The Role Of White Collar Crime In The 15th Century
The first legal documentation of white-collar crime was documented in the 15th century in England. In the year 1473, a law passed after an agent was arrested for embezzlement when he was responsible to transport wool and he ended up stealing wool for himself. After this law passed white-collar crimes were still uncommon because not much attention was brought until after the industrial revolution. The only reason attention was brought during/after the Industrial revolution was because of monopolistic practices, companies would rise prices and consumers would get angry because that product was just recently cheap. During this period nothing was wrong with manufactures raising prices for products, but consumers knew it was not right, so they started
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having political rallies to get the government involved.
America became a country on July 4, 1776, but that didn’t stop the first Insider trading scandal from happening so premature in 1792. Alexander Hamilton, who was the secretary of Treasury replaced outstanding bonds from different colonies with bonds from America’s banks. William Deur who was assistant secretary of treasury and was a part of the inner circle was gaining income from insider trading. William would tell his friends what was going on inside the treasury and trade before releasing certain information to the public and then he would sell the stock. Deur would eventually end up in debtor’s prison because of his actions, but it helped create the Buttonwood Agreement. On May 17,1792 twenty-four New-York City stockholders and brokers met under a Buttonwood tree on 68 Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement which is now the New York Stock Exchange. The Buttonwood agreement had terms that said “stockbrokers were only to deal with each other, and that they would set a commission rate of 0.25 percent”, according to investorwords.com.
The United States of America started to take counterfeiting more serious after the Civil War and with the termination of private bank currency. During the period of the Civil War in America over one-third to one-half of the money being used was counterfeit, according to time.com. The reason why counterfeiting was so high during/after the Civil War was because America was using a system that relied on state banks to produce its money. Even though he was assassinated on the same exact day, Abraham Lincoln signed a piece of legislation that authorized the Secret Service. The Secret Service was created on July 5, 1865 and was part of the Department of Treasury and the main goal of the Secret Service was to put an end to all the counterfeiting that was going on throughout the country and finding people who were trying to commit fraud against the government. A couple years after the Secret Service was created their goal was not only to focus just on counterfeit money, but to focus on “detecting persons perpetrating fraud against the government”, according to time.com. In today’s world, according to secretservice.gov the secret service is responsible for enforcing the counterfeiting laws that help protect the financial systems and payments of our country. The secret service is key in securing finance, cyber and banking.
In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act and this was an attempt to make monopolies illegal. The Sherman Antitrust Act is considered to be the very first modern competition law according to money.howstuffworks.com. The Clayton Antitrust Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1914 and it banned monopolistic practices by business.
A major part of white collar crime was introduced in 1919 and it is known as “Ponzi schemes”. Charles Ponzi would buy cheap international coupons and then exchange those coupons for stamps that were more expensive than the ones he purchased. Charles Ponzi guaranteed his investors a 50 percent return in just ninety days. Ponzi schemes are investment frauds that offer their customers high rewards with little risk. According to investopedia.com Ponzi schemes rely on a constant flow of new investments to continue to provide returns to older investors. Ponzi schemes did not stop once Charles Ponzi was arrested and his scheme finally was exposed, but it has only gotten worse. Bernie Madoff is responsible for the worst case of fraud in America’s history when he stole over 65 billion dollars from investors. Madoff and his Ponzi Scheme affected more than a couple of people, he effected thousands. After the 1929 stock market crash The Securities and Exchange Commission was created to control bonds, stocks and other securities in 1934.
In 1939 a sociologist by the name of Edwin Sutherland brought the phrase “white-collar crime” to the attention of the American Sociological Society in his presidential address.
Edwin Sutherland gave this phrase the definition “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his/her occupation”. Edwin Sutherland’s definition of white-collar crime helped with the way sociologists labeled the offenses that were committed by successful people living in the country who were not affected by poor education, poor living conditions, or characteristics that dealt with street crimes. It also helped with understanding why people who were well-educated could start committing crimes for their financial gains in society. According to criminology.oxfordre.com. Sutherland said there were four main factors when dealing with white-collar crimes: civil agencies often handle the corporate offences which could have been charged as fraud in a federal court, the citizens who are affected by these crimes prefer civil suits rather than criminal punishments for their offenders, white-collar crimes are able to escape prosecution due to class bias in the courts and their power of classes when influencing the implementation and administration of law and once one party is convicted with white-collar crime prosecution is halted and the other parties who were involved with the crime are ignored. Sutherland’s definition of white-collar crime highlighted law enforcement …show more content…
in the United States and showed how bias it actually was.
In 1970, Herbert Edelhertz gave white-collar crime the definition “An illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by nonphysical means and by concealment or guile to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantage”.
According to criminology.oxfordre.com, Edelhertz definition of white-collar crime brought concentration on how the crime was committed, but it ignored the individualities of the offender. Unlike Sutherland, Hebert Edelhertz had four different types of white-collar offending: the abuse of trust, personal crimes, con games and business
crimes.
Next, in 1989, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said white-collar crimes basically were financially crimes. According to criminology.oxfordre.com, the definition the FBI used was “those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage.” This definition the FBI used is closer to the definition of Herbert Edelhertz, but Sutherland and Edelhertz both had a huge impact on the complete definition of white-collar crime today. Today his definition of white-collar crime has changed and it now means non-violent crimes usually committed in commercial situations for financial gain. One of the problems with having three definitions of white-collar crime that have changed overtime is that it makes it hard for researchers to compare the data they get from white-collar crime because they could use different definitions when doing research, according to criminology.oxforxe.com.
In the 1970’s attention towards white collar crime grew rapidly, prosecutors took white-collar crimes more serious and investigations started to focus on corrupt politicians, corrupt businessmen and environmental pollution. White-collar crimes require a certain level of education from individuals and these skills needed to commit these crimes are becoming more available for members in society. There has been an increase in literacy rates, educational attainment and computer usage according to criminology.oxfordre.com.
having political rallies to get the government involved.
America became a country on July 4, 1776, but that didn’t stop the first Insider trading scandal from happening so premature in 1792. Alexander Hamilton, who was the secretary of Treasury replaced outstanding bonds from different colonies with bonds from America’s banks. William Deur who was assistant secretary of treasury and was a part of the inner circle was gaining income from insider trading. William would tell his friends what was going on inside the treasury and trade before releasing certain information to the public and then he would sell the stock. Deur would eventually end up in debtor’s prison because of his actions, but it helped create the Buttonwood Agreement. On May 17,1792 twenty-four New-York City stockholders and brokers met under a Buttonwood tree on 68 Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement which is now the New York Stock Exchange. The Buttonwood agreement had terms that said “stockbrokers were only to deal with each other, and that they would set a commission rate of 0.25 percent”, according to investorwords.com.
The United States of America started to take counterfeiting more serious after the Civil War and with the termination of private bank currency. During the period of the Civil War in America over one-third to one-half of the money being used was counterfeit, according to time.com. The reason why counterfeiting was so high during/after the Civil War was because America was using a system that relied on state banks to produce its money. Even though he was assassinated on the same exact day, Abraham Lincoln signed a piece of legislation that authorized the Secret Service. The Secret Service was created on July 5, 1865 and was part of the Department of Treasury and the main goal of the Secret Service was to put an end to all the counterfeiting that was going on throughout the country and finding people who were trying to commit fraud against the government. A couple years after the Secret Service was created their goal was not only to focus just on counterfeit money, but to focus on “detecting persons perpetrating fraud against the government”, according to time.com. In today’s world, according to secretservice.gov the secret service is responsible for enforcing the counterfeiting laws that help protect the financial systems and payments of our country. The secret service is key in securing finance, cyber and banking.
In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act and this was an attempt to make monopolies illegal. The Sherman Antitrust Act is considered to be the very first modern competition law according to money.howstuffworks.com. The Clayton Antitrust Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1914 and it banned monopolistic practices by business.
A major part of white collar crime was introduced in 1919 and it is known as “Ponzi schemes”. Charles Ponzi would buy cheap international coupons and then exchange those coupons for stamps that were more expensive than the ones he purchased. Charles Ponzi guaranteed his investors a 50 percent return in just ninety days. Ponzi schemes are investment frauds that offer their customers high rewards with little risk. According to investopedia.com Ponzi schemes rely on a constant flow of new investments to continue to provide returns to older investors. Ponzi schemes did not stop once Charles Ponzi was arrested and his scheme finally was exposed, but it has only gotten worse. Bernie Madoff is responsible for the worst case of fraud in America’s history when he stole over 65 billion dollars from investors. Madoff and his Ponzi Scheme affected more than a couple of people, he effected thousands. After the 1929 stock market crash The Securities and Exchange Commission was created to control bonds, stocks and other securities in 1934.
In 1939 a sociologist by the name of Edwin Sutherland brought the phrase “white-collar crime” to the attention of the American Sociological Society in his presidential address.
Edwin Sutherland gave this phrase the definition “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his/her occupation”. Edwin Sutherland’s definition of white-collar crime helped with the way sociologists labeled the offenses that were committed by successful people living in the country who were not affected by poor education, poor living conditions, or characteristics that dealt with street crimes. It also helped with understanding why people who were well-educated could start committing crimes for their financial gains in society. According to criminology.oxfordre.com. Sutherland said there were four main factors when dealing with white-collar crimes: civil agencies often handle the corporate offences which could have been charged as fraud in a federal court, the citizens who are affected by these crimes prefer civil suits rather than criminal punishments for their offenders, white-collar crimes are able to escape prosecution due to class bias in the courts and their power of classes when influencing the implementation and administration of law and once one party is convicted with white-collar crime prosecution is halted and the other parties who were involved with the crime are ignored. Sutherland’s definition of white-collar crime highlighted law enforcement …show more content…
in the United States and showed how bias it actually was.
In 1970, Herbert Edelhertz gave white-collar crime the definition “An illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by nonphysical means and by concealment or guile to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantage”.
According to criminology.oxfordre.com, Edelhertz definition of white-collar crime brought concentration on how the crime was committed, but it ignored the individualities of the offender. Unlike Sutherland, Hebert Edelhertz had four different types of white-collar offending: the abuse of trust, personal crimes, con games and business
crimes.
Next, in 1989, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said white-collar crimes basically were financially crimes. According to criminology.oxfordre.com, the definition the FBI used was “those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage.” This definition the FBI used is closer to the definition of Herbert Edelhertz, but Sutherland and Edelhertz both had a huge impact on the complete definition of white-collar crime today. Today his definition of white-collar crime has changed and it now means non-violent crimes usually committed in commercial situations for financial gain. One of the problems with having three definitions of white-collar crime that have changed overtime is that it makes it hard for researchers to compare the data they get from white-collar crime because they could use different definitions when doing research, according to criminology.oxforxe.com.
In the 1970’s attention towards white collar crime grew rapidly, prosecutors took white-collar crimes more serious and investigations started to focus on corrupt politicians, corrupt businessmen and environmental pollution. White-collar crimes require a certain level of education from individuals and these skills needed to commit these crimes are becoming more available for members in society. There has been an increase in literacy rates, educational attainment and computer usage according to criminology.oxfordre.com.