Sociology

White collar crimes are in a category of criminal offenses that usually occur in businesses or corporations. They include insider trading, antitrust violations, computer fraud, securities fraud and money laundering (Larson, 2000 para.1). White collar crimes are non-violent in nature and normally involve some form of fraud or dishonesty. These crimes as Larson States are committed through apparently legitimate businesses (2000, para.1). Sometimes, the principals of the business are involved in the crime and on other occasions the crime is committed by an individual or employee within the business without the knowledge of others.

Apart from the criminal or the perpetrator, the first entity to become aware of the crime is the corporate which employs the criminal. This is because the corporate employer is the victim of the crime. When an employer becomes aware of the fraud, his priorities will be mostly to achieve compensation of the missing funds and termination of the perpetrators employment. Reporting the crime to the police or any other suitable authority is not necessarily the highest of the employers priorities. An employer may prefer dealing with the matter in-house without involving the police or any other authorities which is dangerous since failure to report the crime may itself constitute to an offense.

This essay looks into a number of reasons why these crimes go unreported or why they are under reported to the respective authorities. Buchanan (2008) identifies bargaining chip as one of the reasons why a corporate or a business organization may not report a white collar crime. In this case, he notes that an employer may just want the reimbursement and termination of the perpetrators employment. As Buchanan puts it, white collar crime may generate additional leverage in the settlement negotiations and may cause the employer to lose more than he or she has already lost as a result of the fraud.

According to Buchanan, a corporation may want to avoid damaging its reputation since white-collar crime is a very serious matter with the potential to bring negative publicity (2008). On the other hand, customers and shareholders may lose confidence in the corporation if it becomes widely known that a criminal activity has occurred within the organization. The management may feel vulnerable to personal criticism because its internal mechanism has failed to prevent fraud.

Another reason that Buchanan points out is that the management may have some reservations as to whether the offense will be able to be proved or whether it is serious enough to warrant the participation of the police (2008). The corporation may fear that once it reports the crime to the police its management loses control of what happens next. This makes the corporation reluctant to allocate time and resources to assist the police with any inquiries. Consequently, this might end up making it difficult for the police to continue with investigations.

It is important for an organization not to trivialize the conduct of any employee since where a white collar crime is committed the organization is the victim and it may end up losing money and time. Such an organization may also end up losing customers since they might no longer trust the employees of that particular organization. In spite of that, the reputation of the company is completely destroyed taking the management to task trying to rebuild it.

Nonetheless, it is prudent to report all forms of a white collar crime since it is a law requirement. According to Buchanan (2008), a person who fails to report an offence that is indictable is liable to imprisonment for a period of two (2) years. It is worthwhile to note that an employer has not option of whether to report or not to report an employees conduct especially if the conduct can cause the employee to be indicted.