Enron White Collar Crime Essay

Most people, when they hear the word “crime,” think about street crime or violent crime such as murder, rape, theft, or drugs. However, there is another type of crime that has cost people their life savings, investors’ billions of dollars, and has had significant impacts of multiple lives; it is called white collar crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines white collar crime as

And because of that people kept buying up the stock thinking it was more valuable than gold. It eventually got up to as high as 90 dollars a share. But when this major scam was uncovered, the stock collapsed to a measly 1 dollar. In return anyone who held stock with Enron lost pretty much everything. Along with cheating the share holders out of more than 70 billion dollars, the people who worked for Enron lost almost everything as well. Thankfully this time, the individuals who ran such a crooked scheme, faced and were sentenced to jail or died shortly before they could be sentenced. These are just 3 examples of the millions of white collar crimes that have been committed. However they all have the same thing in common, Money. When people think of a white collar crime, money is always the focal point. But many white collar crimes are committed that don’t involve a large corprotations stocks or a broker committing a ponzie scheme to steal millions. While yes the major part of a white collar crime will always be money, there are other ways of committing said crimes that don’t involve stealing or manipulating the all mighty

Corporations in the United States have been at the forefront of the discussion on the sanctions that should be assessed to them following criminal activity since the 2008 stock market crash. The question has become what would happen if white-collar crime goes unpunished. In a 2014 article in the Duke Law Journal Stephen Buell stated, “If law and legal institutions do not respond seriously to wrongdoing in business firms, they will fail to protect the public and may produce or harden inequities in the administration of justice” (p. 823). Failing to protect society from corporations committing crime not only impacts the present, but also the future.

White collar and corporate crimes are crimes that many people do not associate with criminal activity. Yet the cost to the country due to corporate and white collar crime far exceeds that of “street” crime and benefit fraud. White collar and corporate crimes refer to crimes that take place within a business or institution and include everything from Tax fraud to health and safety breaches.

White Collar crime is not a crime unto it self, but instead a criteria that has to be met in order for a crime to be considered as White- Collar Crime; (Blount, 2002) hence the reason why Corporate Crime is also considered as White- Collar Crime. At the same time, White Collar Crime and Corporate Crime can be seen as distinct criminological categories, however, in order to reveal this, this essay will firstly be exploring Sutherland's definition of white collar crime and the perplexity with this definition of white-collar crime. It will then be looking at the modification which had to take place with Sutherland's definition of white-collar crime in order to established a distinction between white-collar and corporate crime.

However, the definition of white collar crime by this criminologist has become relatively obsolete for many students of criminal law. This is largely because the activities are not only conducted by people of high social status but also those from divergent backgrounds. The other theory behind this type of criminal activities is that deception is used as the means for conducting the activities. For the purposes of legal theory, white collar crime appears to be better approached as a family resemblance instead of type category (Green, 2005). This is mainly because this type of crime primarily refers to

… The New York Times in 1931 reported four cases of embezzlement in the United States with a loss of more than $1 million each and a combined loss of $9 million. Although a million dollar burglar or robber is practically unheard of, the million dollar embezzler is a small-fry among white collar criminals. The estimated loss to investors in one investment trust from 1929 to 1935 was $580 million… 2. This financial loss from white collar crime, great as it is, is less important than the damage to social relations. White collar crimes violate trust and therefore create distrust, and this lowers social morale and produces social disorganization on a large scale. * White Collar Crime: The Uncut Version, 1983

Enron Corporation was an energy company founded in Omaha, Nebraska. The corporation chose Houston, Texas to home its headquarters and staffed about 20,000 people. It was one of the largest natural gas and electricity providers in the United States, and even the world. In the 1990’s, Enron was widely considered a highly innovative, financially booming company, with shares trading at about $90 at their highest points. Little did the public know, the success of the company was a gigantic lie, and possibly the largest example of white-collar crime in the history of business.

One of the key critical issues that should be researched in 21st century criminology is corporate and white collar crime. "White-collar crime is a very broad concept that speaks generally to illegal behaviour that takes advantage of positions of professional authority and power - or simply the opportunity structures available within business - for personal or corporate gain."(Kempa, 2010:252). White-collar crime can be any form of fraud, embezzlement, trading for personal gain, trying to increase stock prices by exaggerating profits or misleading products conducted by business professionals. Unlike the more common crimes such as drug related offences, assault and possession theft white-collar crime

According to our textbook, white collar crimes are "crimes that people of respectable and high social status commit in the course of their occupations" (211). This differs from other crimes in that the criminal uses their occupation or position to commit the crime out of greed, whereas street crime is committed by the poor to gain the goods and services society says the need. Sometimes the victim can be limited to the company in which the employee works for, such as with embezzling, or on a broad scale, the text gave an example of 124 people dying, all because General Motors failed to report faulty ignition switches (212-213). Unfortunately, these crimes are usually taken less seriously because of the high social status which the criminal holds.

White collar crime is defined as "A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Lesson Nine, Pontell/Sutherland 2018). In my studies over the subject I've come across a major white-collar case that fits with the descriptions Sutherland presented: Poverty and broken homes do not always equate to crime, those who come from a well-adjusted lifestyle are just as liable to commit acts of deviance. Sutherland stated that the actions of corporations resembled those of professional predators, such as con men and bank robbers. Furthermore, some issues as to why those that are wealthy that can get away with these acts is because white-collar crime itself is not a legally defined category of

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.

Criminologists often attempt to categorize crimes so as to more easily analyze and compare trends and patterns; this categorization has led to a distinction between street crimes and white collar crimes (Friedrichs, 2010). Looking back to the origins of the term white collar crime, it was originally conceived of as “crime in the upper or white-collar class, composed of respectable or at least respected business and professional men” (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 4). This description holds true in the case of Enron, as the firm was a very respected and lauded business that was often featured in the press as an innovative and enviable company (Enron, 2005). Enron as a company, and those who worked there, were very respected in the business sphere, and

When looking at whether or not white collar criminals usually operate as one man army or collude with other individuals to commit fraud. In recent statistics the number is two-thirds of all fraud is committed by a lone perpetrator. However, the one third of cases that involved a form of collusion of white collar criminals of at least two or more parties led to four times higher median loss for the victim organization. Collusion allows for management and executives to work together to better circumvent internal controls that allow for a bigger schemes to go unnoticed. A fraudster working alone will not be able to get around as many controls without being detected by another employee. Another general trait is the correlation of education and

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.