White Collar Crime:
When most people think of white collar crime today, they think of Enron and Martha Stewart -- or of a nebulous idea of a kind of crime that only the "upper class" or the very powerful occasionally engage in. However, white collar crime is actually pervasive across all sectors of American society. Although many might imagine that white collar crime is essentially "victimless" in comparison to other criminal acts, this is far from the case. Not only are billions of dollars illegally gained (and lost) to the activities associated with the concept, but entire lives are often destroyed in the process.
"White-collar crime" as a concept was coined in a 1939 speech presented by Edwin Sutherland at the American Sociological Society (LII, 2004). During the speech, Sutherland explained that this type of crime is one "committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation (LII)." Although many of the most infamous cases of white collar crime, even in present times, do involve people of "high social status," the modern definition in which the term applies to a myriad of "nonviolent crimes usually committed in commercial situations for financial gain (LII)."
Of the many types of the activity, the most prevalent forms of white collar crime include fraud (computer, internet, credit cards, forgeries, bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion, securities fraud, mail fraud, bribery,...
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