The Legacy Of White Collar Crimes

Criminals walk amongst us everyday. When people hear the word criminal, “murderer”, “robber”, and “arsonist”, are what most people think of. No one thinks about the CEO of a billion dollar company, the everyday pharmacist, or even a trusted personal financial advisor. This is due to the “respectability” and “high social status” these occupations hold (Temchenko, 2016). Of the many crimes committed every year, white collar crimes are one of the most highest crimes committed because they are overlooked. On July 28, 2016 , 14-year-old Bresha Meadows, who had no prior record of violence, was arrested and potentially up for a life sentence in prison for saving her family from more domestic abuse by shooting her father (Jeltsen, 2016) . In 2003 the former chairman and chief executive of MCSi Michael E. Peppel, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and filing false documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission was only sentenced to spend seven days in prison because Peppel was a “remarkably good man”. The charges against Peppel carry a minimum 8 year sentence (Henning, 2013). Sentencing disparities between white collar crime versus street crime is a crime within itself and some form of justice needs to be served.

Society has made many individuals question Enron scandal in regards to what is a modern or postmodern crime. Modern white collar crime focuses primarily on agriculture, productive activity, hand-tool technology, and farming villages as a community or family unit. While, postmodern white collar crime deals with more advanced technology such as computers, virtual communities, television/computer link-ups, and telephone communication. Overall, those who seek a career in criminology must navigate terminology barriers such as what way they would apply the term crime. Additionally, they must learn how to put white collar crimes in broader terms, by asking themselves how they have evolve from merely fraud cases. Criminologists must able to watch the media and look beyond what the media release in a news press by analysis the information with facts or reasonable logic from their research and academics studies. Lastly, they must participate in observer studies where they the information first hand in study groups or primary data, criminologists must engage directly in the research in order to come up with theories and possible conclusions.

Why discuss the development of the marketplace? Why is it central to the concept of white-collar crime?

White-collar crimes are just as prevalent today as ordinary street crimes. Studies show that criminal acts committed by white-collar criminals continue to increase due to unforeseen opportunities presented in the corporate world, but these crimes are often overlooked or minimally publicized in reference to criminal acts on the street. Many street crimes are viewed as unnecessary, horrendous crimes because they are committed by lower class citizens, whereas white collar crimes are illegal acts committed by seemingly respectable people whose occupational roles are considered successful and often admired by many (Piquero, 2014). These views often allow white collar crimes to “slip through the cracks” and carry lesser charges or punishment.

Enron began as a pipeline company in Houston in 1985. It profited by promising to deliver so many cubic feet to a particular utility or business on a particular day at a market price.

Enron Corporation was once known as Northern Natural Gas Company, Founded in 1932 in Omaha, Nebraska as a provider of natural gas. Through its early stages, Northern Natural Gas Company was unsuccessful in their business venture. They experienced problems in persuading consumers to use natural gas to heat their homes because of fear that natural gas leaks lead to explosions. Thanks to the great depression, many people were taking the risk because of how relatively cheap natural gas was. As the company’s revenues and profit grew, northern began to acquire many of its smaller competitors resulting in their apparent growth as a company. In 1947 its stock was listed on the New York stock exchange, providing the company with more finances which it needed to continue its growth in acquiring its competitors to becoming the largest natural gas supplier in the United States.

ccording to Conklin (2013), white-collar crime is an unlawful act that is occurs during a legitimate occupation or venture by a corporation or an otherwise reputable person of great social prominence that is punishable by a criminal sanction. In the example of Wayne Baker and Robert Faulkner’s (1993) analysis of three price-fixing conspiracies, white-collar criminals will at times create arrangements within or across formal organizations for purposes of effectively executing an unlawful act. For example, insider trading occurs when someone within an organization utilizes nonpublic information for gain for individual or organization gain, and is difficult to police attributable to the complexity of inter-organizational networks (Conklin, 2013).

In 1939, American sociologist Edwin Sutherland introduced the phrase “white-collar crime”. White-collar crime is a nonviolent crime committed by a business or large corporations. They are usually scams or frauds to gain wealth in society. The people who are guilty of this crime lie, cheat and steal from investors of their company or business. Even though these crimes are non-violent, they have major impacts on the society. Their companies become non existent and families get destroyed. All of their life savings and savings for their children get taken away, and they become bankrupt. Not only does it affect their families, the investors who believed in their business lose millions or even billions of dollars.

These people have more opportunities to commit a white collar crime than a person with little authority. Peter Michelmore, a journalist for Readers Digest describes this situation well in his article, "On the Trail of a Scam" He describes a savings and loan scam and the man behind it all. "Meyer learned that New Era was run by John G. Bennet, Jr., a 57 year old evangelical Christian." (112) New Era was a getting money from a private university, in which he promised huge returns on their investment. New Era did show them huge profits, but only to gain their trust and invest more money. The private university was gaining trust in New Era and investing more money. Finally, when They had invested a large sum of money, New Era collapsed and John Bennet walked away with the university's money. Mr. Bennet is a prime example of our findings. He is a man over the age of eighteen and he is in a position of power. People have entrusted him with their money. To commit his crime, he needed to be in a position where he was trusted, or in authority. After he won their trust, he took their money. White collar crimes are growing at an alarming rate and must be curbed. There are many things that the nation can do to slow the growth of these crimes. The white collar crime that affects the most people is the scam. For that reason, scam prevention will be emphasized more than embezzlement. I feel that the most effective weapon against these crimes is to

In this day and age, a corporation, family, or individual always has a potential risk of encountering fraud within their money supply. On average, fraud and abuse costs U.S. organizations more than $400 billion annually (Federal Bureau Investigation, 2010). Many may think that white collared crime is only money laundering or stealing, but that is only two out of the sum that countless culprits get away with. The term “white-collar crime,” originally coined in 1939 is synonymous with the full range of frauds committed by business and government professionals (Federal Bureau Investigation, 2010). These frauds include anything from bankruptcy fraud, money laundering, identity theft, corporate fraud to a wide number of threats all circling

White-Collar Crime consists of occupational crime and corporate crime. Occupational crime refers to offences committed against legitimate institutions businesses or government by those with "respectable" social status. It includes the embezzlement of corporate funds, tax evasion, computer crime and expense-account fraud. It is not every day that we hear about white-collar crimes but these non-violent crimes are on the rise to the top. Federal Bureau of Investigation states that USA, for example recorded white collar crimes amounting $300 billion every year (Cornell University, 2010). White-collar crime is relatively a new idea. It has many aspects that are practical for study and further interpretation to clear some of its dark areas. White-Collar Crime was once introduced by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 during his speech in American Sociological Society. The following crimes actually performed are Bribery, Extortion, Insurance, Fraud, Embezzlement, Cybercrime etc. People who participate in these criminal activities are highly powerful and respectful among the society. The following activities include description about White-collar Crime, Investigation of White Collar Crime and The Consequences of committing a White-collar Crime.

White collar crime is a serious issue in the United States. White-collar crime is “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” (cornell.edu). Examples of such offenses include bribery, credit card fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud, blackmail, extortion, forgery, securities fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, repair scams, Ponzi and pyramid schemes. These non-violent crimes are responsible for an estimated $250 billion to $1 trillion in economic damages each year (Martinez). Individuals who commit white collar crimes have an increased likelihood to experience injustice compared to those who commit a street crime as noted in multiple studies detailed in various scholarly articles. Also, street criminals have a greater chance of getting caught in their wrongdoings versus white-collar criminals. Those who commit white collar crime make their decisions based on the philosophy or idea that their actions have low risk and a high reward. We face a dilemma in the United States because white-collar criminals are treated with minimal, inequitable punishment due to their social status, whereas the street criminals are treated with the correct, impartial punishment.

Quinney (1964), “Because the validity of white collar crime as a form of crime has been a subject of severe controversy, the question of conceptual clarity has largely been ignored. Today, as a result, the meaning of the concept is not always clear” (p208).

When many people discuss Enron, they immediately associate it with one of the most scandalous accounting scams in history. Enron was an American gas company that arose as the Northern Natural Gas Company in 1931. Internorth was a holding company in headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, purchased the Northern Natural Gas Company and restructured it is 1979. Founder Kenneth Lay formed the company by merging the two companies and created Enron. Enron was founded in 1985, as one of the world 's leading electricity, natural gas, communications and paper companies.

problems. During the 1700's in England it was not a crime for people to steal