White collar crime and organised crime, Study notes of Criminology

Download White collar crime and organised crime and more Study notes Criminology in PDF only on Docsity! White Collar Crime 1. White collar crime - Also known as official deviance, corporate deviance, elite deviance - All white collar crimes are by definition violations of the law committed in the course of a legitimate occupation or financial pursuit by persons who hold respected positions in their communities - They have to have a legit job in order for it to be considered a white collar crime - They are rational calculating crimes and not crimes of passion, there goal is economic gain or occupational success that may lead to economic gain (Coleman, 1985) 1. White collar crime is aided by - Lack of appropriate legal framework, including multi judicial powers - The victims are often not immerdicate to the offence, the victim may not be aware that it is going on - Many of the offences appear simply as everyday life 2. Edwin Sutherland (1945) - Sutterland (1940) argues it is not just the working class, the acts of white collar crime are committed as a result of one's involvement in a business or occupation - Crime is thought to be caused by immigrants and the urban however most it done by the powerful and privileged - Four main types law which cover white collar crime: Antitrust, false advertising, national labour relations, infringement of patents, copyright and trademarks - Only 9% of incidents of breaking the above laws were dealt with with in the criminal courts, this could be because they pay a fine, they can not prove it was an individual person within company avoid this through fines - Most of white collar ‘criminal behaviour’ is not considered to be unlawful 3. Types of white collar crime - Include: Corporate crime, business, political, government crime, insider trading, fraud, tax fraud, environmental crime, employment rights violations, health and safety at work violations, miss selling, bribery - One key factor that makes production problematic is that since 1987 companies have legal personnel of their own, do you punish the individual or the organisation? - Companies having a legal persona shield, individual production are unlikely to take place 1. Understanding the white collar criminal - No connection between childhood trauma, no unusual psychology or family background - Combination of motivation and opportunity such as divorce - Motive, financial or positional gain, for Status and ego - Middle class and moderate income - Most offenders had have at least one previous convictions - Average onset arrest age 35 and mean length of criminal career is 14 years (Leeper et, al 2014) - Acting against the company you are working for and more likely to get arrest for that, most likely to just lose your job 4. Why does white collar crime happen Culture of compliance or resistance - Motivation meets possibility - Companies are are actually criminogenic, to make as much money as you can even through cutting corners and most companies are repeat offenders - It has become the norm, some sectors it's the norm to set price fixing - Regulatory framework may be lax, they are often many regulations that need to be checked but are not - Pressure to perform for people to get notice and to cut corners - Companies see a blind eye so it seems normal - Most company offenders are recidivist (Sampson et al, 2007) - The riskier the sector, the more likely those in it will commit crime Worker mindset - It can be rationalised because they need to do it for their company - The act is made possible by the position and status of the individual - Corporate crime not as severely punished as ‘street crimes’ - They do not have the mindset that what they are doing is criminal - Distinct separation of work from family and friends with different values - Work subcultures separated from each other - Winner and losers - self inflicted - Individualistic locus of control and success Strain and White collar crime (Agnew et al, 2014) - Traditionally strain theory has been used to understand lower class crime but it can be applied to middle, and upper class crimes to - People see others with more lavish lifestyles with me - A blockage is affecting a person or company plans - Competitors are doing better - Shareholders and creditor pressure - Need to rectify individual mistakes - fear of failing - Change in personal circumstances 1. Miles, Skye and Matza (1940) - (Miles, 1940) Argues that motive to commit white collar crime comes from the facts surrounding the event not the individual themselves - How others interpret offenders actions is equally important Sykes and Matza (1957) There needs to be a justification prior to the offence happening: - I didn't mean it