Types of White Collar Crime
Types of White Collar Crime
Types of White Collar Crime
White Collar Crime in our country has been highly publicized over the past decade or so. A few of the well-known events are WorldCom (2002), Enron (2001), and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme (2008). The fact is white collar crime is on the rise and it comes in many forms; embezzlement, identity theft, insider trading, insurance fraud, money laundering, price fixing, and many more. Telemarketing has become one of the fastest growing white collar crimes and it costs millions of people who are victimized $40 billion annually. (Online Lawyer Source, n.d.) According to the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), a non-profit agency that supports the state and local police with investigating, says that one in three households are victim to white collar crime and out of those, only 41% report it, out of those that are reported only 21% actually make it to the proper authorities, such as local law enforcement or the consumer protection agency. (Johnston, 2002) Experts say it is because they fail to realize they have been victimized, lack of faith in the system, or they are unsure which agency they should contact. (Online Lawyer Source, n.d.), (Johnston, 2002) White Collar Crime is defined as illegal or unethical acts that violate fiduciary responsibility of public trust committed by an individual or organization, usually during the course of legitimate occupational activity, by persons of high or respectable social status for personal or organizational gain. (Friedrichs, 2010) Blue collar crimes or other conventional crimes are often committed by the average working class or poor individual, working day/night shift jobs to support their families, living paycheck to paycheck. The mentality they are dealing with is that of having nothing to lose and everything to gain by committing these crimes; highly visible, sometime violent in nature, stealing, and/or drug related. According to the experts, unemployed
Types of White Collar Crime
White Collar Crime in our country has been highly publicized over the past decade or so. A few of the well-known events are WorldCom (2002), Enron (2001), and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme (2008). The fact is white collar crime is on the rise and it comes in many forms; embezzlement, identity theft, insider trading, insurance fraud, money laundering, price fixing, and many more. Telemarketing has become one of the fastest growing white collar crimes and it costs millions of people who are victimized $40 billion annually. (Online Lawyer Source, n.d.) According to the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), a non-profit agency that supports the state and local police with investigating, says that one in three households are victim to white collar crime and out of those, only 41% report it, out of those that are reported only 21% actually make it to the proper authorities, such as local law enforcement or the consumer protection agency. (Johnston, 2002) Experts say it is because they fail to realize they have been victimized, lack of faith in the system, or they are unsure which agency they should contact. (Online Lawyer Source, n.d.), (Johnston, 2002) White Collar Crime is defined as illegal or unethical acts that violate fiduciary responsibility of public trust committed by an individual or organization, usually during the course of legitimate occupational activity, by persons of high or respectable social status for personal or organizational gain. (Friedrichs, 2010) Blue collar crimes or other conventional crimes are often committed by the average working class or poor individual, working day/night shift jobs to support their families, living paycheck to paycheck. The mentality they are dealing with is that of having nothing to lose and everything to gain by committing these crimes; highly visible, sometime violent in nature, stealing, and/or drug related. According to the experts, unemployed
References: Price, M. M., & Norris, D. M. (2009). White-Collar Crime: Corporate and Securities and Commodities Fraud. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 538-544. Ryan, J. (2010, March 12). Internet Crime Rises With Economic Downturn. Retrieved from abc News: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/internet-crime-rising-economic-downturn-facebook-twitter-iphones/story?id=10087246 Salmon, F. (2009, December 21). Why harsh white-collar sentences make sense. Retrieved from Reuters: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/12/21/why-harsh-white-collar-sentences-make-sense/ Weissmann, A., & Block, J. A. (2007). White-Collar Defendants and White-Collar Crimes. The Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, 286-291.