Chap 6

Economically Motivated Crimes’

  • Crime specifically done to gain economic benefit

  • Violence may be involved as well

    • Usually done as a by product in the pursuit to get money, crime or services

  • A crime that we have all been victims of at some point

    • Fewer ways to prevent it

Most Common Scams in 2024

  • According to the Globe and Mail:

    • Grandparent scams

      • Scammed a lot of older people out of money

    • Air duct cleaning

    • Phishing emails or texts

    • CRA “warrant for your arrest”

    • Extortion, ransomware

    • Romance and catfishing

    • AI deepfakes

Key Terminology

White Collar Crime

  • Definition: Illegal or harmful activities not categorized as street or conventional crime

    • Violations of private or public trust by institutions or individuals in respected roles

    • Motivated by financial gain or to maintain power and privilege

  • Hard to know the true scope

    • Both around the world and Canada

    • Limited by what people report — only those who lose a lot of money will most likely report

  • Can be perpetrated by Corporations

    • Against customers, the environment, the government, etc.

  • Can be perpetrated by Individuals

    • Against corporations, other people, the government, the environment, etc.

  • General public is often not even aware of what counts as a crime

    • Usually held within civil court

  • Four general categories

    • Corporate Crime: Organization, or group within organization, engage in illegal acts to further corporate or personal interests

    • Occupational Crime: Crime within a legitimate business; usually perpetrated by individuals

    • State Crime: Perpetrated by the government, a group within the government, or a lone individual within the government

    • Corporate-State Crime: Government agencies and private businesses to further mutual interests

Fraud

  • Definition:

    • Using deception, loopholes to acquire goods/services/money/data

    • Two categories: fraud under/over $5k

  • Deception is used to obtain something

  • Rapidly growing and enabled by technology

  • Often committed by organized crime groups using sophisticated technology

  • Pressure — most people want to gain something from it (e.g., they’re in debt); some sort of external pressure/driver

  • Opportunity — Work in a place where they have found a loophole or found a place that can be exploited

  • Rationalization — “Employer should have secured things better”

Ponzi Schemes

  • “Pyramid scheme”

    • Recruiting people to invest their money, promising a large return, getting more people to invest, paying out earlier investors, and so on

  • Promise great returns that are impossible

  • Pay back ‘investors’ with new investors’ money

  • Eventually, it all collapses

Multi-Level Marketing

  • A lot of debate as to what extent multi-level marketing is a pyramid scheme

  • Multi-level marketing = direct sales, network marketing (e.g. Monat, Beachbody)

    • There are actual products to be sold

    • The product itself is not that important, it is more on the people recruited

  • Often predatory

    • Stay at home moms are common victims

  • People are the product

    • Every person one recruits can gain them money

Criminal Professionals

  • Physicians, lawyers, accountants, scientists can be involved in criminal enterprises due to their skills and expertise

    • Prescription fraud, drug-making, “cooking the books”

    • Every mafia member has a lawyer that works for them

    • In order to maintain an organized crime group, a professional in that field will most likely be needed

    • Could be recruited to help with money laundering

  • Physicians and the opioid crisis

    • US: Drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering for fake patients, over-prescriptions (Berman & Li, 2020)

    • A lot of doctors contributing to the crisis

    • They can provide unbelievable amounts of prescriptions

    • Example: Matthew Perry

      • Two physicians charged in his accidental overdose of ketamine

      • Intent to distribute, fraud

      • Prescribing to each other and selling the prescription to Matthew’s dealer — abusing prescription power

Organized Crime Groups

  • Definition

    • Group of 3 or more people

    • Facilitate or commit serious crimes for material or financial gain — often violence involved

      • Pre-meditation/planning involved (i.e., not an impulsive decision)

        • Do not get together for just one criminal event

      • Th extent to which the violence or other crimes that are occurring are occurring in service of the organization

  • Classifications of OCGs

    • The classics: street gangs, motorcycle gangs, mafia

    • The new guys: cyber networks, drug networks, human trafficking

    • Often crossover across types of organized crime groups

  • Responsible for ~half of all homicides in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2023)

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs)

  • Operate domestically and internationally

  • Least common, but arguably one of the most significant, organized crime threats

    • Make up about a quarter of crime that is related to organized crime in Canada

  • Hell’s Angels:

    • Highly organized

    • Hierarchical

      • Like a corporation

      • They operate like a profit oriented business

    • Allegiances with other groups

      • Operating in different areas but are still aligned and speaking to the head group

    • Highly territorial

    • Heavily involved in drug trade, sex trade, production of drugs, violence

  • Effective criminal control requires rational acting (Piano, 2017)

  • Key activities: Cocaine importation, Synthetic drug production, Collaborating with street gangs

Street Gangs

  • The bigger and organized, the more likely they are engaging in trafficking

  • Technically organized crime

    • Most common type - ~80%

    • Not a great term

  • But often act informally with permeable barriers

    • May not engage in ‘organized’ crime per se

    • Level of ‘organization’ is highly variable

      • No secured structure or long history

      • Loosely connected with each other, sometimes a bit of a hierarchy

      • Membership, structure, planning usually comes and goes

    • Tend to be younger

  • Characteristics: Use explicit violence, hired by OMGs and mafia, evolving into formalized OCGs

Human Trafficking

  • Definition: Recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of persons

    • Purpose: Exploitation — sexual, forced labor, slavery-like practices, organ removal

    • Often occurs due to demand for a service

  • Often controlled by OCGs

  • Most common kind is sex trafficking before labor

  • In Canada - predominantly male traffickers

  • Tends to be regional (i.e. remains in a particular area)

    • Eastern Europe/Balkans - sex trafficking

    • Dubai/UAE - labour

    • In Canada - Indigenous women and girls

      • Typically for sex trade

      • Mostly in urban centers

    • But is a problem everywhere and transnationally

  • Trends in Human Trafficking (Stats Can, 2022)

  • Two ways to be charged: Criminal Code and Refugee Protection Act

    • Most charges are under the criminal code lately

  • Only started recognizing human trafficking in 2005

  • Increasing over the years but now reaching a stable point

  • Younger people tend to be trafficked than older people

  • Male victims are much more common the older they get

  • Young women get trafficked for sex trade, while older men get trafficked for forced labor

Do White Collar Offenders Get Off ‘Easy’?

Not Always

  • White-collar crime is the most common, but it is often not that violent and many people who engage in it do it for economic reasons

    • Cases can be made that offenders have a little to no chance of reoffending

  • Physicians sentenced on average to ~10 years in prison (Berman & Li, 2020)

    • Will probably lose their license or prescription power

  • Bernie Madoff - life in prison

  • Sometimes: 2008 Wall Street crash - few people held accountable criminally; fines paid via profits/shareholders (not individual actors)

    • Very few people experienced any real punishment — losing their homes, life savings, etc.

    • The actual people in charge didn’t suffer much

R. v. Lacasse (2015)

“While it is true that the objectives of deterrence and denunciation apply in most cases, they are particularly relevant to offences that might be committed by ordinarily law-abiding people. It is such people, more than chronic offenders, who will be sensitive to harsh sentences.” - Judge

  • The case was not exactly a white-collar crime case — impaired driving

  • This kind of behavior will receive this kind of sentence and may possibly be worse

Theories and Pathways

Explaining Organized Crime Groups

Thornberry’s foundational work:

  • Weak social bonds → criminal group involvement

    • A breakdown in positive societal bonds

    • OCG provides an anti-social peer group that goes beyond having just friends — provides some type of social bond

  • Recall strain, stakes in conformity

    • Use illegal methods to achieve economic success because legitimate paths are blocked

  • Poor neighborhood cohesion

    • Higher degree of disorganization — more likely to form or recruit from here

  • Limited pro-social opportunities