The very word ‘criminal’ typically conjures up a sterotypical image of either a sharply dressed gangster accessorized with a cigar and heading a mob, or perhaps in today’s more modern context, a deliquent African American thug doing drive-by shootings. While these stereotypes are true and alive, there is a growing trend in today’s globalized world for crime to gravitate towards the white-collared sort.
What exactly constitutes a white collar crime? While disagreements abound as to its exact definition, there are a few obvious examples. Embezzlement from one’s own workplace would classify for instance. Another would be issuing counterfeit cheques. More vague examples include insurance fraud and insider stock-trading. Whatever the crime might be, they are all marked by one point of similarity, which is the absence of any physical violence or threat.
It is a common misconception that the extent of spread of white collared crime is far less than that of traditional crime. Statistics, however, would prove this to be wrong. It is estimated by the FBI that white collar crime cost the US more than USD $300 billion annually, and that it is the largest-growing segment of criminal activity. So where does this misconception come from?
Firstly, the impact of a white collar crime is less apparent to the average citizen as compared to more violent crime. A gory murder-robbery would get more air time in the media simply because it is deemed to be more newsworthy. One would judge the safety level of his housing estate based on traditional crime rates, on the chances of them being victims of snatch theft. Secondly, the very nature of a white collar crime makes it less detectable. Many white collar criminals tend to get away scot free if they are smart enough to conceal their tracks properly. Furthurmore, even if these crimes are detected, companies would have a tendency to keep things hush to protect the integrity and image of the company and retain shareholders.
The threat posed by white collar crime to society, however, is no less diminished by its transparency. The accountancy scandal of energy company Enron is a prime example of this. Thousands of employees lost their jobs overnight, and the value of Enron stocks dropped from over USD$90 to a few cents as a result of the scandal. The many companies that Enron had invested in or were closely tied to were also heavily affected financially, if not ruined.
Other white collar crimes like money-laundering are a less direct, but no less dangerous threat to society. In almost all cases, the ‘dirty’ money that has to be laundered comes directly from illegal organisations eg. the Mafia or terrorist cells. The legal money that comes out the other end only serves to get pumped back into the organisation it came from, creating a vicious cycle.
The advent of globalization is one of the main reasons for the prolific rise in white collar crime. Evolving technology means that more and more money are being traded online, creating more opportunities to commit electronic crime. The means to do so is now widely available to anyone as theorotically, anyone with access to a computer is able to steal money electronically or reproduce things like legal documents.
The big obstacle when talking about white collar crime is the lack of any real means to stop its spread. There is clearly a double standard employed by law enforcement agencies when dealing with the two types of crimes. This can be explained away by the fact that those who commit white collar crime are more often than not, someone with influential power or money. Thus it is much harder for a court of law to punish them harshly. They also would have access to the best lawyers and attorneys, allowing them to wriggle out of their crime. Criminal penalties are also by nature harsher to those who commit acts of violence. The danger here is that there is a pressing need to address this situation before white-collar crime becomes even more commonplace, damaging society even more than traditional crime ever could.
