Sociology

The term white collar crime is believed to have been advanced by Edwin Sutherland who defined it as the type of criminal activity that is committed by respectable individuals who may be occupying high positions in the society in the course of their occupation. The term is commonly used in non-violent criminal activities that are especially committed in commercial institutions aimed at monetary gain (Cornell University Law School, Para 1). White collar crimes are usually difficult to detect due to the use of sophisticated means in concealing their activities via a series of complex dealings. There are numerous examples of white collar crimes including fraud, embezzlement, and computer crime just to list a few. According to the FBI, these crimes cost the US more than 300 billion each year (KariSable.com, Para1).

This paper will examine the trends involving white collar crimes in the past 15 years and how the authorities have attempted to curb the issue over the same period.

White collar crimes in the US
It has been established that one out of three households in the US are victims of the white collar crime yet only an estimated 41 do report the incidences. A survey was carried out by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) which is a federally funded non-profit organization and pointed out that less than 8 of white collar crimes are reported to the rightful authorities. NW3C is engaged in an effort to help the state and the law enforcement agencies in the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of economic and high-tech crimes. These trends are worrying since the threat of white collar crimes has traversed the modern high-tech society. Historically, economic crimes costs have been rising from a paltry 5 billion dollars in 1970s, 20 billion dollars in the 80s to 100 billion in the 90s. This can lead to the argument that as technology has been growing over the years, white collar crimes have also been on the rise exponentially (Johnston, Para 4).

The incidences of white collar crimes are on the increase and this fact is worrying. Crimes that involve dishonesty are actually threatening to tear the fabrics of both the commercial and the government ethics. This in turn poses a great threat to the fundamentals of the economy. White collar crimes are rampant in the US as indicated by various court cases and reported incidences. As reported by Janice Morse, in Greater Cincinnati and Kentucky, 25 embezzlers were caught up in Butler County in cases amounting to an overwhelming 2.2 million. In Warren County, the federal officials were investigating a case in which a reported 8.7 million was missing. Another incident involved an accountant working with Pepsi Bottling Company and is reported to have embezzled well over 8.7 million over a period of ten years. There are other several cases highlighted in the two Counties involving huge sums of money in embezzlement (Morse, Para 2).

Other incidences of white collar crime have involved insurance companies in the provision of health-care. In 1997, ColumbiaHCA insurance company was placed under federal investigation regarding health-care scams leading to an 840 million Medicare fraud settlement in the year 2000. Other incidences include the 2001 case where Al Taubman, then the chairman of Sothebys auction house, was accused of a scheme to fix prices at Sothebys and Christie houses. Cigarette manufactures do find themselves entangled in white collar crimes to settle tobacco related costs in health care that are paid out by the state Medicaid agencies (Net Industries and its Licensors, Para 2).

There has been a series of court cases in the recent past regarding white collar crimes between individuals as well as organizations andor companies. A good example of cases involving companies is Hemi Group, LLC, et al. V. City Of New York, New York. In this case, New York City sued the Hemi Group for selling cigarettes on-line to the New York residents. There are no state or city laws requiring out-of-city sellers to collect andor remit the Citys tax, and therefore the City has to collect its tax from the buyers. The Jenkins Act on the other hand requires that the out-of-state sellers must provide customer information to the State into which they ship their products. The City therefore sued the Hemi Group for allegedly not honoring the Jenkins Act under the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization Act (RICO) and this amounted to mail and wire fraud according to the City. Hemi Group emerged victorious but this shows how legal battles can go regarding white collar crimes (Legal Information Institute, Para 2).

White collar crimes have been attributed to the excess trust employers have in their employees that they are left with huge financial responsibilities with little or no scrutiny. After the employees win the trust of the employers, they stand a high chance of giving in to the temptation of committing the white collar crime (Morse, Para 20). Measures to curb these type of crimes calls for cooperation between the authority and the public. Organizations should also inform the public about the fraudulent activities that criminals may use to dupe the unsuspecting victims. The effort by the Census Bureau is laudable as it warns the public about the possibility of the fraudsters purporting to be the Census officials may get personal information that can be exploited in a fraudulent manner through phishing (U.S. Census Bureau, Para 2). There should also be specialized training for the detectives in economic and computer crimes including computer forensics. The existing white collar crime legislations must be followed to the latter in an effort to curb this menace. With white collar crimes increasing at alarming rates, there is need for companies to engage the forensic experts in their daily undertakings in an effort to put check on their internal fraud control (Morrison, Para 7).

Conclusion
The white collar crimes have been found to be perpetrated with some relative ease but the punishment has been applied at a much slower rate and the punishments are not commensurate in some incidences. In order to address the issue, there is need for the authorities to change tactics and be more aggressive than they are at the moment. White collar crimes are often referred to as corporate crimes and they cut across the corporate world and the state. They range from embezzlement to unfair and deceptive business practices. These crimes may result in high costs amounting to billions if left unchecked. These costs may be spread across many uninformed victims and may take many years to unravel due to the complexities involved. It is no wonder that white collar crimes do not have similar initial public impact as the street crimes. Despite the fact that white collar crimes may pose extensive damage on the future of the public, street crimes continues to dominate precedence when it comes to rating of the two crimes.