When a crime is perpetrated by a drug-crazed ex-convict, people would not seem to be surprised about any misdemeanors that this individual will do because his background is generally inclined to commit any particular crime. However, when a respectable bank manager has issued dubious checks that caused their company to lose millions of dollars, no doubt this case would surely poke our interests because how can such a respectable manager do this criminal act. Respectable people, that’s generally what a white collar criminal looks like. A person who you think you can trust but then commits a nonviolent crime that mostly involves huge amounts of money. Thus, the focus of white collar crime is on business-related acts that primarily harm people in or outside the corporation. Another kind of white collar crime also involves covering up violations of regulatory statutes by a company that commits criminal offenses.
But what is a white collar crime? A white collar crime is a term introduced by Edwin Sutherland in the 1939 in order to “draw attention to the illegalities and misdeeds of ‘captains of industry’ and other middle-class members of the business world”. This idea was brought about to redress the prejudice of criminology’s obsession with crimes done by the working class. In fact, white collar crime tends “to be used very broadly, to include both activities carried out by employees against their employer (embezzlement, pilfering), and activities undertaken by corporate executives on behalf of the corporation itself (such as violation of anti-trust regulations or stock-market rules)” (Scott & Marshall, 2005).
Presently, many prosecutors and judges are demonstrating a “get tough” attitude about white collar crimes that have often been treated leniently in the past. In fact, corporate officials are even being tried for homicide and related crimes under state criminal law because prosecutors feel that the officials’ actions (or lack of it) are responsible for the deaths and serious injuries of employees or consumers and that federal laws are not sufficiently tough or enforced. It is argued that personal liability for corporate executives is necessary to deter corporations from violating laws and from viewing any fines. For example, Sabine Consolidated Inc. from Texas and its president, Joseph Tantillo, were charged with criminally negligent homicide for the deaths of two workers killed when the walls of the excavating trench in which they were working collapsed. The walls were not properly supported or sloped as required by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations (Barnes, Dworkin & Richards, 2003).
Another case is that of Enron Corporation, which had used complex off-balance-sheet partnerships to hide losses and inflate revenues. When Enron filed for bankruptcy protection, allegations emerged that Enron had conspired with other energy trading companies to illegally manipulate power and natural gas prices in western states—leading to huge gains, including a record $485 million windfall profit in a single day. Most of the charges against the company and its officials, however, centered on allegations that the company had artificially inflated its profits and concealed debts through the fraudulent use of special purpose corporate entities that it had created. After the Enron scandal, President Bush created the Corporate Fraud Task Force within the U. S. Department of Justice and on July 30, 2002, signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which set stiff penalties for white collar crime. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has the authority to bar dishonest corporate directors and officers from ever again serving in positions of corporate responsibility. Similarly, penalties for obstructing justice and for shredding documents are greatly increased, corporate officers who profit illegally can be forced to return their gains to investors, and the maximum federal prison term for common types of corporate fraud was increased from 5 to 20 years (Schmalleger 2006, 412 -416).
The impact of white collar crime in society is great because people involved are mostly high profile and well educated. In fact, most of them have the financial resources of an entire corporation at their disposal and because they sometimes earn salaries and bonuses in the millions of dollars, are able to hire excellent defense attorneys and can tie up the courts with motions and appeals that might not be as readily available to defendants with lesser resources. This is why the law enforcers should be tough and fair when looking into a white collar crime so that justice will be served rightly.
References
Barnes, A.J., Dworkin, T.M. & Richards, E.L. (2003). Chapter 3: Crimes. Law for Business, 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Schmalleger, F. (2006). Chapter 12: White-Collar and Organized Crime, Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Scott, J. & Marshall, G. (Ed). (2005). White-Collar Crime. A Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press.