Social Deviance
Chapter 7: White-Collar and Corporate Crime
Chapter Goals
Be able to explain white-collar crime Understand corporate deviant behavior Know the costs of white-collar and corporate crime Understand ways to control corporate and white-collar crime
White-Collar Crime
White-collar crime refers to a type of crime committed by individuals while working White-collar criminals are not "needy" criminals who committed crimes out of necessity Occupation: The occupational dimension of white-collar crime is a special status, one that confers power, trust, and individual identity Offenders can be professionals or nonprofessionals To qualify as occupation white-collar crime, it is important for the crime to occur within their legitimate occupation Fraud: Fraud refers to the use of deception to acquire unlawful gain, whether in the form of money, power, or position Fraudulent behavior associated with white-collar crime has an additional component: it is committed from a position of trust that afforded the offender by occupying a legitimate occupation Power or Trust: Those who are in a position of power or trust are typically considered respectable Respectable is characterized as someone's personal characteristics or appearance of trust and honesty These criminal also fail to view themselves as criminal since they have legitimate jobs
Corporate Criminal Behavior
Corporate crimes are criminal act are not individual specific but focused on collections of people such as corporations, organizations, and their management, such as insider trading They key case of white-collar crime in the 21st century involved Enron: they deceived shareholders and their accounting firm, Arthur Anderson shredded documents The accounting technique of "capitalized costs was how WorldCom improperly accounted for $3.9 billion in costs
Types of Corporate Violations
Crimes against consumers:
Examples include manufacturers who make unsafe products, retailers who take unfair advantage of customers in purchasing products, and repair specialists who swindle consumers in the repair of products. Crimes against owners: These crimes are generally committed by people within the organization who have knowledge of organizational practices. Crimes can be directed against the owners of the companies or against the management and senior leaders of the organization. Examples include falsifying annual reports or other documents to misrepresent financial success. Most white-collar crime and corporate crime, these offenses are generally brought to attention by "whistle-blowers". Whistle-blowers are individuals with the technical training who notice things are not as they should be and decide to turn in the offenders. Crimes against Employees Companies can commit crimes against its employees when it deliberately violates health and safety laws or fail to take adequate precautions against employee injury. The Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the federal agency responsible for maintaining safe working conditions. Crimes against the community at large: We are all victims of abuses of power when we breathe polluted air or drink or use polluted water. Other examples include government scandals such as the Watergate scandal which included conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and lying under oath. This crime not only identified corruption within the government but also cost the taxpayer's money through investigation and co