History of white collar crime

White collar crime has been around  longer than people may think. Over the years the types of crimes that fell under the white collar crime category grew larger and larger. It wasn't until recently when we finally got a definition, a very vague definition but one at the very least, on white collar crime. 

One of the very first types of white collar crime that was brought to our attention was embezzlement, bribery, and monopolizing businesses. These were the first types of white collar crimes and they actually came from the 15^th century and originated in England.  These crimes were the first actions of white collar crime, but it wasn't until the industrial revolution in the Western industrial society that white collar crime became widespread and people became more aware of it. In order to stop businesses from creating more power for their own company, something had to be done. The Unite States had seen a huge growth in monopolizing businesses.  In order to stop that from consistently occurring, congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, made it illegal to monopolize businesses in the United States (McGrath, 2008).

             Although there were laws and regulations that were being passed by congress, we still didn't have a definition for white collar crime. So, white collar criminals were getting away with their crimes and were not being punished like the street criminals. In 1939 sociologists Edwin Hardin Sutherland, from the American Sociological Society, came up with this definition for white collar crime. He decided to come up with a definition because he saw how bad white collar crime was becoming in the United States.  Police officers didn’t do anything about these crimes, because they were not violent or theft crimes (McGrath, 2008).  Sutherland defined white collar crime as, “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” (Podgor & Israel, 2009).

             Now that we have a definition for white collar crime, does it really fit the description of crimes that are consistently occurring in the United States? The definition that Sutherland gave many years ago, no longer defines all of the crimes that fall under the white collar crime category because it has grown over the years. The United States  started off with just bribery, embezzlement, and monopolizing businesses We have grown into more crimes such as insider trading, computer crimes, many different types of fraud, etc. Since white collar crime has grown, laws and regulations had to grow too. Over the years, more laws and regulations were made for each type of white collar crime because they are different in their own way.

              In the future,  maybe another sociologist, can “coin” another definition for white collar crime as Sutherland did in the 1930’s.  We do need a new definition that can cover all of the new crimes that have come along with white collar crimes. It is a growing crime and we need to grow with it. We need to be sure that we can continue to grow with the definitions for the crimes and also the punishments for these crimes. If we don’t, we will have more people committing white collar crimes and they will continue to live in society with the rest of us. 

Work Cited:

McGrath, J. (2008). How white collar crime works. How stuff works. Retrieved from    
             http://money.howstuffworks.com/white-collar-crime2.htm

Podgor, E., & Israel, J. (2009). White collar crime in a nut shell. (4th ed., p.1). St. Paul, MN: Thomson                            
             Reuters.

\

California Penal Code 529

            There are many different types of crimes that fall into the category of white collar crime. You  have crimes such as, embezzlement, various types of fraud, cyber-crime, and the list goes on. With these various types of crime, there are also different types of laws and regulations for each crime.

            One of the most common crimes is identity theft. According to the official California legislative information, penal code §529, anyone who falsely impersonates another by either his/her private or official capacity and assumes that person’s identity through the means of (1)if one becomes bail or surety before a court or officer authorized to take that bail or surety for any proceeding; (2) uses the name of another person to verify, publish, acknowledges, or proves to be someone else in a written manner; (3) does any type of act such as, being liable for any suit or prosecution, having to pay any sum of money, forfeiture, or penalty, or have any benefits by falsely impersonating one’s identity. Doing any of the above can have you prosecuted by a fine that does not exceed ten thousand ($10,000) dollars, imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or both the fine and imprisonment.

            The state of California clearly defined what is meant by identity theft. By impersonating another person through any type of means from above will have consequences. The laws and regulations written for identity theft are flawless, in my eyes. It contains the right amount of information that is needed. There are many types of white collar crime and in order to have a strong penal code against every crime, they broke them up into its own code. This is why the penal code for identity theft is well written. The only thing that should change is the punishment. The punishment for identity theft is either imprisonment or a fine, or possibly both. The fine is only up to ten thousand ($10,000) dollars and imprisonment is only up to one year. Why would that stop a criminal from continuing to steal or sell someone else’s identity?

Work Cited

Official California Legislative Information. Penal code. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayexpandedbranch.xhtml