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Business Crime

Business Crime. Definition & Characteristics White Collar (Professional) Crime Why are rates of professional crime so high? Corporate Crime Difficulties studying business crime. Business Crime. Sutherland “..a crime committed by a person of respectability…”

MikeCarlo
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Business Crime

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  1. Business Crime • Definition & Characteristics • White Collar (Professional) Crime • Why are rates of professional crime so high? • Corporate Crime • Difficulties studying business crime

  2. Business Crime • Sutherland “..a crime committed by a person of respectability…” • Distinction between unethical and illegal

  3. Characteristics of Business Crime • Involves complex, sophisticated and technical actions • Tends to be intermingled with legitimate behavior (i.e. false advertising) • Victimization is diffuse (i.e. harm caused by pollution) • Monetary sums are larger than street crime (avg. of $500,000 in 1980s)

  4. Characteristics • Business crime rarely prosecuted; penalties relatively light (i.e.John MacNamara’s 5 yr. sentence) • Not always perceived as crime • Lack of media coverage • Business criminals not stigmatized (many become celebrities)

  5. Professional Crimes • Definition of Professional • Lawyers • Accountants • Executive/Management • Doctors • Examples: embezzlement & medical crime

  6. Embezzlement • Theft from a corporation • Estimated at $27 billion in U.S., $6 billion Canada • Employee access to documentary records • Theft over an extended period

  7. Profile of Embezzlers • Nonshareable problem (booze, babes, bets) • Recognize & seize opportunity • Rationalize using a “vocabulary of motive” (i.e. borrowing not stealing) • Examples: Jim Baker’s $3.7 million theft from PTL Ministries

  8. Physician Crime • Dr.Richard Neale • Gross Negligence, Fraud & Incompetence

  9. Why are professional crime rates so high? • Victims tend to be impersonal • Power imbalances • Easy to rationalize • Criminal hard to apprehend

  10. Corporate Crime • Consumer as victim • Employees as victim • Public as victim

  11. Consumer as Victim • The Ford Pinto • Tainted Meat • Insurance scams

  12. Employee As Victim • Westray Mine

  13. Westray – May 9, 1992 • 26 dead • Families & survivors

  14. Ocean Ranger Feb.15, 1982

  15. Public as Victim • Environment • Public infrastructure

  16. Why is corporate crime difficult to study? • Problem with official statistics • Difficult to access information • Requires knowledge of different disciplines • Research funding lacking

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