White collar criminals can sometimes be seen to be ‘pilferers’ or ‘fiddlers’, because the crimes they commit may be something as simple as helping themselves to ‘a little something extra’ to give their pay packet a boost. Though what they take might seem to be of little consequence at the time, these ‘little misdemeanours’ certainly mount up and eventually costs companies millions every year.
It must be noted though that not all white collar crime takes place within a workplace by members of its staff, white collar crime is also carried out by people who consider themselves middle class citizens.
According to a report published by the BBC in September 2003 a survey carried discovered that “more than 60% of people surveyed in England and Wales admitted that they had exaggerated an insurance claim, paid cash to avoid tax or kept money when given too much change”, though they would never consider themselves to be criminals. According to the report this kind of forgery and fraud costs Britain £14n a year; and:
TOP WHITE COLLAR CRIMES IN ENGLAND AND WALES
- Paid cash to avoid tax 34%
- Kept extra charge 32%
- Taken item from work 18%
- Avoided paying TV licence 11%
- Wrongly used identity cards 11%
Professor Susanne Karstedt, who carried out the report for the University of Keele, noted. “These are the citizens and consumers of the middle class who would definitely think of themselves as respectable”.
Corporate Crime:
Corporate crime is committed by an organisation, and the results are usually through negligence on the part of those responsible for ensuring the well-being of staff and the public. These crimes usually amount to harm or injury and sometimes even death, due to negligence.
Organisations that ‘cut corners’ or deliberately ignore Health and Safety regulations are breaking the law and putting their employees and others at risk, every year people lose their lives or are seriously injured because of inappropriate or inadequate health and safety measures at work.
An example of such a blatant abuse of health and safety regulations can be recognised in the unfortunate death of a young man on his first day at work:
Simon Jones, inexperienced and untrained was taken into employment at Shoreham Docks, put to work unloading cargo inside a ship. Within hours of commencing work Simon was killed by the grab of a crane, which almost incapacitated him. Simon got the job through an employment agency, Personnel Selection, who should by law have checked that the job was safe for him, they didn't. Throughout the country, employment agencies make huge profits by providing cheap labour for companies who prefer employing casual labour to employing a well trained, decently paid workforce.
Euromin, the company which had taken Simon on were cleared of manslaughter charges, but found guilty on two breaches of Health and Safety regulations at The Old Bailey on 29th September 2001. More details and information relating to the Simon Jones memorial campaign can be found at:
It is possible that these companies do not deliberately ignore rules and regulations, how many of us will take short cuts to avoid walking that extra mile, or to save a few pounds? But this does not take away the fact that organisations are responsible for the health and safety of their employees whilst at work, or the public who provide the company with its form of income.
Organised Crime:
Those who deal in organised crime have a desire to gain financially; this sort of crime seems to be more economically motivated. When we think about organised crime we visualise the mafia type American gangster, and it is often seen to be glamorous and exciting.
However the reality of organised crime is that it is prevalent among large corporate businesses like banks, transportation and the construction industry, among many others. Organised crime separates itself from other types of crime because of the high level of skill that is involved in its operations, leading to the assumption that those involved in this type of crime are highly intelligent and extremely adaptable people. They manage to exploit and adapt to their financial gain. In his book, Crime and Modernity, John lea says, “organised crime is not big business, it is part of big business, the criminal economy is a complex system of trading (in a variety of commodities: drugs, arms, radioactive material, art treasure) and manufacture, mainly drugs, conducted both at global levels and at micro level within inner cities, leisure areas, and in large areas of the legal economy” (Lea: 144: 2002)
At the other end of the scale organised crime might not be so ‘big business’, on a more local level we have the drug dealers or those with habits that need ‘feeding’, of course those who sell the drugs at street level will be lining someone else’s pockets, and their profit will be fairly small (if its not feeding their own habit)
Then there are the shoplifters, there are some who take the attitude that shops make so much money they won't miss a few things here and there, but if everyone took this attitude there would be a complete breakdown in society. Whether we are involved in shoplifting or not, we all pay the price when it goes on, shops close down which results in people losing their jobs, or they put up their prices to try and recover the cost of the stolen items.
HOW DOES THE LAW RESPOND TO THESE CRIMES?
There is a misconception about white-collar and corporate crime. Many people believe that these crimes are less serious than other forms of crime, such as violent crimes. However, this is far from the truth. White-collar and corporate crimes are just as serious as other forms of crime, if not more so, and the effect they have on society is often devastating.
However white collar crime often goes un-detected and therefore un-punished, when a criminal is caught out because of the nature of the crimes many companies will not or do not involve any outside legal bodies. Generally a large company will deal with these kinds of incidents by dismissing a perpetrator and declaring them unfit to be employed; sometimes reprisals consist of paying back what has been stolen.
Obviously not all white collar crime goes un-punished, as in the case of Nick Leeson, however this was at great cost to many people.
Corporate companies who do not abide by the proper rules of Health and Safety do risk prosecution, however if somebody is seriously injured or killed at work, then liability becomes very hazy, David Bergman has long been active as a researcher in the field of corporate crime through his work with the Workers' Educational Association and the London Hazards Centre.
“A rallying call for sceptics of general corporate criminal liability is the regulatory regime provided by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Responsibility for investigation and prosecution for breaches of the Act lie with the Health and Safety Executive, whose main responsibility is to advise employers on safe working practices, to inspect workplaces and negotiate compliance with the relevant health and safety standards”. (Bergman: 1991)
In his paper Bergman identified the justifiability paradox: deaths and injuries in the work place merit state investigation as infractions of the Act, but they do not involve 'real' crimes.
According to a report published by the Home Office in May 2003"There is great public concern at the criminal law’s lack of success in convicting companies of manslaughter where a death has occurred due to gross negligence by the organisation as a whole.
"The law needs to be clear and effective in order to secure public confidence and must bite properly on large corporations whose failure to set or maintain standards causes a death. It is not targeted at conscientious companies that take their health and safety responsibilities seriously." (Home Office web site)
Organised criminals do not confine themselves to national boundaries and the law have to become increasingly global in their outlook. They also need to be able to work in co-operation with organised crime groups at the root of much criminal activity, such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, counterfeiting and money laundering. These types of criminals are much harder to trace due to the amount of secrecy and size of these networks.
Once again at the other end of the crime scale, prisons are full of those who commit acts of shoplifting and sell drugs on a small scale. We open the papers regularly to read about acts of this kind, and the public want to see retribution, the police are seen to be ‘doing their job’, well in retrospect they are, we all pay the price for shoplifters and credit card fraudsters.
Shops and businesses need to look at ways of improving security further; more vigilance is required to prevent price rises and job losses. Staff need to be trained to understand the impact of shoplifting with a view to preventative measures. Design and layout of shops and businesses are of major importance to reducing crime, electronic tagging is a useful deterrent.
With training and support from agencies such as the Chamber of Commerce we could reduce the number of work related crimes and improve public perception on crime and business.
References and Bibliography
Nick Leeson and Barings Bank…
Bergman, D (1991) Deaths at Work: Accidents or Corporate Crime? (London:WEA)
Box, S. (1995) Power, Crime and Mystification: London: Routledge Publishers