White-Collar Crime

White-collar crime is defined as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. This term was coined in 1939. Right now, there are a number of complex crimes that are frequently labeled white-collar – such crimes consist of fraud, bribery, insider trading, embezzlement, computer crime, copyright infringement, funds laundering, identity theft and forgery.


The idea of a white-collar crime was very first employed by Professor Edwin Hardin Sutherland who differentiated crimes committed by those who worked in the home business globe as to those who committed street crimes. He presented his theory to the American Sociological Society as a study. The study would take into account crime and high society – some thing that had not been looked at in and of itself. In his presentation, he defined the crime by someone's social status. His aim was to prove that white-collar crime and criminals were much less most likely to be put in jail compared to those of additional visible and common crimes.


Sutherland took the concept further and broke down crimes into two categories with crimes such as arson, burglary, theft, assault, rape and vandalism listed under blue-collar crimes which were further explained or blamed on psychological, associational and structural variables. With this, white-collar crimes were committed by criminals who were opportunists, men and women who learned they could take advantage of their position in life and their circumstances to accumulate financial acquire. Such people had been commonly educated, intelligent, and had affluence. These people today were also wise sufficient to con their victims.