Criminal Justice

This paper will analyze a topic of your choosing related to white-collar crime (see your text for a definition and examples). Give a brief introduction of the topic, including historical context, and apply what you have learned to explaining why this crime happens, whom it affects, and how it is treated by the criminal justice system. Is it seen as a “victimless” crime, why or why not?

Your paper will cite at least five original sources (academic or journalistic — textbooks, encyclopedias, and narratives must be cited but do not count toward your five) that support your work. Original sources must have been published since 2000. If any of your sources contradict one another, you must acknowledge that contradiction and examine why it exists.

The writing assignment in this course is considered formal writing – this means that I expect you to do all of the following: Write with purpose. Each sentence should contribute to your overall writing (no fillers like “very very very very interesting”). Additionally, you should use the same glossary of terms that the reading’s author uses; do not make up your own descriptors or tell the reader, “Basically…” Your tone should be literal and formal, using proper English spelling and grammar. Do not use clichés, text speak (e.g. ROFL), emoji, non-text characters, or non-scholarly sources. You should write in paragraphs which are organized to fit together.

All essays must use APA or ASA formatting for in-text citations and reference list and be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Your assignment should be typed, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. Each essay should not exceed 5 pages in length, with one-inch margins on all sides and page numbers. Please do not vary your font, font size, spacing, or punctuation in an effort to overcome length requirements, as this will be readily apparent.

ANSWER

White-Collar Crime

All crimes are not as apparent as one might think. Some crimes are committed under the targeted person’s without them noticing. White-collar crimes are crimes committed in the course of business and, most of the time committed for financial gain. Sociologist Edwin Sutherland first invented the term white-collar crime in the 1930s (Gottschalk, 2016). The phrase was first used to describe crimes commonly committed to respected people or those who were recognized as having a high social class status. An example of white-collar crime is fraud. An example of fraud committed in the 1920s was committed by Charles Ponzi. Ponzi convinced his neighbors to invest their money with him that he would double it in 90 days. His first investors had their money doubled within less than 90 days and praised Ponzi (Van Slyk et al., 2016). Ponzi had, however, not invested their money and had paid the early investors back using the new investor’s money. This act of paying old investors from new investors was called a Ponzi scheme.

Corporate fraud is one of the FBI’s criminal priorities. The crime causes losses to investors and has the potential to destroy the U.S economy and investor confidence. The bureau is the lead agency investigating fraud and focuses on cases that involve accounting schemes, self-dealing by corporate executives, and obstruction of justice (Baer, 2016). Many of the corporate frauds followed by the FBI usually involve schemes that are designed to deceive investors.  Fraud is a white-collar crime, and it is not considered victimless as it leads to investors losing a lot of money and also has the potential to destroy the country’s economy (Piquero, 2018). White-collar crime is viewed with seriousness, and anyone caught committing fraud, or any other white-collar crime is prosecuted.

References

Baer, M. H. (2018). Sorting Out White-Collar Crime. TEx. L. REv., 97, 225.

Gottschalk, P. (2016). Fraud examiners in white-collar crime investigations. In Research Handbook on Corporate Social Responsibility in Context. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Piquero, N. L. (2018). White-collar crime is crime: Victims hurt just the same. Criminology & Pub. Pol’y, 17, 595.

Van Slyke, S. R., Benson, M. L., & Cullen, F. T. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford handbook of white-collar crime. Oxford University Press.