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Crime and Deviance - White Collar Crime (flashcards done) - Coggle Diagram
Crime and Deviance - White Collar Crime (flashcards done)
statistics and Reporting x
under-reported in stats x
Higher Not guilty verdicts due to judicial bias and stereotypes
Hidden from view and hard to detect
Clarke 1990
Croall 2001 x
Crime against the NHS committed by doctors, pharmacists and dentists, who falsify Rx and patient records to claim millions of pounds more than they are entitled to.
Victimless crimes
Croall 2007 x
Definition of White Collar Crime
- sometimes referred to as occupational crime, is usually committed by M/C individuals who abuse their work position for personal gain at the expense of their employer.
Joyto De Laurey was found guilty and sentenced to 7y for stealing £4.4m from the private accounts of her employers at a merchant bank - bosses at Goldman Sachs were so rich they did not notice sums of up to £2.25m at a time disappearing
Crimes may benefit both parties involved
Hard to investigate - require specialist investigators
Lack of awareness that a crime had been committed / Victims blame themselves for being risky
Acts are often not labelled as criminal and therefore not dealt with by CJS but professional bodies
Clinard and Yeager x (1980)
- criticised for taking law enforcement agency records for granted as true measures of the extent of corporate crime
Social Construction of Stats x
Newburn 2007 x
Stats focus on Blue Collar / Street crime which is more detectable
Affluent classes are more likely to be 'left off' than W/C for street crime
White Collar crime and Corporate crime is not necessarily seen as evil
definition of white collar crime
Sutherland 1983 x
'A crime committed by a person of respectability an high social status in the course of his occupation'
Critique x
definition
fails to distinguish
between two types of crime (WCC and Corporate)
Croall 2007 x
WCC
occupational - committed by employees for their own personal gain - e.g. stealing from the company/customers
Slapper and Tombs 1991 x
CC
offences committed by large companies, or people acting on behalf of large companies - which benefit the company rather than individuals.
Solution - Pearce and Tombs
'any illegal act or omission that is the result of deliberate decisions or culpable negligence by a legitimate business organisation and that is intended to benefit the business'
Croall 2007 x
sometimes referred to as occupational crime, is usually committed by M/C individuals who abuse their work position for personal gain at the expense of their employer.
Why do Corporate Crimes Occur x
Marxist x
Gordon x
the
'dog eat dog'
nature of capitalism leads to corporations bending and breaking the rules or moving to areas with less regulations in order to obtain
competitive advantages in order to maximise profits
Snider x
The control of the
state and the media
by the ruling class allows there corporate crimes to go undetected. even when they are detected, they are often
subject to fines rather than imprisonment
from those involved in the crime.
Box (1983) x
Argue that it is a norm of functioning capitalism. This has created
'mystification',
and has spread the idea that CC is less widespread or harmful than W/C crime
Pearce 1976 x
CC is hidden by ideology, therefore preventing a crisis of legitimacy for capitalism
We see industrial espionage, lying about losses, price-fixing, etc.
Abuse of Trust in CC and WCC x
Sutherland x
this type of WCC is a greater threat to society than W/C street crime as it promotes distrust in professionals and undermines the fabric of society.
Carrabine et al x
- High-status individuals are entrusted with out money, health, security and private information ...
Example - Harold Shipman
General practitioner who killed an estimate of 250 of his patients with lethal injections of drugs, or over-prescribing drugs.
Strain Theory - Merton x
Box 1983 x
If a company cannot maximise profit legally it will do illegally when cooperate conditions become difficult
Clinard and Yeager x
law violations increased as performance deteriorated
Differential Association x
Sutherland (1994) x
- crime is a behaviour learned from others in a social context
Geis 1967 x
price-fixing indoctrination
company loyalty over government regulations
If a company justifies committing crimes to achieve corporate goals, employees will be socialised into criminality
Deviant Subcultures
groups who share a set or
norms and values at odds with those of wider society
. If an employee faces
problems to achieve corporate goals
they can adopt deviant means to achieve these goals and
socialise new members
into these deviant means.
Techniques of neutralisation
Sykes and Matza (1957) x
individuals can deviate more easily if they can produce justifications to neutralise moral objections to their misbehaviour
WWC - justify as they are following orders from above or it is normalised within the companies subculture
Labelling theory x
often businesses and professionals can avoid labelling (
de-labelling - NELKEN
), via expensive lawyers and others to work round the law.
Authorities are less likely to investigate and prosecute -
negotiation of justice and stypification
CC acts are often not accompanied with direct intent to cause harm - makes the act seem as less serious
crimes of the powerful and the law x
many crimes of the powerful do not break the law, therefore
Pearce and Tombs x (2003)
created the following
definition of CC
'any illegal act or omission that is the result of deliberate decisions or culpable negligence by a legitimate business organisation and that is intended to benefit the business'
Include:
Committed by employees for their organisation
mis-selluing products to increase profit
civil, administartive and criminal acts
Slapper and Tombs x (2013)
suggest that there are 6 main types of CC:
Paperwork and Non-Compliance
Having incorrect / no permits or licences and/or failing to comply with legal regulations (H&S)
Herald of Free Enterprise disaster 1989
: Capsized and 197 people died as rules governing the closer of bow doors was neglected
Labour Law
Crimes such as failing to pay legally required minimum wages, ignoring legal working hours restrictions or failing to provide correct safety equipment for workers.
GAP using child labour in sweatshops
Tombs
- calculated that up to 1000 work-related deaths a year involve employers breaking the law. More than the total number of homicides.
Unfair Trade Practices/Crimes against consumers
Crimes such as false advertising, price-fixing and illegally obtaining information on rival businesses
UK supermarkets were fined £116 million in 2007
for fixing the price of milk and cheese, costing shoppers £270 million more than they should have been paying
Financial Offences
Crimes such as tax evasion and concealment of losses and debts.
In
2001 Enron
concealed debts of around £50 billion - the company collapsed and many people lost their jobs and investment
Manurfacturing Offences
Offences such as misrepresentation, incorrect labelling and false advertising. Also include the production of dangerous and unsafe articles, counterfeiting and failing to recall faulty goods.
In the
1970s the Ford Pinto
, advertised as the car that gives you a warm feeling, had a tendency to burst into flames in collisions. Production continue for 8 years and is thought to have been responsible for between 500-900 deaths.
Environmental 'green' crime
Damage to the environment caused deliberately or through negligence - pollution of land, water or air - discharge, emission and dumping of waste/substances
Bhopal chemical Leak
Stephen Box x
when a company kills or harms consumers,
the law often does not define the action as a criminal offence. Rather it is defined as a lesser civil offence
Example x
'Herald of Free Enterprise
- sank outside Zeebrugge in 1987 with the loss of 192 lives, the official enquiry blamed the ferry company P&O for operating unsafely for the sake of making profit.
Attempts to sue the company for corporate manslaughter failed.
No director of the company has ever been taking into criminal account for these deaths
Tombs 2013 x
CC has enormous costs:
physical and economic
.
CC is not just the work of a few 'bad apples', but rather it is 'widespread, routine and pervasive'.
Invisibility of WCC and CC - why does this happen? x
The media x
there is a difference in the language used between WCC/CC and W/C crimes
De-labelling - Nelken x
Seen as civil acts rather than criminal - normally dealt with by regulatory bodies, rather than CJS
WCC is often hidden to protect the reputation of the business - internal sanctions follow
Under-reported and lack of awareness x
Normally there isn't one identifiable victim to report the offence. Environment or wider society can be the victim
People may not be aware that they are being defrauded or misled (horsemeat scandal, financial and email scams) - people are more likely to blame themselves for falling for the scam then reporting it to the police.
Complexity and difficulty in detection x
CC cover-ups use networks of powerful professionals to prevent discovery - e.g. harm only discovered much later, such as thalidomide
hard to investigate as authorities may lack know-how and resources
Lack of political will and stereotypes x
More focus on street crime; but even if it is reported, the defendants have a better chance of not being prosecuted as they are likely to be M/C -
negotiation of justice
EVALUATE x
Nelken 2012 x
argues it is unrealistic to assume that all businesses are likely to offend were it not for laws preventing them
If capitalist gain were the cause of CC, this doesn't explain crime in non-profit organisations - e.g. police, charities, etc
Braithwaite 1984 x
pharmaceutical companies who obeyed the law were more profitable as they were able to gain licences in the USA and gain access to lucrative markets in poorer counties who relied on FDA guidelines.