Writing Assignment #1

John Stevens

January 2013 Term

White Collar Crime (AOJ-303)

February 10,2015

Writing Assignment #2

1. Edwin H. Sutherland was a criminologist who was given credit for discovering the idea of white collar crime in 1939. Sutherland was responsible for creating an important textbook, created a big criminological theory (differential association), and published work on professional crime and sexual psychopaths. Sutherland was driven by the fact that it bothered him that big businesses were corrupt and put the American economic system in danger. According to our text Trusted Criminals (2010), “Sutherland’s value system combined a quintessentially American synthesis of entrepreneurial and progressive beliefs with his professional commitment to detached social scientific inquiry” (p.3). Though Sutherland was known as an important figure in American criminology some had viewed his work in a negative aspect. According to our text Trusted Criminals (2010), “Even his admirers concede that Sutherland overemphasized an individualistic framework (and social-psychological factors) and largely ignored social structural factors (e.g., capitalism, profit rates, and business cycles) He failed to make clear-cut distinctions among white collar crimes, and he did not adequately appreciate the influence of corporations over the legislative and regulatory processes” (p.5). All in all Sutherland was one of the most important figures when discussing Criminology. Without his work it would be hard to say where we would be today on this subject.

2. White collar crime was introduced many years ago and to this day there is still confusion on what the term means and how to apply it correctly to a situation. One of the reasons why confusion still exists is because there are many terms that can be used to characterize activities that could fall under the broad category of white collar crime or very close to the term. Some of these terms are elite deviance, economic crime, commercial crime,...