Preview

White Collar Crime vs. Street Crime

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
668 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
White Collar Crime vs. Street Crime
White Collar Crime vs. Street Crime

One problem that plagues our society is crime. Crime is all around us in our everyday lives. Daily we hear of murders, robberies, and rapes. These are categorized as "street crimes." For many people, such crimes are the only
"tragic" crimes, the ones that are senseless and preventable. In Finsterbusch's book, Taking Sides, another variety of crime is exposed. This other form of crime is "white collar" crime. Both have victims, and the effects of both can be devastating to the individuals involved and to the community. The views of the two arguments proposed in the text do reach one common conclusion. Both street and white collar crime have severe consequences. In most instances, white collar crime is, financially, more costly. This does not mean that white-collar crime does not inflict bodily harm upon people. Multi- million dollar corporations can be twice as deadly as a gang member. When a woman dies of lead exposure from her job, it is murder. Whether a man is murdered by a gun or by an unsafe gas tank in his car, it is still called murder. In both scenarios, there is a defined victim. The one answer that our politicians give for solving street crime is more money for the Justice system. More cops, more judges, and definitely more jails and prisons. There are shows, such as "Cops," that shows America the
"truth" about crime in the US. All the attention is given to street crime.
Unless it is a huge scandal, you will seldom hear of white collar crime through the media. When white collar crime is reported, it gets little publicity compared to a gang shoot-out that killed a mother and her three kids. There is a reason for this. Since violent street crime is predominantly an urban problem, there is no better scapegoat than the lower class that live in these inner-city communities. Since urban communities are concentrated with people of color, the image of minorities soon becomes that of a criminal. By

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jaidyn Leskie Case

    • 2510 Words
    • 11 Pages

    In the law, the killing of another person could fall under two categories, one could be murder or it could be manslaughter.…

    • 2510 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this case well no he didn’t do. 2) Next is concealment, this one he did do by compiling mass amounts of paperwork, and case files from not only the U.S. government, but other companies and governments as well. 3) The third is violation of trust, or abuse of power, and trust. This one is a little tricky because of the law that states on the theft, compiling and use of government documents. He had the power to view these documents and the trust from the government to see such thing so when he went out on a limb and published those in a webpage format then he violated this rule, or element. The other thing is that he is NOT a citizen of the U.S. therefore the first amendment right would not apply to him. Because of this; it is an American document, and doctrine. So implies the Espionage act which he falls under and has violated. So the final question in this topic is he a criminal, well yes he is because of the amount of data, and the amount of sensitive information that he and his team has exposed. White collar crime yes because he leaked in cyber form information that could cause harm, and damages to a nation, person, or group. The tricky part is the prosecution of this case because of the international retaliation act, and the whistleblowers law at here in the U.S. both of these can be seen as a a way to allow him to continue processing…

    • 2060 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Acct 573 Week 1 Homework

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Identify the principal agents who expose white-collar crime in contemporary society? What factors motivate people to expose such crime, and what factors inhibit them from doing so? What specific policy measures can be adopted to encourage exposure of white-collar crime?…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some of the earliest examples of white collar crime would be scandals such as the 1920's Teapot Dome Scandal that involved members of then President Harding's administration. The Scandal involved the leasing of naval oil reserves without going into the bidding process. Another example would be the S&L scandal of the 1980's. The amount of money may never be known and the scandal was known as the biggest white collar crime in history. This scandal involved the intentional mismanagement and personal appropriation of depositors' funds by institutional executives. More recently, the Enron scandal shook the financial world. Enron…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Law Commission also pointed out that when Parliament passed the Homicide Act in 1957 they had never intended a killing to amount to murder unless the D realised his conduct might cause death. However, currently where D intends to cause GBH,…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Colorado Theater Shooting

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Colorado Theater shooting was a very tragic event. There were about fifty-eight people wounded and twelve people killed. The victims that were killed range in age from six years old to fifty-one years old. None of the victims or their families could have ever imagined that going to see this movie in Colorado would change their life forever.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This tragedy was far from an act of self defense this man is guilty of this…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Australian criminal justice system responds differently to different types of crimes. One type of crime being white collar crime or corporate crime.…

    • 1886 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    White-Collar Crime, or financial crime, is a widespread problem in America that usually does not get the type of attention it deserves. It is perceived as boring and people do not usually care to learn about it. Everyone knows about Blue-Collar crime (Street Crime) and murder, rape, and theft are usually met with feelings of anger and disgust. But unfortunately, White-Collar crime does not stir up the same feelings one would expect to receive from a murder. Fraudulent loans and embezzlement are just as noteworthy, if not worse than Street Crime. But financial crime is ignored most of the time in the media. Financial crime is more detrimental to society as a whole than street crime. It causes greater financial loss and affects a larger amount…

    • 1686 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sociology White Collar

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The types of crime had more widespread dangers to civil society both in term of human cost and tax dollar, is White collar and which had more extensive consequences. Professor Edwin Hardin Sutherland (1949) was the first to coin the term, and hypothesize white-collar criminals attributed different characteristics and motives than typical street criminals. White collar is a financial motivated, economic, non violent crime committed for illegal monetary gain as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. For instance, one of the most notorious corporate crimes was committed by Ford executives in Houston kept faulty Firestone tires on their Explores that cost the lives of 200 people, and not one executive spent even a single day in jail. In contrast with street crime committed by poor individuals financial motivated to commit crime if they are caught stealing cars it’s more likely that they will be sent to prison for years (p. 145 -146). Furthermore, “The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison”, this article is very true in the way that the poor get discriminated on in almost every…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    sociology

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Definition: Manslaughter - Legal term for the killing of a human being without malice afterthought. Murder - The unlawful killing of one human by another especially with premeditated malice.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    White Collar Crime

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The definition of white collar crime is still truly undefined by most experts. There are many variations as well as specific traits. For example, the type of offender or the type of offense. Some however believe white collar crime is mainly related to economic and corporate crime only. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opted to approach white collar crime in terms of the offense verses the offender. The FBI’s definition is: 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 loss of money or services; or to…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Is Felony Murder?

    • 299 Words
    • 1 Page

    For example, if an elderly woman, with a heart condition, dies while a robbery is taken place in her home, the robber can be charged with felony murder. Although the robbers intention was to souly rob the victim, he unintentionally killed the elderly woman with the stress of the situation. Another example would be a case in 1999 in Florida. A taxi driver was being robbed by 2 men and was threatened if he did not cooperate. He was forced from his cab and ran for help, but collapsed and died before help could arrive. Even though the 2 men did not physically kill the victim, the stress of the situation mixed with a heart problem, did. One of the robbers was convicted of felony murder; the other was still at large.…

    • 299 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Homicide occurred in the course of a result of intentional maiming or torture of the victim.…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Generally persons such as white collar crime offenders often receive lighter sentences than a more conventional crime offenders for a number of reasons. One reason is because these specific offenders are able to hire and retain a costly attorney. Of that reason, most offenders frequently have or are associated or affiliated with some law enforcement agencies, persons that are in higher ranks of the political privileged, and most importantly are familiar to persons of the judiciary branch. Additionally, persons who have committed white color offenses are not crime that do not pertain to violence, which during sentencing these nonviolent persons are not likely to receive strict excessive punishments. For example, someone that beats a man with…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays

Related Topics