1. White Collar Crime Timner & Eitzen (1989): Focus is always on crimes on the ‘streets’, not crimes on the ‘suites’. Newburn (2007): The study of crime focuses of crimes of the powerless rather than the powerful Definition: White-Collar Crime refers to offences committed by middle-class individuals who abuse their work positions within organisations for personal gain at the expense of the organisation and/or clients of the organisation (Browne 2009) Sutherland (1949) coined the term ‘White-Collar Crime’ when setting out to show that crime was not just a working-class phenomena.

2. Fraud My Name Is… What might be classed as ‘White-Collar Crime?’ Fiddling Expenses Embezzlement Forgery Collusion (Price fixing) Insurance Scams Tax Evasion

3. Croall (2001): Often doctors will falsify prescriptions and patient records to claim more funding from the NHS. One GP made over £700,000 over 5 years doing this. In 2007, the millionaire Conrad Black (former owner of the Daily Telegraph was jailed for 6 years after defrauding shareholders out of millions of dollars. In 2002, Worldcom (Telephone company in the USA) was forced to explain why $4 Billion was missing from it’s accounts. Shares dropped from $64 to 20 cents & investors lost millions. Corporate Crime: Crime committed by companies against employees or the public. (This is explored further in a separate PowerPoint) Occupational Crime: Crime committed against a company by an employee. (This will be explored here) As the definition of White Collar Crime is so vague it can be split into two main types:

4. Occupational Crime: Ditton (1977) & Mars (1982) found that many employers (in a wide range of occupations), thought that it was a ‘perk’ of the job & legitimate to steal from their workplaces. > Why might stealing from the office be seen as ok but stealing from someone’s home not be? > How might this be linked to labelling theory? > How might Marxists view this type of crime? > What methodological issues might you encounter if you were to research the extent of occupational crime.

5. Official Statistics & White-Collar Crime Official statistics tell us that most crime is working-class crime. White-collar crime is under-represented within these statistics and are thus misleading 1) Difficult to Detect - ‘Invisible Crime’. 2) ‘Victimless’ Crime. What are the implications of the under-representation of white-collar crimes in official statistics for the view that most criminals are working class? 3) Crime may benefit all involved e.g. Bribery. 4) Difficult to Investigate. Why might White- Collar crime be under-represented within official statistics? 5) Lack of awareness. 6) Institutional Protection. 7) Lack of Convictions – Middle-Class offenders.

6. Explaining Occupational Crime Based on what you have learnt already, can you think of any explanations as to why occupational crime occurs? Strain Theory & Anomie (Merton): Means & Goals Control Theory (Reckless) Market Culture, & Victimless Crime Edgework (Katz & Lyng) The Sociology of Risk Taking

7. Based on what you now know about White-Collar Crime, how does it relate to the Marxist Theory of Crime? REMEMBER: White-Collar Crime is linked to the following: > Marxism > Corporate Crime > Transnational Crime > Environmental ‘Green’ Crime > State Crime > Computer-based Crime > Globalisation & Crime > The Social Construction of Crime Statistics