White Collar Crime

The purpose of this research is to review the white collar crime phenomenon in the United States. White collar crime is non violent in and of itself, although, in some instances, such as money laundering, it may derive from some form of violent crime. White collar crime also involves theft, although not in the forms of burglary, shoplifting, or employee theft of goods.

White collar crime assumes many manifestations. In this research, three forms of white collar crime are examined, as they are representative of the overall problem. The three forms of white collar crime considered are embezzlement, money laundering, and insider stock trading.

Embezzlement is the "unlawful, fraudulent taking of money or property by a person to whom said money or property had been entrusted" (Rothenberg, 1985, p. 110). Embezzlement is a criminal offense and, as the term is most often used, it is "synonymous with misappropriation of funds" (Rothenberg, 1985, p. 110).

The stereotypical conception of an embezzler is either that of an individual who "skims" from cash collections or that of an individual who is able to manipulate the "books" in a manual record keeping system to conceal checks fraudulently issued to one's self (Richter, 1985). Neither of these stereotypical situations is of particular relevance in the contemporary large business environment. First, in the large contemporary business, few payments are received in cash. Second, the automation o

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been acquired by legitimate means. The process of money laundering is, in and of itself, an illegal activity. The enforcement of laws concerning money laundering however, is difficult for a number of legitimate reasons. Enforcement, to a great extent, relies on the compliance of banking institutions with the federal currency transactions reporting laws. When a banking institution or one of its trusted employees is involved in a money laundering scheme or transaction, the scheme or transaction may escape governmental notice for a long period of time (or forever). Further, in such situations, the gathering of necessary information for enforcement is difficult, even when government officers become aware of such schemes or transactions. Enforcement of laws concerning money laundering is made difficult by the ways in which American banking statutes are written. Consistent with the constitutional protection of legitimate civil liberties in the United States, American banking statutes often aid and abet the money launderers, by making it difficult for enforcement officers to gain access to records which would indicate that a money laundering transaction might have occurred, and who might have been involved (DeMott, 1984). On t

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