The Role Of White Collar Crime In The 15th Century

The first legal documentation of white-collar crime was documented in the 15th century in England. In the year 1473, a law passed after an agent was arrested for embezzlement when he was responsible to transport wool and he ended up stealing wool for himself. After this law passed white-collar crimes were still uncommon because not much attention was brought until after the industrial revolution. The only reason attention was brought during/after the Industrial revolution was because of monopolistic practices, companies would rise prices and consumers would get angry because that product was just recently cheap. During this period nothing was wrong with manufactures raising prices for products, but consumers knew it was not right, so they started
Edwin Sutherland gave this phrase the definition “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his/her occupation”. Edwin Sutherland’s definition of white-collar crime helped with the way sociologists labeled the offenses that were committed by successful people living in the country who were not affected by poor education, poor living conditions, or characteristics that dealt with street crimes. It also helped with understanding why people who were well-educated could start committing crimes for their financial gains in society. According to criminology.oxfordre.com. Sutherland said there were four main factors when dealing with white-collar crimes: civil agencies often handle the corporate offences which could have been charged as fraud in a federal court, the citizens who are affected by these crimes prefer civil suits rather than criminal punishments for their offenders, white-collar crimes are able to escape prosecution due to class bias in the courts and their power of classes when influencing the implementation and administration of law and once one party is convicted with white-collar crime prosecution is halted and the other parties who were involved with the crime are ignored. Sutherland’s definition of white-collar crime highlighted law enforcement
According to criminology.oxfordre.com, Edelhertz definition of white-collar crime brought concentration on how the crime was committed, but it ignored the individualities of the offender. Unlike Sutherland, Hebert Edelhertz had four different types of white-collar offending: the abuse of trust, personal crimes, con games and business