White Collar Crime

Who defined the phrase 'White collar crime'?

- Developed by Edwin Sutherland in 1939.

- It was defined as a 'crime commited by a person of respectability and high social system in the course of his occupation'.

- Today it generally encompasses a variety of non-violent crime usually committed in commercial situation for financial gain

What did Hazel Croall (1992) identify?

- Main types are occupational crime and corporate crime

- But she pointed out that 'crime of the powerful' could even extend to state crime, such as the invasion of Iraq.

What is Occupation crime?

Crimes committed by professional, senior or junior executives or other, in the course of their occupation.

What does Michael Clarke (1990) point out?

- Occupation crime is difficult to research because it easily concealed and disguised. May firms are embarrassed to acknowledge that their employees can act criminally and therefore do not report incidents.

- A lot of these crimes are dealt with in-house e.g. They are sacked from their Job.

What are examples of occupational crime?

- Police Abuse & Corruption e.g. Wayne Couzens (Susan Everard murder)

- MP expenses scandal

- Medical Malpractice - 'God Complex' e.g. Ian Paterson

- Abusive care workers.

- Sexual exploitation e.g. Football coaches.

How significant is Employee theft?

- It is one of the biggest types of occupational crime.

- Stealing from employers is more common than we may think and the cost to industry, consumers and the government is enormous.

What is this like in many workplaces?

- The line between 'perks' and 'theft' is very often blurred.

- Employees at all levels 'borrow' items for their own use.

- Many of these practices are so institutionised that they constitute an 'informal reward system' which is often budgeted for.

- Companies will often give their employees 'incentives' to discourage them from stealing e.g. Discounts, Vouchers & Free-meals.

What is Corporate Crime?

- Refers to crime committed by corporations or businesses.

- It can include a wide range of activities from pollution, fraud, breaking health and safety regulations to negligence or corporate manslaughter.

What happened during the Bhopal disaster?

- 2/3 December 1984.

- 3,000 - 8,000 killed.

- 200,000 were injuried.

- Union Carbide pesticide chemical factory exploded, leaking poisonous gas.

- MIC ('liquid dynamite').

- Safety Equipment was neglected due to a drop in profits - less safety checks - etc.

- Although UC paid a small amount of compensation, it never accepted the blame nobody was prosecuted.

What happened in the Potters Bar Train Crash?

- May 2002

- 7 killed

- 76 injured

- A train was de-railed and crashed into the station platform at 97 mph.

- Parts of the tracks were cracked and poorly maintained.

- Network Rail was fined £3 million and the sub-company Jarvis paid compensation to the victims - there were no criminal convictions.

What are examples of some more recent corporate crimes?

- The Smiler ride crash.

- VW Emissions Scandal.

- Deep Water Horzion explosion.

- Croydon Train Crash (2016 - 7 killed).

Why was the reasons why very few white-collar criminal are prosecuted?

- Chief executives can hire the best lawyers and they have influential 'friends'.

- It's hard to prove which individuals is responsible in a large company/organisation.

- Corporate law is different to Criminal law.

- The victims are often 'hidden'.

What are the reasons for White Collar Crime? (1)

1) Nikos Passas (1990) - Strain Theory.

- Members of organisations are under the 'strain' of pressure to make profits and they may cut corners to meet targets. Performance related pay & bonuses.

2) David Weisburd (1991) - Control Theory.

- White collar workers are over-integrated into the materialist ideologies of capitalism and seek to maximise their ow financial gains, even if it means breaking the law in order to do so.

- 'Greed is good' - (Film - Wall Street).

What are the reasons for White Collar Crime? (2)

3) John Hagan (1994) - Social Capital Theory

- Those in positions of power have too much social trust (a form of social capital) invest in them, which gives them a sense of being 'untouchable' and beyond the rules that govern those beneath them.

- 'God Couples' e.g. Ian Paterson.

4) Steven Box (Marxist) (1983) - Criminogenic Theory

- Capital is criminogenic, in that the system encourages people to break the rule into to maintain profits for the company that they work for.

- E.g. Nick Leeson spent 6 years in Jail for bankrupting Barings Bank, the UK's oldest merchant bank in 1995.

What are an evaluation of White-Collar Crime?

- Crime is more widespread than we are led to believe and it's not just committed by those at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

- Industrial 'accidents' are seen as a natural by-product of the capitalist system - a risk that we willing to put with.

- By their very nature, white collar crimes are harder to detect and therefore prosecute.

- However, there have been some high-profile prosecutions e.g. Jeffrey Archer & Bernard Madoff.

What is an conclusion of White-Collar crime?

- Marxist Steven Box argue white collar crime is important, as it shows us that relations of power are vital in our perception of crime.

- The ability of the powerful to avoid criminalisation and low number of convictions for white-collar crimes helps increase the focus on the crimes of the less powerful.

- This process is therefore an ideological device that distracts our attention from the reality of crime i.e. it is an example of selective law enforcement.

- White collar crime are likely to increase due to the growth of capitalism across the world, cybercrime and post-covid economic recession (cost of living).