es and by issuing fraudulent licenses or certificates or by acquiescing in tax fraud (Clinard and Yeager 18).
"Corporate crime," on the other hand, is enacted by
"collectivities or aggregates of discrete individuals; it is hardly comparable to the action of a lone individual" (Clinard and Yeager 18). Corporate crime is an organizational crime occurring in the context of complex relationships and expectations among boards of directors, executives and managers. The distinction between occupational and corporate crime can appear to be arbitrary at times, for it may be difficult to determine an individual's intent. Sometimes an individual feels coerced to participate because of fear of losing his/her job if he refuses. Likewise, a corporate official may benefit personally from an illegal act committed for the corporation by receiving indirect remuneration in the form of job security, a promotion, a salary increase, or bonus. Doing something for the corporation and for oneself can coalesce in this way (Clinard and Yeager 19).
A combination of legal procedures and media emphases has perpetuated the image and definition of crime as burglary and other violent acts. Consequently, fear of street crime is pervasive; fear of corporate crime is not. Yet, according to James D. Walls, Jr., Senior Vice President of Stanton Corporation, white-collar crime, both occupational and corporate, is a $40 billion-a-year problem (Walls 381).
Research shows that beginning in 1955 the Insurance Underwriters organization listed about $300,000,000 as the amount attributable to employee theft. By 1965, this figure had jumped to $4 billion and by 1975 had managed to climb to $14 billion. With inflation and new technology, the figure had risen to $40 billion by 1985 (Walls 382). Part of the reason for this jump can be found in a recent survey by U.S. News and World Report which discovered that thirty-four percent of the eighteen to twenty-nine...