Class + crime

• Sutherland:

  • White collar crime = crime committed by a person of respectability + high social status in the course of his occupation
• Eval sutherland:

  • Fails to distinguish between 2 types of white collar crime
  • Occupational crime - committed by employees for own personal gain (eg. Stealing from company/customers)
  • Corporate crime - committed by employees for their organisation in persuit of its goals (eg. Misselling products to increase company profits)
• Examples of corporate crime:

  • Financial crimes - tax evasion, fraud, money laundering
  • Crimes against consumers - false labelling, selling unfit goods
  • Crimes against employees - sexual + racial discrimination
  • Crimes against environment - toxic waste dumping
  • State-corporate crime - private companies involvment in war
• Reiman (strain theory) :

  • Explains wc crime using mertons strain theory
  • But explains middle-class + white collar crime by suggesting there's no limit to financial/material success
  • Even those who appear successful can feel strain
• Murray (control theory) :

  • Underclass = responsibile for majority of street crime
  • Hirschi suggests the underclass more likely to lack impulse control + bonds to community, so prevents them from committing crime
• Becker (Labelling theory) :

  • WC unfairly targeted by CJS
  • Less likely to be able to negotiate system to their advantage
  • Police patrol wc areas, so wc crime statistics = higher than middle class
• Gordon (criminogenic capitalism) :

  • Capitalism encourages wc to be criminal + creates a culture of envy + hostility
  • Commit Utilitarian crime to survive in capitalists society
  • Commit Non-utilitarian crime to vent frustrations of oppression
  • Middle class crime explained as capitalism encourages those who are rich to enrich themselves further
• Messerschmidt :

  • Middle class men who engage in white collar crime may do so to show off their masculinity
• Katz:

  • Suggests that engaging in white collar crime can link to the idea of EDGEWORK - the feeling of excitement + adrenaline the acts may give