Crimes of the powerful

Who coined "white-collar crime" in 1939, and how did he define it?

• Sutherland [AO1].

• "A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation." [AO1].

What is the difference between Occupational and Corporate crime?

• Occupational: Stealing from the company for personal gain [AO1].

• Corporate: Law-breaking for the company to boost profit [AO1]

What is Pearce’s Marxist concept of "mystification"?

• Concept: The state hypes up street crime to make corporate crime look rare [AO1].

• Function: Creates a false illusion that the law protects everyone equally [AO3].

How does Volkswagen (2015) prove Crimes Against Consumers?

• Application: Used illegal "defeat device" software to cheat emissions tests [AO2].

• Impact: Defrauded millions of buyers who thought they were buying eco-friendly cars [AO2].

How does Volkswagen (2015) prove Crimes Against the Environment?

• Application: The software masked true pollution levels during tests [AO2].

• Impact: Allowed cars to emit up to 40 times the legal limit of toxic gases into the atmosphere [AO2].

• What case study proves Financial Corporate Crime, and what did they do?

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• Case Study: HSBC (2012) [AO2].

• Details: Laundered $881 million for violent drug cartels [AO2].

• Exam Link: Proves the massive scale of elite financial fraud [AO2]

What individual case study covers Occupational Crime and the Abuse of Trust?

• Case Study: Dr Harold Shipman (2000) [AO2].

• Details: A high-status GP who murdered 200+ patients and forged their wills for personal gain [AO2].

• Who argues corporate crime is an "abuse of trust", and why does it cause invisibility?

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• Carrabine et al. [AO1].

• Reason: High status gives elites a "license to practice," which automatically deflects suspicion [AO3].

• What does "M" and "P" stand for in the M.P.C.D.U. invisibility mnemonic?

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• M – Media Bias: Uses sanitised language (e.g., "technical error" instead of fraud) [AO1].

• P – Political Will: Politicians stay "tough on street crime" to win easy votes [AO1].

What does "C", "D", and "U" stand for in the M.P.C.D.U. invisibility mnemonic?

• C – Complexity: Complex global finance outpaces police forensic tracking [AO1].

• D – De-labelling: Offences are filtered out into civil fines rather than criminal courts [AO1].

• U – Under-reporting: Victims are diffuse or unaware they are being defrauded [AO1].

What is "Partial Visibility", and what case study supports it?

• Definition: Elite crime is leaking into the public eye due to technology [AO1].

• Evidence: The Panama Papers and whistleblowers exposing global tax evasion [AO2].

• How does Box (Marxist) explain corporate crime?

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• Theory: Criminogenic Capitalism demands infinite profit [AO1].

• Mechanism: If legal paths are blocked, companies face strain and turn to illegal "innovation" [AO1].

What is the primary AO3 criticism of Box's Marxist/Strain explanation?

• Criticism: It is economically deterministic [AO3].

• Flaw: Cannot explain massive corporate/environmental crimes in historical communist states like Soviet Russia [AO3].

• What is Nelken’s Interactionist concept of "de-labelling"?

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• Concept: Criminality is socially negotiated [AO1].

• Mechanism: Elites hire expensive legal teams to redefine crimes as civil mistakes or technical errors [AO1].

What is the primary AO3 criticism of Nelken's Labelling explanation?

• Criticism: It is too descriptive [AO3].

• Flaw: Explains how companies avoid labels, but fails to explain why they chose to break the law in the first place [AO3].

How does Geis use Differential Association Theory to explain business crime?

• Theory: Corporate crime is a learned subcultural behavior [AO1].

• Finding: New executives joining firms with an established culture of price-fixing quickly adopted it to fit in [AO2].

What is the primary AO3 criticism of Geis's subcultural explanation?

• Criticism: It ignores individual free will [AO3].

• Flaw: It fails to explain why ethical whistleblowers choose to reject the corrupt culture and expose their bosses [AO3].

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