fraudulent misrepresentations on many levels were at the center of this crisis” (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 1). We will compare and contrast the nature of white collar crime with other types of illegal acts, compare and contrast the typical participants of white collar crime against the participants of other types of illegal acts, discuss the role of technology in white collar crime and how its role may create differences from other forms of crime, and analyze the role of opportunity and how it contributes to white collar crime. Compare and contrast the nature of white collar crime with other types of illegal acts. The key elements of white collar crimes are trust and its violation. “White collar crimes take on the form of misrepresentation, stealing, misappropriation, self-dealing, corruption, and role conflict” (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 10). White-collar...
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...Social class and crime Most studies in sociology suggest that the most serious and frequent offenders are young working class males. However, there may be a bias in the statistics that results in the idea that ‘white collar crime’ is underestimated... * WHITE COLLAR CRIME - middle class members of the business world - invisible and complex. * BLUE COLLAR CRIME - working class members in society - often visible and more likely to be punished. Sutherland (1949) first used the term ‘white collar crime’. He challenged the assumption that crime is mostly a working class phenomenon. However, his own definition is not helpful. The problem with it is that he does not distinguish crimes committed for an organisation. Writers have therefore distinguished between crimes: * CORPORATE CRIME - carried out on behalf of the organisation (e.g. tax evasion). * OCCUPATIONAL CRIME - benefits the individual at the expense of the organisation (e.g. embezzling money). White collar crimes are more technical, complex and discrete and often receive more lenient punishments than blue collar crimes. For white collar crimes, there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what is not. It is often about what is morally wrong rather than legally wrong. Occupational/Corporate crime: The study of these crimes developed from the work of Sutherland in the 1940s. He used the term white collar crime to refer to crime committed by people who worked in offices. His work overlaps with the interests...
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...White Collar Crime: Embezzlement and Price Fixing Dr. Stokes White Collar Crime Fall 2012 November 19th 2012 This paper will discuss White Collar crime and the crime of price fixing, antitrust, and embezzlement. There are many different types of white collar crime. White Collar crime is a crime that is not too often viewed as harmful. A White Collar crime is an illegal act committed for monetary gain. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opted to approach white-collar crime in terms of the offense. The Bureau has defined white-collar crime as “. . . those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage.” (USDOJ, 1989, p. 3.) According to the F.B.I. White Collar crime is not a victimless crime. A single scam can destroy a company, devastate families by wiping out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars (or even all three, as in the Enron case). Today’s fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever. Edwin Sutherland coined the term White Collar crime. In 1939 Sutherland coined White Collar as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation". People that commit White Collar crime are ordinary...
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...Cheating, Stealing: White-Collar Crime “Lying, Cheating, Stealing. That’s white-collar crime in a nutshell.” That is how the Federal Bureau of Investigation describes crime committed by corporations (FBI—White-Collar Crime). These crimes include fraud, identity theft, internet swindles, money laundering, price-fixing, embezzlement, political corruption, police brutality, and much more. Conklin (2010) defines white-collar crime as “any illegal act, punishable by a criminal sanction, that is committed in the course of a legitimate occupation or pursuit by a corporation or by an otherwise respectable individual of high social standing.” Who are white-collar criminals? Who are blue-collar criminals? What are the differences between white-collar crime and blue-collar crime? Is there disparate treatment in sentencing between white-collar and blue-collar criminals? If yes, should there be? For example, if someone breaks into my home, it is a blue-collar crime and I lose some property. If a banking or real estate corporation defrauds me, it is a white-collar crime, and I lose my home, savings, and/or pension. Who is the worse criminal, and what are we doing about it? I will research these questions and examine how these two types of criminals are treated within our society. In 1939, Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime in his presidential address to the American Sociological Society. In 1949, he authored a book, White- Collar Crime, that revealed a...
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...White Collar crime VS. Blue collar crime A big problem in today society is white collar crime and blue collar crime. The big question we ask in society is which one is a bigger problem. In my paper I will go into detail with each one and distinguish them between Micro sociology and Macro sociology. The big question being asked is what is white collar crime identified as and blue collar crime? White collar crime is defined as “illegal or unethical acts that violate fiduciary responsibility of 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 personal or organizational gain” (Helmkamp, Ball, & Townsend,1996, p. 351). (Cullen, Clark, Mather’s, & Cullen, 1983; Grabosky et al., 1987; Hauber, Toonvliet, & Willemse, 1988; Holland, 1995) felt back then that white collar crimes get neglected. There are only 24 out of 140 crimes that are categorized to be white collar crimes. Some examples that are white collar crimes are (i.e., price fixing, defrauding customers, and income tax fraud). Benson and Cullen (1998) examined the perceptions of white-collar crime seriousness from local prosecutors. The prosecutors did not typically perceive such crimes as serious; it was stated that, less than 4% of urban prosecutors considered corporate crime a “very serious” problem and about 50% did not regard it as serious at all. When crimes like this are committed I feel that the...
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...Module 2, Writing Assignment 2 Essay Questions 1. Why is it helpful to have a topology of corporate crime, what are the main criteria used, and which criteria do you think are the most significant? A topology of corporate crime can be extremely helpful in recording data for evaluation. The separate concepts and dimensions of each topology can narrow an inquiry to a very particular subset of activities, victims and practices. A database search on more information of topologies within this subset of White Collar Crime yielded very few results. The author examines this from two broad categories. accounting for several factors within criminology or social science to allow a better study of the topic, in a more narrow scope. From these typologies, we can also draw numerous scientific values. The author uses the type of activity to study an area. The other typologies include, victims, such as the general public, consumers and employees. Another typology is the size of entity, such as the crime of a major domestic corporation. Thirdly, the product or service involved is another topology. Finally, the nature of the harmful activity. I believe the victim and type of activity are the most significant, because you will most likely have the most data to draw from. Victims will almost definitely report their loss if they suspect foul play; all the while the type of activity will be reported or derived from the victims report. These areas, in my mind, hold for quantitative data...
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...White collar crime The phrase white collar crime was first used by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 during a speech to the American Sociological Society. He defined white collar crime as a "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation."(Sutherland, “White-Collar Criminality."). Today, white collar crime refers to illegal offenses that are generally committed in the business or professional setting (white collar versus blue collar jobs) to achieve financial gain. Crimes that do not involve physical violence, and that relate largely to financial matters, are often called white collar crimes. Corporate corruption is out of control for two main reasons. First, big companies are now multinational, while governments remain national. Big companies are so financially powerful that governments are afraid to take them on. It is very important to study the cause and the possible solution for the increase in numbers of white collar crime; our focus needs to shift from Blue Collar Crimes to White Collar Crimes. U.S.A spends nearly $50 billion on fighting Blue Collar Crimes, not even quarter of that amount is spent on fighting White Collar Crimes. Hardly a day passes without a new story of malfeasance. Every Wall Street firm has paid significant fines during the past decade for phony accounting, insider trading, securities fraud, Ponzi schemes, or outright embezzlement by CEOs. A massive insider-trading ring is currently on trial in New York...
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...fraud scheme | CrimesInChicago 5/4/13 11:59 AM CrimesInChicago CA T EGORY ARCHIVE S : FR AU D SC HE ME White Collar Crime and Prosecution Posted on February 1, 2013 by webmaster White-collar crime is skyrocketing! Tough economic times and the advent of hi-tech computer technology coupled with Wall Street fraud is proving tough times for all Americans. Who are the white-collar criminals? What is White-collar crime? How do these individuals arrive at a position of trust? What is law enforcement doing? Who will be affected next? Will you be next? A white collar crime is many times defined as a non-violent crime involving deception and/or trickery, typically committed by a business person, public official, or someone of high stature, trust, or authority. Evidence in a white collar crime usually involves a paper trail of evidence that investigators use to prosecute the case. Although this definition may be true, it is hotly contested within the community of experts that try to define “White-Collar Crime”. Many experts feel there are three main characteristics that categorize a white-collar criminal. Some experts believe that white-collar crime should be defined by the high socioeconomic status and/or occupation of trust that the offender has. Others believe that white-collar crime should be defined by the type of offense committed i.e., fraud, counterfeiting, forgery, embezzlement, bribery, larceny, price fixing, racketeering, computer fraud, obstruction of justice, and perjury...
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...Running Head: EXPLAINING WHITE COLLAR CRIME White Collar Crime Explanation Kaplan University Deborah Llamas CJ501P-01N Professor Tom DiPaola August 14, 2013 Bernard Madoff, appeared to be a cordial man with an alluring personality, however, despite his friendly demeanor Madoff had another side to him that was not as friendly and compassionate, he was considered to be withdrawn, cold, and unfriendly (Cresswell, & Thomas, 2009). Accordance to the video Maddoff was very rarely seen intermingling with the victims of whom he swindled millions of dollars, by means of hiring, Michael Bienes, and Frank Avellino, whom were responsible for bringing in clients with the promise of returns of potentially, 15% to 20% (Bienes, 2009). I. Maddoff’s Behavior Explained. Accordance to the video it is obvious that Bernie Maddoff considered a psychopath defined in the following manner; psychopaths do not learn from experience, have no inclination of responsibility, do not obtain the means of controlling their dispositions, emotionally immature, and unable to develop meaningful relationships. Similarly, Madoff clearly obtained anti-social personality social disorder, he had the ability to manipulate people without having any feelings of guilt or remorse for his actions, he never considered the fact that the people he cheated out of their hard earned money. He never considered that his victims had their rights, appeared to be amiable yet was aggressive...
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...Compare and contrast the nature of white collar crime with other type types of illegal acts. 2. Compare and contrast the typical participants of white collar crime against the participants of other types of illegal acts 3. Discuss the role of technology in white collar crime and how its role may create differences from other forms of crime. 4. Analyze the role of “opportunity” and how it contributes to white collar crime. Provide specific examples to support your response. When Edwin Sutherland first began his study/analysis under the Traditional Summary Reporting System, there was a limited amount of information available on White Color Crime. The white-collar offenses that are measured are fraud, forgery/counterfeiting, embezzlement, and all other offenses. Because white-collar crimes are not Index crimes, the only information available on these offenses is arrest information, which includes age, sex, and race of the arrestee. Additionally, all other offenses arrest category is very limited in its ability to measure the white-collar offenses included in its counts. This is due to the inability to differentiate the white-collar offenses from the others that also fall in this category. Based upon the most recently published data from the FBI, the arrest rates for the offenses of embezzlement, fraud, and forgery/counterfeiting are much lower than the arrest rates for property, crime, or for total crimes in general. In order to assess the utility...
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...THE CROOKS in your company have never been so tempted. The spread of technology that makes office work easier can make white-collar crimes almost laughably simple. Laser printers can forge documents with breathtaking fidelity, and color copiers can reproduce them. Imagine a dishonest executive boarding a plane and carrying a laptop computer with a modem. Using the on- board telephone, he hooks up to the mainframe at headquarters and transfers $50 million to his Swiss bank account -- as he jets toward Rio. Such new opportunities, plus the spirit of an age that encourages rather than represses the natural lust for wealth, are greatly intensifying the allure of ripping off one's employer. The amounts being stolen from companies appear to be growing dramatically. In the past several weeks a former General Electric Capital manager, allegedly in cahoots with a bank vice president, was charged with taking $30,000 in kickbacks as part of a scheme that resulted in $4.5 million of fraudulent loans. A Continental Illinois vice president went on trial charged with approving $1 billion of bad loans in exchange for $585,000 in kickbacks, loans that allegedly cost the Chicago bank $800 million and helped trigger its 1984 collapse. FDIC investigators say internal fraud was the major cause of one-third of all bank failures over the past two years. To some extent the victims have themselves to blame. A company with shoddy financial controls or badly trained internal auditors practically begs employees...
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...David Miller is not unique in that he fits the profile of most white collar criminals. White collar criminals look like everyone else in the business world, some are well liked and they seem to be ideal employees. They work long hours and never take vacation but they are most likely working on the constant struggle to conceal their fraud. It is for these reasons that it made Mr. Miller hard to detect. His employers thought he was putting in the extra mile when he would work long hours and he was said to do outstanding work. Most of this was most likely a ploy to cover his tracks. This coupled with Mr. Miller being a very likeable person proved to make his transgressions very hard for his employers to detect. 2. Mr. Miller committed the various fraud schemes by stealing money from his employers through forged checks. In order to forge the checks, Mr. Miller himself would sign the checks or he would trick colleagues into signing their names to checks requiring two authorizing signatures. He would do this by asking them to sign the checks just in case the company needed to authorize a payment while they were on vacation. In order to conceal the fraud, Mr. Miller would retrieve the canceled checks from the bank reconciliation and destroy the canceled checks he used to siphon money. The amount stolen was charged to a business unit’s expense account in order to balance the company’s books. Since Mr. Miller was stealing the money through forges checks, he would simply deposit the checks...
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