According to Webster’s Dictionary (1996) the definition of white collar is of or relating to workers whose occupations usually does not involve manual labor. White collar crime is usually defined as any illegal offense that is committed in business or professional setting with the goal of achieving personal financial gain (whitecollarcrimefyi. com). The origin of the term white collar is traced back to 1939, to Professor Edwin Sutherland, of Indiana University, Pontell, Rosoff & Tillman (2002).
Sutherland defined white collar crimes as “crimes committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation (Pontell et al. , 2002). White collar crimes are not violent, but have the potential to bring about tremendous economic loss for companies, investors, and others affected by the offender’s actions (whitecollarcrimefyi. com). Sutherland concluded that “the financial cost of white collar crime is probably several times as great as the cost of all the crimes customarily regarded as the ‘crime problem (Pontell et al. , 2002).
There are many sociological and economic factors that contribute to white collar crime. Accumulation of wealth, competition, desire for upward mobility and pursuit of self-interest are a few of the sociological factors. Economic factors such as poor economy and loss of income also contribute to white collar crime as well as crime in general. Because of the great desire for the accumulation of wealth, the Ponzi scheme is one of the oldest white collar crimes committed, and still very effective! The Ponzi Scheme is named after con artist Charles Ponzi, a turn-of-the-century immigrant and former fruit peddler (Pontell et al. 2002). Ponzi schemes are basically pyramid scams where the person at the top profits from enlarging his base or recruiting others into the scam. In 1920, Ponzi was arrested, convicted of fraud, sentenced to 4 years in federal prison, and later deported. He died a pauper in Brazil (Pontell et al. , 2002). White collar crime is not looked upon as a bad blemish to our society as street crime is. According to Pontell et al. , (2002)…”people often fail to express the kind of outrage over corporate crime that they do over street crime because it is usually more difficult to visualize the damage wrought by white collar offenses.
In addition, television often ignores or downplays corporate crime because those crimes lack the dramatic elements that fit the needs of the electronic media: clearly defined victims and villains; illegal actions that are easily understood and can be described in quick sound bytes; motivations like jealously and rage that can be vividly portrayed; and heroes in the form of police or prosecutors, who apprehend and then punish those responsible.
In contrast, white collar crimes are frequently confusing; the perpetrators, because of their social status, are not easy to cast as lawbreakers; the injury caused by these crimes (as in the case of toxic dumping, for example) may take years to develop; and the resolution of the cases often occurs outside of criminal courts and away from television cameras in private negotiations between offenders and anonymous government officials. For these reasons, television often shows little interest incases of corporate criminality, while at the same time deluging us with sensational stories of murder, mayhem, and madness” (p. 66). According to whitecollarcrimefyi. com (2007) “Regardless of the specific definition chosen, both the federal and state governments recognize white collar crime as a serious problem and have assigned numerous agencies to combat the problem. The punishments that can be meted out for white collar crime attest to the government’s opinion of white collar crime as a serious offense. ” Pontell et al. , notes, “Despite the billions of dollars lost to white collar crime each year, most Americans still do not accord it a very high priority on their lists of pressing concerns-even today, beneath the rubble of the greed decade.
Americans tend to view white collar crime as a problem, but not a particularly serious one. Such relative apathy may in turn be explained by the fact that many business crimes are complex and confusing; they often manifest no clear cut villains and victims the way that street crimes and even political scandals do” (p. 27). Two examples of the lack of outrage against white collar crime are Rubbergate and the rigging of the US Treasury Bond (Pontell et al. , 2002). Rubbergate involved members of Congress being able to bounce checks at a quasi-bank run by the federal government.
In sharp dissent with the rules enforced at “real” banks, congressional depositors were not required to have sufficient funds in their accounts in order for their bank to cover their checks, which permitted many members of Congress to “bounce” large checks on a regular basis with no penalties or fines (Pontell et al. , 2002). Salomon Brothers, a large Wall Street investment firm, used fake names to sell US Treasury bonds, thus illegally inflating their profits, i. e. bond rigging. There were no public outcries against these crimes, despite the serious economic ramifications (Pontell et al. , 2002).
It appears that white collar crime has been around for centuries. Even though the public outcry is not what it should be against white collar crime, I think eventually people will begin to pay more attention to it and get involved in getting legislation passed to protect our society against it just as protection is given against street crimes. Bibliography Pontell, H. N. , Rosoff, S. M. , & Tillman R. H. , (2002), Profit without honor: White collar crime and the looting of America (2nd Ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. (1996). Riverside Webster’s II Dictionary New York: Berkley. http://whitecollarcrimefyi. com (2007)
