WCC Ch. 10. Policing and Regulating WCC

WCC costs society how much more times that of conventional crime?

10 times

What are three reasons why WCC has not been a primary concern of law enforcement agencies?

Law enforcement lack

1. Jurisdiction

2. Expertise

3. Resources (funding, staffing)

What are some restricting factors on policing WCC?

1. WCC research requires a greater investment of time

2. Police training is more oriented toward conventional crime

3. There is a lower probability of a successful resolution

4. Public pressure on WCC is less intense

5. Political pressure is more likely to be exerted (ex: trump / republicans in office may be pro business and put pressure on LE)

6. Media coverage may not be very much

What are some factors that restrict regulating WCC?

1. They are labeled “crime in the suite”, behind closed doors

2. They seem to be invisible

3. They are hard to investigate

4. Researching them calls for forms of competence and expertise (LE usually lack this, don’t have specialized knowledge about finance and banking)

What are the agencies involved in responding to WCC?

1. Formal criminal policing agencies at all levels of government

2. Regulatory agencies (state to federal)

3. Private agencies (guarding businesses against employee misconduct)

State regulatory agencies regulate what?

state health, safety, and sales related laws

Federal level regulatory agencies regulate what?

federal laws and regulations

The role of the state police in the investigation of WCC has been ____

relatively limited, established in the early 20th century (highway patrol)

_____ make the most substantial response to WCC?

Federal policing agencies

Two major differences in law enforcement of WCC

Diverse federal CJ agencies play a much larger role in investigation due to complex, inter-jurisdictional character of WCC

What are some federal agencies that may police WCC?

FBI, Inspector General, US Postal Inspection Service, US Secret Service (counterfeit currency), US Customs Service, IRS Criminal Investigation Division, General Accounting Office, US Marshals

What are some federal regulatory agencies that regulate (in order to prevent and discourage) WCC?

FDA (food and drug administration), FTC (federal trade commission), EPA (Environmental protection agency), OSHA (occupational Safety and Health Administration) etc.

During Edgar Hoover’s leadership over the FBI, what happened?

WCC was not a top priority, FBI only focused on highly visible forms of professional crime (bank fraud, robberies, kidnappings, embezzlement), Hoover often protected his own interests by maintaining confidential files)

What are the two strategies that law enforcement use to respond to crime?

1. Reactive strategies (police respond to reports of crime)

2. Proactive strategies (police develop criminal cases)

What are the various stages of White-collar crime investigation?

1. Cases in by referral or uncovering of evidence

2. Identifying target

3. Locating documents

4. Reviewing false statements

5. Interviewing participants

What are the evidence gathering strategies of WCC policing?

1. Audits - techniques designed to uncover fraud that involve periodic reviews of data

2. Record reviews - looking over financial records, banking statements - to find evidence of misconduct

What are the undercover investigations for WCC?

1. typically not used unless evidence already exists and are usually just one component of a case

2. very little danger to undercover officers, investigations are swift, and the officer does not take on a criminal role

3. Undercover work is criticized for coercing people to offend

What is whistleblower evidence?

Evidence originating from individuals who notify authorities about wrongdoing in their organization (extremely valuable components of a case)

What are the two forms of whistleblower evidence?

1. Internal (sharing information within the organization, like security

2. External (sharing information with outside organizations like media)

What are technological devices and evidence?

software used to search for evidence of computer crimes, cameras are used to substantiate wrongdoing

What are some resource problems in addressing WCC?

Budget cuts have police focusing more of their efforts on traditional crime

what are the relationship dynamics that make WCC policing problematic?

1. Victim/offender: victim often do not report crimes because they do not know they are victims

2. Offender/witness: witnesses have trusting relationships with offender and are reluctant to work with police

3. Officer/offender: class status and education is different than traditional criminals

What are the time problems with WCC policing?

1. Long periods of time can pass before crime is reported

2. Criminal act of WCC may be months between each other

3. It can take too long to collect the records to build a case

4. It takes longer to prepare for white-collar interrogations

What are the complexity problems that affect WCC policing?

1. Complex record searches - significant amount of records

2. extensive collaboration - difficult to determine each agencies role in an investigation and sharing information is difficult

3. lack of systematic approach - no case is handled in the same manner

Establishing proof (problem with WCC)

1. Difficult to establish proof and often have to file lesser charges

2. Difficult to determine which employees participated in crime

Perceptions of WCC police work

often perceived as “not real police work”

Difficult to recruit and retain experienced criminal justice officials

Suggestions for improving LE of WCC

1. publicize arrests of offenders in the workplace

2. use the strategy of searching for the “smoking un”

3. follow the money trail to find evidence of crime

4. improve educational programs to include white-collar crime as a topic of study

5. Police must be up to date with technological advances

Self-policing strategies of WCC

1. Loss prevention strategies (efforts businesses take to prevent employees from stealing from the business)

What are the three categories of self-policing WCC?

1. Businesses emphasize security

2. Businesses emphasize screening and education

3. businesses emphasize employees’ involvement; encourages employees to share information about the misconduct of co-workers

What are some compliance strategies in self-policing WCC?

Methods used to identify and report misconduct and criminal behavior

1. Specific individuals must oversee compliance standards

2. Must use discretion to focus more on high risk individuals

3. Must take steps to achieve standards through audits

4. Standards must be consistently enforced

5. Offenses must be appropriately responded to prevent more offending

Audits

conducted by the organization and allow for more control over the direction and timing of the audit

-done as routine procedures or initiated out of specific concern

-lack of documentation and larger payments are typical red flags

-performed as self policing, evidence gathering strategies, and regulatory policing

Regulatory policing

regulatory agencies include all agencies responsible for ensuring that businesses comply with state and federal regulations

-different businesses are regulated by different agencies

two types of regulatory policing strategies:

1. Persuasion/cooperation

2. retributive/punishment

What are the four regulatory policing styles?

1. Service style

2. Watchman style

3. Legalistic style

4. Free agent style

What are the criticisms of regulatory policing?

1. policing does little to stop misconduct

2. policing breeds more crime

3. light regulation led to economic problems (conflicts with free market capitalism)

problems with global WCC policing

1. different countries maintain different types of records

2. Linguistic and cultural barriers exist

3. it is a challenge to achieve cooperation between international agencies

how can global WCC policing be improved?

1. develop police networks with common language

2. Provide appropriate training for international crime

3. Ensuring agencies have information to prevent crimes

what is agency capture?

pro business individuals joining regulatory agencies creating bias

What federal agencies are involved in policing WCC?

FBI, CIA, Secret Service, IRS, Inspector General, U.S. Marshalls, U.S. Postal Inspection service, DOJ

What agencies are involved in regulating industries to prevent WCC?

FTC, SEC, EPA ,OSHA, FDA, CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), GAO (General Accounting Office), ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission), Merit Systems Protection Board, Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration

What does the FTC do?

regulates businesses and ensures fair advertisements, investigates unfair and deceptive business practices, issues trade regulation rules, prevents unfair competition and mergers

What does the SEC do?

regulates and monitors the stock and securities market

What does the EPA do?

regulates and monitors environmental practices in the U.S. throughout corporate and public areas.

What does OSHA do?

regulates and enforces procedures and standards for workplace safety

What does the U.S. Marshal service do?

capture fugitive WCC criminals who flee abroad

What does the U.S. Postal Inspection service do?

investigates WCC done through mail - mail fraud, embezzlement, lotteries, workers comp fraud, money laundering

what does the U.S. Inspector general do?

conducts audits and investigations of departments and agencies (EPA, OSHA, FTC, department of energy, department of transportation)

What does the U.S. secret service do?

investigates counterfeit currencies

What does the DOJ do?

initiates a federal criminal prosecution of WCC

What does the IRS do?

audits corporations and investigates corporate and occupational crime, political crime; tax fraud

Which agencies are most likely to handle WCC?

federal agencies, because they have the resources and expertise to do so

What does the U.S. customs service do?

investigates money laundering, falsified import or export documents, illegal product dumping