White-Collar Crimes
Types of workers
• Black Collar Worker is used to refer to workers in the mining or the oil
industry. Sometimes, it is also used to refer to people who are
employed in black marketing activities.
• Blue Collar Worker is a member of the working class, who performs
manual labor and earns an hourly wage. It originates from the
popularity that blue color enjoys among manual labourers.
• Gold Collar Worker is a newly formed phrase which has been used to
describe either young, low-wage workers who invest in conspicuous
luxury (often with parental support). It is also used to refer to highly-
skilled knowledge people who are highly valuable to the company.
Example: Lawyers, doctors, research scientists, etc.
• Gray Collar Worker refers to the balance of employed people not
classified as white or blue collar. Although grey-collar is something used
to describe those who work beyond the age of retirement.
• Green Collar Worker is a worker who is employed in the
environmental sectors of the economy. Example: People working in
alternate energy sources like solar panels, Greenpeace, World Wide
Fund for nature etc.
• Pink Collar Worker is employed in a job that is traditionally
considered to be women’s work and is often low-paid. Example:
Librarian, maid, flight attendant, receptionist, secretary, etc.
• Scarlet Collar Worker is a term often used to refer to people who
work in the pornography industry, especially women entrepreneurs in
the field of internet pornography. The color scarlet has traditionally
been associated with adultery.
• White Collar Worker is a salaried professional, typically referring to
general office workers and management. It originates from color of
dress shirts worn by professional and clerical workers.
• What Is It??
• A white-collar crime is defined as "a crime committed by a person of
respectable and high social status in the course of his occupation“. •
Fraud, bribery, inside trading, embezzlement, computer crimes, and
forgery are all accessible to white-collar employees.
A Brief History
The term was coined by Edward Sutherland in 1939.
• He used it to set a line between white-collar crimes and regular street
crimes
• White-collar crime is generally new and it came about around the
time following the Great Depression.
• People wanted to gain their money and social status back. Also many
people were angry at the economy status and felt they were underpaid.
This led to the development of white-collar crime.
• It is typically dealt with in terms of civil law instead of criminal law.
• Civil law refers to general regulations involving economic losses
between private parties and criminal law deals with specific laws that
define every individual's moral responsibility to society.
• It is estimated that the harm done to society by white-collar crime is
greater than street crime, yet most people are not concerned about
this form of deviance.
Why Is It Committed?
• Most people do not start out as criminals. Most white-collar crimes
involve normal people who are struggling financially. It is just as
common in bigger corporations as stealing is in a poor community.
• Greed is another influence on this crime. Many people with high
ranking jobs tend to desire wealth and will do anything to obtain it.
•Also, more people are beginning to think that committing these crimes
is acceptable because they have been around the corruption for long
periods of time.
• Many people get away with white-collar crime more than regular
street crimes. It is a fact that almost no police effort goes into stopping
it and people are rarely convicted.
• People may have power because they have friends in politics, they
have money to get the best lawyer, or they usually have friends in the
law-enforcement agencies.
• When a crime is discovered, suspects usually get a light punishment
because violence wasn’t used.
Types of white collar crime
• • Bank Fraud:
• • Blackmail:
• • Bribery:
• • Cellular Phone Fraud:
• • Computer fraud:
• • Counterfeiting:
• • Credit Card Fraud:
• • Currency Schemes:
• • Environmental Schemes:
• • Extortion:
• • Forgery:
• • Health Care Fraud:
• • Insurance Fraud:
• • Investment Schemes:
• • Kickback:
• • Larceny/Theft:
• • Money Laundering:
• • Racketeering:
• • Securities Fraud:
• • Welfare Fraud:
• • Tax Evasion:
• • Unfair trade practices:
• • Weights and Measures:
• • Insider Trading:
• • Telemarketing Fraud:
2 types
1. Occupational crime which occurs when crimes are committed to
promote personal interests. An example would be. altering records. (Ex.
Tax evasion)
2. Organizational or corporate crime which occurs when corporate
executives commit criminal acts to benefit their company by
overcharging or price fixing, false advertising, etc. (Ex. Unfair trade
practice)
