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White Collar Crime:
When most people think of white collar crime today, they think of Enron and Martha Stewart -- or of a nebulous idea of a kind of crime that only the "upper class" or the very powerful occasionally engage in. However, white collar crime is actually pervasive across all sectors of American society. Although many might imagine that white collar crime is essentially "victimless" in comparison to other criminal acts, this is far from the case. Not only are billions of dollars illegally gained (and lost) to the activities associated with the concept, but entire lives are often destroyed in the process.
"White-collar crime" as a concept was coined in a 1939 speech presented by Edwin Sutherland at the American Sociological Society (LII, 2004). During the speech, Sutherland explained that this type of crime is one "committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation (LII)." Although many of the most infamous cases of white collar crime, even in present times, do involve people of "high social status," the modern definition in which the term applies to a myriad of "nonviolent crimes usually committed in commercial situations for financial gain (LII)."
Of the many types of the activity, the most prevalent forms of white collar crime include fraud (computer, internet, credit cards, forgeries, bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion, securities fraud, mail fraud, bribery,...
Further, not only are these crimes serious in the extreme, but the legal system can prosecute them as such (although some argue that white collar crime is prosecuted far less stringently than blue collar crimes -- possibly due to social and racial inequality (Hurst, 2003)), leveling "fines, home detention, community confinement, costs of prosecution, forfeitures, restitution, supervised release, and imprisonment," for those found guilty of offences (LII, 2004).
Of course, in light of current events, perhaps one of the most talked about cases of white collar crime involves the insider trading scandal involving Martha Stewart. However, in order to understand just what she was convicted of, it is important to understand just what the concept entails. According to one ABC news story, insider trading is defined as " ... when a person trades a stock while in possession of material non-public information in violation of a duty to withhold that information or refrain from trading (Valenti, 2004)" -- or, as the article simplifies it, "In other words, if you have information that the public doesn't know about or you got such information from an inside source, it is illegal to trade on that information."
In the case of Martha, she was suspected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with using insider information gleaned by a personal friend…
Works Cited:
Hurst, Charles. (2003). "Social Inequality Forms, Causes, and Consequences." 5th Edition. Pearson: London.
LII, Legal Information Institute. (2004). "White Collar Crime: An Overview." Retrieved from web site on October 4, 2004, from, http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/white_collar.htmlwhite-collar crime: an overview
Rasmussen, Hanna. (2004). "Insider Trading." Retrieved from web site on October 4, 2004, from, http://economics.about.com/cs/finance/a/insider_trading.htm
Valenti, Catherine. (2004). "With Insider Trading, The Key Is Who Knew What and How They Knew It." Retrieved from web site on October 4, 2004, from, http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/insidertrading_020624.htmlThe
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