Criminal activity carried out by a person of respectability and high social position in the course of his or her employment is referred to as white-collar crime (also known as white-collar crime).
White-Collar Crime is a term used to describe criminal activity committed by those who are not in the criminal justice system.
Individuals entrusted with commercial or governmental duties misuse their positions for financial or political gain in white-collar crime, as opposed to blue-collar crime, which is a more sophisticated kind of criminal behaviour. According to Edwin Sutherland, who invented the phrase “white-collar crime” in 1939, it is described as “crime done by a person of respectability and high social rank in the course of his work.” White-collar crime often intersects with, but is not strictly confined to, corporate crime in its scope and scope of operations. Corporate crime, state crime, and state-corporate crime are all types of criminal activity.
White-Collar Crimes are prosecuted in federal court.
White-collar crime may be difficult to prosecute and convict in a court of law. Those who conduct this kind of crime are often in a position to carefully plan out their activities, and they prefer to operate in areas in which they have close and sometimes unique expertise. White-collar thieves typically find it simple to hide or dissimulate their crimes because of their meticulous preparation and in-depth knowledge of their targets. Also of note is that white-collar crime can often be disguised as routine business and political transactions, and there is even an ethic in certain lines of business that encourages professionals to get away with the most abuse they possibly can without being caught, an accusation that could be levelled at the entire financial industry, let alone the political arena.
On the overall, the criminal justice system in the United States does not pursue and punish white-collar crime with quite the same zeal as it does blue-collar crime, which is unfortunate. The vast majority of police departments lack the power to pursue white-collar crime, and little effort is spent on monitoring corporate and state illegal activity. Organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission are in charge of this responsibility. It is also well known (and despised) that people responsible for white-collar crime can afford to employ the finest legal defence and even influence the way a jurisdiction defines and prosecutes crime in order to ensure that the bare minimum of penalty is imposed on them.
The Economic Toll of White-Collar Crime
Every year, it is estimated that white-collar crime costs the United States anywhere from $200 to more than $300 billion. If you compare this to the estimated $15 billion to $20 billion in damages that blue-collar crime causes, it is mind-boggling. Problem is, happily and sadly, that these enormous financial losses are often dispersed across the community, making it difficult to create the level of knowledge and concern that is typically required to elicit a criminal inquiry into the matter. White-collar crime nearly seldom includes physical aggression against people or the destruction of physical property, and national awareness is sometimes not even high enough to recognise that white-collar crime is taking place, much alone to express moral indignation at the actions of those involved. In a way, this is a kind of crime that targets no one in particular while yet affecting everyone at the same time.
There are many types of white collar crime.
Tax evasion, financial fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, bankruptcy fraud, healthcare fraud, antitrust violations, government fraud, bribery, kickbacks, economic and industrial espionage, money laundering, and embezzlement are just a few examples of white-collar crimes. For more information, visit www.whitecollarcrimes.gov.