White Collar Crime

WHITE COLLAR CRIME

By: Anthony Leotta

DeVry University

SEC310 – Professor James Leiman

Businesses are vulnerable to a variety of internal and external crime that affects an organization’s performance. White-collar crime is a problem affecting businesses in the U.S. and around the world, costing billions of dollars in lost revenue every year.

In 1939, white collar crime was only defined as “Approximately as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” by Edwin H. Sutherland, a sociologist. Today, the United States Department of Justice defines white collar crime as:

“Those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage.”

A more complete description of what white collar crime is given by Cornell University Law School saying,

“The most common white-collar offenses include: antitrust violations, computer and internet fraud, credit card fraud, phone and telemarketing fraud, bankruptcy fraud, healthcare fraud, environmental law violations, insurance fraud, mail fraud, government fraud, tax evasion, financial fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, bribery, kickbacks, counterfeiting, public corruption, money laundering, embezzlement, economic espionage and trade secret theft.”

Under the traditional Summary Reporting System, which works through the National Incident Based Reporting System white collar crime is only measured based on fraud, forgery/counterfeiting, embezzlement, and all other offenses (Barnett). The all other offenses arrest category is very limited in its ability to measure the white-collar offenses included in its counts. This is due to the inability to differentiate the...