White Collar Crime
Distinguished by location of offense, status of offender, and nature of behavior.
Occur in workplace and are committed by workers.
Sutherland 1939: crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in course of occupation
Key features of White Collar Crime
- Committed during course of work
- Offender plays central role in crime
- Job viewed as legitimate by society
6 reasons to study WCC
- Loses are greater, greater chance of victim than violent crimes
- Effects everyone, far reaching social effects
- Criminologists can learn more about all types of crime
- Develops effective prevention and intervention
- Provides info about potential jobs
- Insight into culture and subcultures
Types of research:
Surveys
On-site, face to face, phone, mail.
Can involve justice officials, public, victims, and offenders.
Provides insight into dynamics, causes, and consequences
Difficult to conduct
Types of research:
Archival research
Uses records and databases including case records, presentencing reports, media reports, and case descriptions of specific WCC offenses.
Helps determine what info public is likely to receive about WCC and uncover possible patterns
Levi (2006) focused on how financial WCC reported, typically in business or law sections rather than crime in newspapers
Types of research:
Field research
Researcher enters a setting and collects data based on observations
Time consuming, conducted much less than other studies
Standard (1973) worked as janitor in nursing home to research maltreatment
Types of research:
Experiments
2 types:
- classic- Has experimental and control group
- Quasi- lacks control group
Types of research:
Case studies
Researchers select a particular crime, criminal, or event and study features surrounding causes and consequences
Relatively frequent in WCC literature. Advantageous bc they allow criminologists an insiders view
Can take a long time to complete
Cullen and colleagues (1987) studied FORD case
5 principles of science:
Objectivity
Researchers remain value-free and open-minded
5 principles of science:
Parsimony
Keep levels of explanation as simple as possible
5 principles of science:
Deterism
Behavior is caused by preceding events. Leads to better prevention
5 principles of science:
Skepticism
Scientists must question and read-question findings. Helps keep current
5 principles of science:
Relativism
Means that all things are related. Implies change in one, causes change in another.
WCC related in 3 ways:
- How it is defined
- Nature of crime
- How criminal justice system responds
John Van Gich (1978)
Applied general systems theory helps illustrate that society is made up of different systems that operate independently as well as in conjunction with other systems
12 systems
- Political- defines laws and regs
- Educational- preps and trains individuals for careers. WCC typically comes out of this system
- Religious- seen as having power to prevent crimes
- Technological- changes how crimes are committed. Provides tools for gov. in pursuit of crime
- Social- where people have needs met and learn behaviors
- Social services- provide public services
- Occupational- where bulk of professions are found.
- Economic- drives economy. Effects all systems
- Corporate- carries our business activity as part of capitalism
- Regulatory- local, state, and fed. agencies that regulate various businesses
- Civil justice- individuals seek recourse for violations of civil law
- Criminal justice- compromised of police, court, and corrections. Where violations of criminal law are handled
