Criminology Test 2

White-Collar Crime/Types of White-Collar Crime

• White-Collar Crime: Crime committed by a person of respectable status during their legitimate occupation- for personal or organizational gain

• Occupational Crime: Committed during work for personal gain

• Organizational/Corporate Crime: Committed by and to benefit organization/corporation

Healthcare Fraud/Unnecessary Surgery

Healthcare Fraud: Typically involves a professional in the healthcare system overbilling insurance companies

• High cost in money ($77 BN- $259 BN annually) and lives (12,000-16,000 people die annually from medical complications that arise from unnecessary surgery)

• Medical professions are self-regulated so fraud is easy to commit

Unnecessary Surgery: Surgeons will persuade their patients that surgery is necessary to cure their ailments when it is clearly not (more surgeries —> more profit)

• Example: Local PRMC Cardio Surgeon, Dr. McLean, sentenced to prison after being convicted of performing over 100 unnecessary heart stent surgeries

Whistleblowers

Much white-collar crime is complex, so it remains undetected unless reported by an inside whistleblower

Frequency/Costs of White Collar Crime

• Common

• ⅔ of Fortune 500 corporations in 1970s, 100 leading corporations in 1990s plead guilty, and more in 2000s

• Costs more in lives and money than street crime

Penalties of White-Collar Crime

• Fines more common than criminal prosecution

• Often outweighed by profits from crime (no real punishment)

• Lenient enforcement and penalization of white-collar crime compared to street crime

Scale of Tax Fraud/Uncollected Taxes

• Uncollected Taxes: +400 BN/Year

• Top 1% (very rich) account for 28% of US Uncollected Taxes ($163 Billion/Year)

Two Types of Corporate/Organizational Crime (+ Examples)

Financial Crime: 

• Fraud, Cheating, Corruption

• +4700 billion/year

• Key to 2008-2009 recession (banks too big to fail and too big too jail)

• Wage theft in L.A. garment industry

• Google and Amazon as illegal monopolies

Violent Corporate Crime:

• Injuries and illness due to unsafe products, workplaces, and pollution

• +100,000 deaths/year

• Hidden risks of “Forever Chemicals” by 3M and Dupont

• Unsafe marketing and distribution of Opioid drugs (paying doctors to prescribe more opioids (typical first introduction to drug)- +1.2 Million Drug Overdose Deaths from 1993-2023 (majority Opioid); just recently started coming down)

Texas 2-Step

Set up a subsidiary company and load it up with all the bad stuff (Dupont started up Chemours to take on ‘forever chemicals’) then have it declare bankruptcy when profits go down from lawsuits (ends former liabilities)

Explanations of White-Collar Crime/Why Hard to Prosecute

• Power of Offenders + Corporate Culture of Greed

• Lenient Treatment & Weak Punishment + Weak Regulations

• Lack of Media Coverage

• Hard to Prosecute & Prove due to Complexity and Corporate Defense Resources

• White-Collar Crime Pays– Benefits > Costs

How to Reduce White-Collar Crime

• Increased Media Attention

• More Government Monitoring & Resources to Prosecute and Penalize

• White-Collar Crime is Rational- So, Change the Cost-Benefit Calculation: Increase Costs to outweigh Benefits

Fraud

• Identity theft, tax fraud, and insurance fraud

• Tax fraud amounts to some $1 trillion annually and involves many wealthy people and corporations

• Insurance fraud is also common and costs tens of billions of dollars annually

Rios Ch. 6-Deterrence Theory

• Riverland youths often faced harsh treatment and punishment from schools/authority (anti-immigrant/anti-cholo signs and interactions)

• Lead to distancing from school and seeking acceptance in streets/gang

• Deterrence Theory: Posits that crime can be deterred by increasing costs/punishments

• Connection: The application of harsher punishments/treatment towards Riverland youths did not decrease crime/gang involvement, actually increased likelihood that they’d seek gang out

Rios Ch. 6-Differential Association Theory

• After joining the gang, Riverland youths are taught how to “prove their manhood” among others and the gang (taught not to let people disrespect them; submissiveness/loyalty to the gang) 

• Differential Association Theory: People learn offending (motivations/techniques) from those they associate with

• Connection: Younger gang members interact with the older gang members to learn how to command respect (often through crime and violence). Consequently, they learn how to offend from those they associate with as DA theory posits.

Rios Ch. 6-Labeling Theory

• Jorge, an undocumented immigrant, was put into the gang database at 15; was not yet part of a gang; only evidence was him being a stab-victim, his style of dress, and a family nickname 

• Labeling Theory: Some people/behaviors more likely to be labeled deviant (race/class inequalities); Importance of labeling in self-fulfilling prophecy

• Connection: Jorge was added to the gang database (even though not part of gang) because of his status as a poor, undocumented immigrant and the way he looked. Labeling theory suggest that this likely contributed to him actually joining a gang in the future due to him gaining a deviant self-image.  

Vitale Ch. 8-General Strain Theory

• Vitale claims that a big part of crime is caused by poverty in “concentrated disadvantage” neighborhoods (along with racism and segregation)

• Strain Theory: Posits that delinquency results from cultural goals (economic success/materialism) and unequal access to legal/institutional means to achieve them (leads to an increase in strain)

• Connection: One alternative to anti-gang strategies is providing more jobs in these areas. Provides legal way of achieving economic goals and therefore reduces strain/frustration

Consensual Crime/Main Types

• Crimes people participate in willing (drug use, prostitution, illegal gambling (most common), illegal pornography)

• “Victimless crimes” but may directly harm participant and indirectly harm their family/friends

Public Demand-Organized Crime

• Illegal businesses meet public/market demand for illegal goods and services (drugs, prostitution, etc.)

• Restricting/prohibition of goods and services fuels organized crime (laws against consensual crime doing more harm than good)

• Illegal businesses have links to banks, legal businesses, and political system

• Better economic opportunities for poor men and women and legalization of some illegal goods and services could reduce involvement in organized crime

Legalization vs. Moral Arguments

• Many people object to these behaviors for moral reasons and think the law should be used to punish their participants

• Much debate over enforcing laws based on morality and “harmless” behavior (belief that state should not enforce morality)

• Laws against these behaviors may do more harm than good (lead people to commit other types of crime they would not otherwise commit if consensual behavior was legal (drug trade); diverts time, energy, money from fighting more serious crime)

• Some people fear that, if drugs were decriminalized, many more people would use illicit drugs if they were decriminalized, leading to more drug addiction

Drug Use/Enforcement

• Legal drugs kill more people than illegal drugs (tobacco/alcohol kill more than illegal drugs)

• Opioids account for majority of overdoses (overdoes deaths dropped 27% in 2024)

• Most Americans have tried illegal drugs at least once (and not gotten addicted)

• Concentration of drug abuse/addiction problems in poor, urban neighborhoods 

• Government spends $50 Billion per year on Drug Enforcement (not much effect on drug use)

Marijuana

• Labeled Schedule One drug (most severe) by Drug Enforcement Agency, prevents effects from being studied

• Increasingly legal in states

• Most commonly used illegal drug (rates of other illegal drug use low)

• No overdoses and lower health risks

“War on Drugs”/Race and Drugs

• Major growth of drug prisoner population over time due to Nixon’s “War on Drugs”

• “War on Drugs” actually aimed at associating Black people with drugs, and criminalizing them, to disrupt those communities

• Drug convictions have disproportionately affected Black people even though white people actually have higher usage rates of illicit drugs (lead to mass incarceration/racial inequalities in imprisonment)

Explanations for Drug Use

• Poor Socio-Economic Conditions

• Drug Use and Sale in Poor Areas one of few Economic Opportunities

• Peer and Family Involvement in Drugs

Drug-Crime Link

• Drug effects do not cause violence among users (except alcohol) or other crime

• Illegality of drugs increases crime, not drugs themselves (illegality of drug leads to decrease in supply and increase in price- many users lack funds, so commit crime to get $)

• Drug gangs are violent, but mainly due to illegality of product- can’t open store, use banks, go to police if robbed- liquor and drug stores are not violent

Harm Reduction Approach

• Treat drug use (and prostitution) primarily as public health issue, not criminal issue

• Treatment for low-level offenders, not jail (cheaper and more effective)

• Portugal has had success in this (no explosion in usage, rates either stay the same or usually go down)

Pornography-Rape

Though many people believe pornography causes rape, empirical evidence is inconclusive

Decriminalization of Prostitution

• Many problems associated with sex work (assault/robbery of sex workers, robbing of customers, spreading of STDs) stem from laws against it

• Problems could be reduced if sex work was decriminalized and regulated (could mandate condoms and health exams)

• Money/Energy could be redirected from punishing prostitutes to improving conditions that lead women to sex work

Political Crime/Types

Political Crime: Illegal or socially harmful acts to preserve or change political/social order (ideological motive)

Two Types:

• Crimes by Govt: Aims to preserve the existing order

• Crimes against Govt: Aims to change the existing order

Crimes against Government

• Terrorism

• Riots/Rebellions

• Assassinations (Recent attempts on ex-president Trump and PA governor + killing of Charlie Kirk)

• Civil disobedience (Intentional breaking of law to protest unjust laws; usually non-violent; key means for Civil Rights Movement)

• Espionage and treason 

Terrorism Definition(s)

FBI Definition: “The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”

• Attack on civilians not central feature

• Broad definition is convenient to Govts-when something is labeled as terrorism people are more likely to say “do what you need to do” 

Barkan Definition: “The use of unexpected violence to intimidate or coerce people in the pursuit of political or social objectives”

• Narrower common sense definition-intentional attacks on civilians

Types/Motivations of Terrorism

Motivations:

• Based on grievances (not irrational)

• White supremacy biggest motivator of terrorism in U.S (post 2016)

• Upset over U.S foreign military intervention big motivator of terrorism done by radical Islamist extremists (pre 2016)

4 Types

• State Terrorism: Governments violently repress citizens, usually to prevent change

• Vigilante Terrorism: Private group violence to preserve status-quo, prevent change

• Insurgent Terrorism: Violence to bring about change, targets public and private figures

• Transnational Terrorism: Violence by residents of one nation against another nation

Additional Info:

• Domestic terrorism larger threat than international terrorism in U.S

• Left violence in 2025 outpacing Right for the first time (in the past, Right overwhelmingly committed political crime)

• Less Right wing violence in 2025 due to them currently being in power (nothing to complain about)

Crimes by Government

Political repression and Human Rights Violations:

• Genocide (ex. Israel occupation of Gaza)

• Torture, assassination, related violence (vs. labor, Civil Rights, anti-war activists)

• Surveillance, infiltration, and disruption (Operation COINTELPRO (1941-1970s) [Counter Intelligence Program]- Focused on leftists and any reformist or radical movement- Civil Rights movement and MLK, anti-war movement, etc.)

• Legal repression (use law to harass and repress protestors and dissidents; border enforcement human rights abuses)

Unethical or Illegal Experimentation

• Nazi’s gruesome experiments on concentration camp prisoners

Corruption

• Watergate Scandal (1972): Burglary of Democratic Party Headquarters by Nixon Administration

State-Corporate Crime

• Government and corporate cooperate to commit crime

Post 9/11 Terrorism Surveillance (Targets vs Actual Terrorists)

-Post 9/11/01 Anti-Terrorism Broadened FBI and Police Surveillance Powers

-Blurring lines between Terrorism and Legitimate Political Protest

Targets:

• Authorities focused on peace, anti-death penalty, environmental, gay rights, BLM, Occupy Wall Street groups as “potential terrorists” (no terrorism leads found)

• National Security Agency (NSA) massive electronic surveillance of public

Actual Terrorists:

• Many cases of prior knowledge of perpetrators but they are overlooked (mistakes made by FBI in Boston bombing case)

Use of Military in Law Enforcement (especially Immigration)

• Under state authority, the National Guard can do arrest, search, and seizure of  people who violate state laws

• Under federal authority, the National Guard cannot make arrest, search and seizure

Troops sent to States (CA, OG IL) sent under Federal Authority- legally contentious (disapproval of Governors + no rebellion that justifies)- currently barred from doing law enforcement

Posse Comitatus Act/Insurrection Act/Presidential Immunity

Posse Comitatus Act: The U.S military is generally forbidden from engaging in civilian law enforcement

Insurrection Act: Allows the President to deploy military forces to suppress internal rebellion or foreign operations (overrides Posse Comitatus)

Presidential Immunity: Supreme Court has granted Presidential Immunity for “official acts”

Rational Choice Theory/Deterrence Theory (NeoClassical)

• Crime/criminals rational (assumption crime is not emotional)

• Offenders weigh cost-benefit of offending (risk vs reward)

• Focus on “event decision” (situational factors make crime more or less likely) not “involvement decision” (crime motivation is a given)

• Given that crime is rational, crime deterred by increasing costs (punishment- certain and severe)

• Absolute Deterrence: Effects of having no legal punishment vs some on crime

• Marginal Deterrence: Questions effects of increasing legal punishment on crime

• Works better for “instrumental offenses” (material gain/white-collar) than “expressive offenses” (emotional)

• Weak relationship between crime rates and punishment (crime dropped less in states with “3 strikes laws” (25 years to life for 3rd felony), than those without 3 strikes)

Social Disorganization Theory/Social Ecology (Social Structural)

• Characteristics of places that people live in matter more in producing crime than personal characteristics (regardless of which groups of people live there, more crime than in other places)

• Poor neighborhoods are more disorganized (more mobility/instability, weaker institutions) leads to a decrease in social bonds and social control

• Concentrated disadvantages in some areas leads to more crime

Subcultural Theories (Social Structural)

• Deviant subcultures cause crime (values are conducive to crime)

• Status frustration: Can’t achieve status via legitimate means (leads people to “reject the rejectors” and turn to deviant alternative)

• Differential opportunity: Class-based unequal access to legitimate and illegitimate opportunities (illegitimate often have criminal subculture)

• Subculture of violence/masculinity: Violence is accepted if challenges are made to a person’s masculinity

• Code of Streets: Strong desire for “respect” but few legitimate means to achieve it (use or pose violence to gain respect)

Control Theories (Social Process)

• Containment Theory- Inner contaminants (psychological state) and Outer Containments (institutions) → Resist deviance (lack of containments makes deviance more likely)

• Drift and Neutralization Theory- People drift/move back and forth between delinquency and conformity depending on values and situation, and use neutralization techniques to rationalize delinquency

• Self-Control Theory- What causes low self-control (key role of childhood bad parenting) → Deviance

• Control Balance Theory- Too much or too little control, and abusive control leads to deviance

• Differential Support and Coercion Theory- Micro coercion (threats, humiliation)

  and macro coercion (poverty) causes crime, whereas Social Support to meet needs reduces crime

Social Bonding Theory (Control Theory)

• Bonds to mainstream institutions (family, school, religion) prevent deviance

• Weak social ties and institutions lead to more deviance

Life Course Theories (Social Process)

• Many risk factors affect youth (poor parenting, poverty, etc.) → Weaker bonds to parents and schools → More deviance

• But many youths facing risks not deviant due to other positive things in their lives

• Many youth offenders stop as they age, due to life “turning points” and mainstream “social attachments”

Feminist Theories (Critical Perspectives)

• Role of gender inequality in crime

• Gender socialization and masculinity and crime related

• Women offend, but still “do gender” differently in their offending (role of prior

  victimization of females)

Radical and Conflict Theories (Critical Perspectives)

• Economic basis for much crime (poverty especially)

• Key role of capitalism in creating economic inequality and poverty (leads to crime)

• Role of powerful in writing laws and directing CJ system vs lower classes