Impact of White Collar Crimes
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Despite the devastating impact of white collar crimes on communities across the nation, the investigation of such crimes is a low priority for most law enforcement agencies. The growing complexity of these crimes and the fact that they generally take place over an extended period of time makes them difficult to detect. Once detected, victims are often reluctant to come forward because of the social stigma attached to having been defrauded. Few police departments are trained to gather evidence for many of the more sophisticated white collar crimes. Prosecutors are reluctant to take the cases because of the enormous investment in time involved, and the unlikelihood of convictions. Judges, who find their court dockets monopolized by violent, physical crimes, are often prone to leniency when presented with a case involving a white collar criminal. The general public's perception of the seriousness of the impact of white collar crime is overshadowed by their disproportionate fear of the threat of street crime, even though the probability that they will become victims of white collar crime is higher. Thus it is not surprising that white collar crime is a growing menace that is being virtually ignored by many segments of American society.White collar crimes can be committed by a wide range of individuals or corporations. Edward Sutherland in the 1930s first coined the phrase "white-collar crime," and described it as any nonviolent offense of personal or corporate gain (Walla
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nous crimes. When confronted with a middle class individual, usually dressed in business attire, accused of fraud, judges tend to weigh the seriousness of the crime in terms of their own personal experience in the courtroom. As one prosecutor laments, "If there are no guns, dope or dead bodies they [judges] sort of look at you and wonder where the crime is" (California Senate, 1994, p. 49). The situation is exacerbated when the victim is elderly, because older persons often make poor witnesses due to their disorientation, shame, or trepidation during courtroom proceedings. Unfortunately, there is a tendency among judges to blame the victim of fraudulent schemes for having been gullible in the first place.
In the court system, the trend has been in the direction of assessing punitive civil sanctions moreso than imposing criminal penalties on persons convicted of white collar crimes. Law enforcement officials perceive this trend as a softening of the judicial system in the punishment of white collar crimes, but judges see it just the opposite. Many judges believe criminal law to be deficient as a regulatory tool in prosecuting paper crimes. In response to the public's lack of sympathy for the white collar offender based on
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Approximate Word count = 5360
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)
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