Stigma Management Among Street Criminals

  • Minimal Guilt: Street criminals often experience little to no guilt regarding their actions.
  • Financial Necessity: A significant influence on their criminal behavior is the urgent need for money.
  • Neutralization Techniques: These individuals engage in neutralization strategies that allow them to justify their criminal activities.
  • Accompanied Guilt: Despite the neutralization, guilt tends to accompany the harm they inflict on others.

Current Construction of White-Collar Crime (1 of 2)

  • Types of White-Collar Crime:
    • Investment Scams: For example, Ponzi schemes where funds from new investors are used to pay returns to earlier investors.
    • Insurance Fraud: Deceptive practices in order to claim benefits not entitled.
    • Tax Evasion: Illegally avoiding paying taxes owed to authorities.
    • Environmental Crimes: Offenses against regulations that protect the environment, leading to ecological harm.
  • Reference: Information discussed comes from "Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries 2e, 2024 SAGE Publishing."

Current Construction of White-Collar Crime (2 of 2)

  • Statistical Black Box:
    • Fragmented Efforts: There are often disjointed initiatives in studying and addressing white-collar crime.
    • Journalistic and Legislative Investigations: Various investigative works by journalists and legislative bodies aim to expose such crimes.
    • Lack of Centralized Data: There is no comprehensive data repository for white-collar crime, complicating research and response efforts.
  • Reference: Information discussed comes from "Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries 2e, 2024 SAGE Publishing."

Challenges in Researching White-Collar Crime (1 of 2)

  • Counting Occupational Crime:
    • Visibility Issues: Occupational crimes are often hard to detect and quantify due to their nature of taking place in business settings rather than visible street crime.
    • Safeguards for Elites: Systems are in place that protect high-status individuals from being scrutinized to the same degree as lower-status offenders.
    • Securities Fraud: This type of fraud is prevalent and integral to the functioning of financial markets but is difficult to track and enforce.
    • Economic Impact: It is estimated that white-collar crime costs the economy approximately 250 ext{ billion per year}.
  • Reference: Information discussed comes from "Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries 2e, © 2024 SAGE Publishing."

Contemporary Responses to Street-Level Property Crime (1 of 2)

  • Crime Trends: There has been a noted decrease in property crime over the last 30 years.
  • Demographic Shifts: An older population may lead to a decrease in crime rates as older individuals are less likely to engage in criminal activities.
  • Cashless Society: The transition to a cashless economy is impacting street-level crime dynamics, as cash transactions are often targeted by criminals.
  • The Broken Windows Theory: This theory posits that maintaining urban environments to prevent small crimes helps to deter larger criminal offenses.
  • Reference: Information discussed comes from "Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries 2e, 2024 SAGE Publishing."