Written Essay # 1

Written essay # 1

The terms white collar crime and its offshoot, organized crime, reflect a half-century-old movement to remake the very definition of crime. Professor Edwin Sutherland, a sociologist who coined the term white-collar crime, disagreed with certain basic substantive and procedural principles of criminal law. In his landmark book, White Collar crime, first published in 1949, Sutherland dismisses the traditional mens rea requirement and the presumption of innocence. He suggests that the rules of criminal intent and presumption of innocence are not required in all prosecution in criminal courts and the number of exceptions authorized by statutes is increasing. If nothing else, his disregard for age old foundational principles of criminal law should cast doubt on the balance of Sutherland's work.

Sutherland goes on to construct a class based definition of white collar crime. He is concerned with whom the alleged perpetrator was, rather than what that person might have done. White collar crime, says Sutherland, is crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. With this radical redefinition, Sutherland attempted to drain the word "crime" of its meaning. He made distinctions not on the basis of an act or intent, but according to the status of the accused. Professor Sutherland's supporters have stated

Challenges in defining white collar crime can be seen in many forms. Most if not all of white collar crimes are crimes that are years and years in the making. It takes an incredible task force of many criminal justice agencies to catch and apprehend the perks. It takes years and years to find the evidence enough to apprehend the individuals. White collar crime is always a person of high standing whether in a company or for our government how easy do you think it would be to catch this individuals?

The cost and consequences of white collar crime is incredibly high, white collar crime inflicts far more...