White Collar Crime Political Crime The Other White Meat

Defining White Collar Crime Sutherland (coined the term) –Respectable/High Social Status –In the course of occupation Later –Occupational Crime –Organizational/Corporate Crime

Occupational Crime Employee Theft –Pilferage and Embezzling –“Collective Embezzlement” Fraud in the Professions –Medical Industry Financial Fraud –Insider trading

Organizational/Corporate Crime Financial Crimes –Fraud, cheating, corruption… –Price fixing, price gouging, trade restraint –False Advertising Bait and Switch Violent Crimes –Unsafe work conditions –Unsafe products –Environmental Pollution

Comparing the Harm Property loss –“Street Crimes” (FBI data) = 15 billion –W.C.C. (from several sources) = 400 billion Death –Street crimes = 17,000 homicides –W.C.C. 30,000 deaths from unsafe products 20,000 deaths from environmental pollution 12,000 deaths from unneeded surgery

Explaining White Collar Crime Some mainstream theories don’t work –Merton’s “modes of adaptation” –Poverty, inequality, etc. –Low Self-Control ?? Some can still work –Sutherland (corporate culture, neutralizations) –Merton/Messner&Rosenfeld/Durkheim “Industrial Prosperity”

W.C.C. and Deterrence Theory Swift, Certain, Severe punishment will reduce crime –Must assume “rational calculator” –More applicable for street or w.c.c.? –The Irony Some call for “self-regulation”

Political Crime Barkan, “...any illegal or socially injurious act aimed at preserving or changing the existing political and social order”’ Crimes of the Government Crimes against the Government

Crimes by the Government Genocide Torture/Assassination Surveillance/Infiltration Legal Repression Illegal Experiments State-Corporate Crime Political Corruption

Crimes Against the Government Mass Political Violence –Rebellion –Riots –Terrorism –Assassinations Civil Disobedience Espionage/Treason

Explaining Political Crime Political Crime as heterogeneous Much P.C. revolves around Power –Totalitarian vs. Democratic governments