White Collar Crime Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

White Collar Crime - Research Paper Example The essay aims to proffer pertinent issues that detail the foundations and enforcement of white collar crime. The paper would hereby contain definitions of white-collar crime, the laws that regulate them, and their impact on society. Various studies have acknowledged and attributed the origin and foundation of white collar crime to Edwin H. Sutherland, a known criminologist and sociologist, who presented its theoretical relevance in his reported presidential address in 1939 at the American Sociological Society Meeting (Barnett, n.d., Strader, 2002). Both Barnett and Strader have cited the definition from Sutherland’s (1949) book, as he averred that white collar crime â€Å"may be defined approximately as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation† (Sutherland, 1949, p. 9). Due to the controversial nature that the definition has elicited from various criminology experts, it was deemed â€Å"outdated for student s of the criminal law† (Strader, 2002, p. 1) and regarded as a misnomer. Thereby, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has presented their official definition as â€Å". . . those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage† (USDOJ, 1989, p. 3). ... qualified the elements that are needed to classify the criminal activity within the white collar category to include: nonviolent crime; committed for financial gain; by persons and organizations with occupational status belonging to the professional, semi-professional and entrepreneurial status; with illegal acts characterized by deceit, concealment, and violation of trust. The Legal Information Institute (2010) provided a simpler definition acknowledged from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary as â€Å"a variety of nonviolent financial crimes, generally committed by businesspeople or public officials, involving commercial fraud, consumer fraud, swindles, insider trading on the stock market, embezzlement, bribery, or other dishonest schemes† (Legal Information Institute, 2010, par. 3). Accordingly, the offenses most commonly committed within the white collar crime definition are as follows: â€Å"antitrust violations, computer and internet fraud, credit card fraud, pho ne and telemarketing fraud, bankruptcy fraud, healthcare fraud, environmental law violations, insurance fraud, mail fraud, government fraud, tax evasion, financial fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, bribery, kickbacks, counterfeiting, public corruption, money laundering, embezzlement, economic espionage and trade secret theft† (Legal Information Institute, 2010, par. 1). Laws that Regulate White Collar Crimes As indicated in the Legal Information Institute cite, laws that regulate white collar crimes are governed by the â€Å"Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution (which) gives the federal government the authority to regulate white-collar crime, and a number of federal agencies (see sidebar), including the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Secret Service, U.S. Customs, the Environmental