White collar crimes are often opposed to conventional crimes. The result of that opposition is that white collar crimes are said to be not so dangerous to the society as conventional crimes. Therefore, the issue of white collar crime arouses more limited public and formal response. Besides, its coverage in mass media and research is not as frequent as that of conventional crime. The objective of this paper is to compare these two types of crimes and show that the neglect of white collar crime issue can lead to such serious consequences as economic and political crises.
People usually associate the word crime with such things as murder, robbery, burglary, rape, arson, etc., which are conventional crimes. Thus, most common people do not even suspect that there are other crimes that are not violent in nature, but may pose the same threat to people’s lives, health, and security. There are several reasons for such ignorance. Firstly, white collar crimes are nor as visible as conventional crimes since they do not happen in the streets where there are witnesses. White collar crimes usually take place “in suites”, i.e. offices of officials or upper-level employers who try to avoid observers or witnesses of any kind. Secondly, there is a common view that white color crimes are not “real” crimes and, therefore, the police are not as active as they should be in pursuing white collar criminals. The police officers understand that the investigation of a white collar crime may take quite a lot of time since there are no witnesses and since it is hard to get access to necessary evidence. In addition to the amount of time and due to the absence of evidence, the white collar crime investigation may often bring no results and all the efforts will be fruitless. So, if the policemen have a choice, they prefer to investigate a conventional crime which will surely bring appreciation. And finally, there is poor coverage of the matter in mass media and research, which seems to be connected with the other two reasons mentioned. The principal objective of mass media is to attract attention to news and make people react. Conventional crimes are more suitable for that purpose – they are violent, have victims and witnesses, and are often followed by notable trials whereas white collar criminals, even if found and accused, rarely undergo any headline-making prosecution and get serious punishment. Therefore, they are not interesting for mass media. As for the scientific research of the subject, it must be said that the issue of white collar crime has been studied for quite a long time already, but yet not as actively as conventional crimes. Unfortunately, the abovementioned reasons have led to certain neglect of the white collar crime issue which makes it seem less significant and deserving less attention, which is not right since the consequences of these crimes can be as dramatic as of any conventional crime.
The main characteristics of white collar crimes are: (1) they occur in a legitimate occupational context; (2) they are motivated by the objective of economic gain or occupational success; and (3) they are not characterized by direct, intentional violence (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 4-5). There are different crimes that can be referred to white collar ones. These are embezzlement, fraud, bribery, insider trading, cyber crime, money laundering, identity theft, etc. Since these crimes involve no open violence, they are considered to be not very dangerous. However, this opinion is wrong because the consequences of such crimes committed by high-level official can be very serious, though not very obvious. For example, Friedrichs mentions an earthquake in the state of Gujarat, India, which at first may seem to have nothing to do with a white collar crime and look more like an ordinary natural disaster. But a closer study into the matter showed that the consequences and damages would not have been so dramatic but for the greediness of Indian officials who had stolen the money intended for proper construction of buildings which later led to huge destruction and loss of many lives during the earthquake (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 2).
Corruption and embezzlement on higher levels may cause even more harm and result in a crisis, either economic or political. History has seen many corrupted governments who lined their own pockets by robbing people living in the country. For instance, the corrupted government of Ukraine weltered in bureaucracy have led their people to the deepest economic crisis which can surely lead to a political one as well. The world remembers the events in Ukraine of 2013-2014 when hundreds of people went out to the central streets of the capital in an effort to get the corrupted President out of the office. The result was blood-shedding. Furthermore, the conflict developed and a civil war started in the country which still continues to take lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. If the government of Ukraine does not stop robbing their people, other conflicts will follow and, in addition to the current economic crisis, the country will experience another political one.
So, the facts outlined above show how important proper attention to white collar crimes can be. Even though these crimes are non-violent in their nature, they may lead to deaths of people and huge destruction. Mass media and law-makers should cover the issue of white collar crime more actively and make the public aware of the situations where white collar crimes occur. Thus, the number of such crimes can be reduced since potential criminals will realize that punishment is sure to follow.
References
Friedrichs, D.O. (2010). Trusted criminals: White collar crime in contemporary society. (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
