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Organized (White Collar?) Crime

Organized (White Collar?) Crime. Defining the concept: The term “white collar crime” coined by Sutherland (1939) Significant because it moved the field away from crimes of the street towards ”upper-world” crime and interest in complexity of social organizations as criminal resources

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Organized (White Collar?) Crime

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  1. Organized (White Collar?) Crime Defining the concept: The term “white collar crime” coined by Sutherland (1939) Significant because it moved the field away from crimes of the street towards ”upper-world” crime and interest in complexity of social organizations as criminal resources “Crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” Sutherland focused on “crimes of business;” acts that were violations of federal economic regulations (as opposed to embezzlement, etc.)

  2. Social Organization and Power Organization as a weapon to cause harm Organized Crime (IOC groups) State Organized Crime (Value Jet Crash) Occupational Crime (Physician Fraud) 2 Scales to consider: Organizational Complexity Victimization: More serious (often sophisticated) white collar offenses produce greater levels of victimization

  3. Social Organization and Power Organizational Complexity provides power to do more criminal/financial harm From Weisburd, Wheeler, Waring and Bode (1988)

  4. White Collar Crime • The Cost of White Collar Crime • WC far outstrips losses from street crime • Financial Costs • Average take for a robbery $434 (1978); $4 billion total • Bribery $3-15 billion • Price-fixing Anti-trust: up to $350 billion • Welfare fraud $1 billion • Enron losses estimated at $50-100 billion (2002) • Unnecessary surgeries: $4 billion • Health/Life Costs • Roughly 20,000 homicides annually in the US • National Safety Council estimates 14,000 deaths/year due to workplace accidents • 100,000 deaths/year due to occupationally related disease • Estimates of 40-50% of all work-related deaths are the result of legal violations (as opposed to hazardous work conditions not in violation of the law)

  5. Explaining White Collar Crime • Merton’s Anomie Theory (Ch. 5) • Legacy of Durkheim • Anomie - normlessness • No regulation on individual desires • R.K. Merton’s Anomie/Strain • Individual Adaptation to Social Conditions • Social Condition/Structure composed of two elements: • Cultural Goals • Institutional Means

  6. Explaining White Collar Crime Type ofCulturalInstitutionalAdaptationGoalsMeans Conformity + + Innovation + - Ritualistic - + Retreatist - - Rebellion -/+ -/+ • Implications: • Structural Distribution of Institutional Means is Unequal • Cultural emphasis on $ success leaves individual aspirations unchecked • -One of the elements of the bond (regulation) is not accomplished • -This is the result of people being successfully attached (or integrated) • -This is truly “Anomic” – a culture that does not provide its members with the social elements necessary to bond and control their behavior.

  7. Relevant Chapters: 32. International Organized Crime • Narcotics as a money-making venture • Often links to legitimate businesses • Different from street gangs? • Globalization of deviant/criminal enterprise 33. The Crash of Valuejet Flight 592 • Typical of Sutherland’s definition of White Collar Crime: Corporate Crime • New idea: State-Corporate Crime >> Govt. as criminal actor • What is the role of the government (or regulating agencies charged with protecting the public)? 38. Opportunity and Crime in Medical Professions • Protective Cloak • Status • Altruism • Autonomy • Types of Crime • Kickbacks • Prescription Violations • Unnecessary Treatment • Sexual Misconduct • Medicaid Fraud & Abuse

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