What Is White-Collar Crime?
White-collar crime is non-violent, financially motivated crimes in professional or business settings. Usually, it relates to deceit or fraud and also breach of trust for financial benefit. Edwin Sutherland coined this term in the year 1939.
Types Of White-Collar Crime
- Fraud: Willful deceit by a person for the purpose of achieving illegal gain that could involve credit card fraud, insurance fraud, or securities fraud.
- Embezzlement: Embezzling money deposited in one's trust or belonging to one's employer.
- Insider Trading: Illegally trading on the stock market based on confidential information.
- Money Laundering: Concealing the source of illegally acquired money to make it look legitimate.
- Bribery and Corruption: Giving, receiving, soliciting, or offering something of value to influence action or decisions.
- Tax Evasion: Illicitly adding taxes, typically by not reporting income or claiming excessive deductions.
Challenges In Handling White-Collar Crime
- Absence of Evidence: White-collar offenders take advantage of loopholes in the law and computer evidence filed against them and get away with nothing or minimal punishment.
- Resource-Intensive: White-collar crime investigation and prosecution require specialised expertise and a lot of time and resources.
- Regulatory Gaps: Laws and regulations in some areas tend to be antiquated or inadequate to cover new types of financial crime.
- Protection of Corporations: Occasionally, businesses shield high-level perpetrators to prevent embarrassment, rendering internal investigations tainted or ineffective.
- Public Perception: The public can be less than enthusiastic about the seriousness of white-collar crime and, as such, it tends to be met with less serious sentences and low enforcement priority.
Key Takeaways
White-collar crime is composed of non-violent, economically motivated crimes typically committed by professionals or organisations through fraud, embezzlement, or corruption. These offenses have serious effects, ranging from huge economic losses, loss of public confidence, reputational loss, job displacement, and widening social inequality. They are also very challenging because they are complex in nature, lack explicit evidence, are filled with regulatory gaps, and are costly to investigate.
