White Collar Crime On Both Low And High Status

Introduction

Karl Marx and Friedrichs defined white collar criminals as powerful and privileged. They saw crimes as a result of capitalism and status. White collar crime has been defined by Sutherland as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”. Helkemp, Bell, and Townsend mention that white collar crime involves an individual that is at a respectable position and thus the public puts a certain amount of trust in the individual. When the individual betrays the trust, it is classified as white collar crime. There is emphasis placed on the idea that white collar crime only involved individuals in respectable positions who have high social status. Defining white collar crime shouldn’t be limited to high status individuals because those with a lower status can commit the same crimes and put a company at a loss. Small businesses commit crimes that are similar if not the same as high status corporations. Issues like illegal pricing and economic exploitation are found in both. The consumer ends up at a loss when a white collar crime is committed regardless of the status of the individual who committed the crime. Product substitution and product mislabelling are also severe issues that are found in both, small businesses and large corporations. When a consumer, be it a patient, a buyer etc. , the consumer puts a certain level of trust into the corporation or individual that is providing them with a product or service. When there is a breach of trust, the consumer ends up harmed. Regardless of whether a corporate executive or a lower-status employee committed the crime, the consumer put a certain level of trust into the individual and the trust was broken. High status executives and an average store owner both have an ability to commit similar crimes. White collar crime can be found in small business settings in the form of falsified records and similarly, falsified records can be found in large corporations as well. White collar crime should not refer only to acts committed by higher status individuals and institutions because a focus should be placed on the victim of the crimes, the status of an individual doesn’t affect their ability to commit similar crimes and there is a breach of trust regardless of the status of the offender.

Crimes At Different Status Levels

I believe that white collar crime shouldn’t be limited to high status individuals because there are small businesses that have crimes that are similar to those of corporations. There is a pursuit of profit in all white collar crimes. There is illegal pricing in both corporate crime and occupational crime involving small businesses. There is employee exploitation found in both occupational and corporate crime. In a large corporation, a worker can be a victim of contract fraud. If it is possible to corrupt a few employees in a corporation, the effects will, in fact, be smaller than they would be if the same was done in a small business. The small business would suffer a greater loss. The small business is obviously small and thus they will have fewer employees and in turn be at a loss. This goes to show that crimes committed in small businesses and corporations both have harmful effects.

Impact on Victims of White Collar Crime

When a large corporation commits a crime, the public, the consumer and the worker are affected. The same can be said for small businesses. The victims of white collar crime are suffering similarly in crimes committed by low status individuals as well as high status individuals. Product substitution is a big common factor between both statuses. If a consumer is buying a certain product and ends up receiving something completely different that is posed as the original product, this is a crime. Similarly, product labelling is also a great issue. A company may label a certain item as something that it isn’t in order to attract consumers. When a consumer purchases a product from a company there is a certain level of trust. When Sutherland defined white collar crime, it was mentioned that the individuals who commit these crimes are in positions where the public has a certain level of trust in them and whether this be a small business or large corporation, there is still a certain level of trust that the buyer puts into the seller. For example, if a small business sells a chocolate or granola bar and claims it does not contain milk or nuts and the consumer is allergic to either of those, the level of trust between the store clerk and customer is broken.

Some may argue that a large corporation breaking the trust of their consumers can result in more harmful effects. Something that seems small like the granola bar can have dangerous effects, even death. A restaurant owner, Mohammed Zaman claimed that a dish was peanut free. The customer visiting his restaurant was extremely allergic to peanuts. Zaman had replaced almond powder with peanut powder which is much cheaper. This lead to the customer dying after eating the dish. Mohammed Zaman was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. This goes to show how a small crime such as switching nut powders can have severe consequences when the product is said to be something completely different. No matter how large or small the restaurant may be, the focus is that the customer died after eating a supposedly peanut free dish and the customer was misled. The consumer was the victim in this situation. The status of the person whom committed the crime should not matter. What should be the focus is who the crime affected. If a large corporation had committed a similar crime, they should both fall into white collar crime. An example of when a large corporation committed a similar crime was the Aossey case.

Two brothers, Jalel and Yahya Aossey and their father, Bill Aossey were under investigation for their companies, Midamar Corporation and Islamic Services of America. Midamar claimed to produce halal meat. Meat is considered halal if it’s prepared according to the standards set in Islamic law. Islamic Services of America stated whether a product is halal or not. Yahya was the president of the Islamic Services of America and William Bill Aossey was the president of Midamar. The Islamic Services of America claimed that Midamar produced halal meat that met the standards set out in Islamic Law. The meat was allegedly not halal. False paperwork was used to claim that the meat was slaughtered at a halal warehouse when it was prepared in a different warehouse. Bill Aossey was tried in court first out of the family. He was found guilty of 15 of the 19 charges that he was accused of. Jalel and Yahya Aossey were tried later. This case goes to show that even though the size of a company may be larger, the crimes committed harmed the consumer. In the case of the restaurant owner, the customer who ate the dish lost his life and in this case, the customers that may have bought the meat will feel betrayed. The trust that was put in the restaurant owner and the halal meat company was broken and customers suffered in the end.

The Significance of the Offender’s Status

When a crime is committed against the average consumer, the status of the individual committing the crime should not matter because either way, a similar crime has been committed. Medical or legal professionals have a certain level of status. A doctor that owned a small clinic should be tried for white collar crime if he or she is misleading the consumer. A pharmacist named Robert Courtney was accused of watering down a drug called Gemzar. Gemzar is used for treating chemotherapy patients. Eli Lilly is the company that makes Gemzar. The company noticed that the amount of medicine ordered by the Research Medical Tower Pharmacy was significantly different from the amount that was sold to a doctor. The investigators used a sting to find out that a bag that was supposed to contain 300 mg of Taxol only had 83 mg. Also, a bag that was supposed to have 2400 mg had no Gemzar in it. Robert Courtney was charged. This case goes to show that misleading a customer in order to save a few dollars can have life threatening results. Patients that needed the medicine to continue living didn’t receive the doses they needed. This can have various harmful effects and even lead to death. Yet again, with this example, we see that the plight of the consumer should be the focus when assessing whether a crime can be considered a white collar crime. The consumer was the one that was harmed at the end of the day, regardless of Robert Courtney’s social status. The doctor is at a position where the patient puts a large amount of trust in them and if this trust is broken, the status of the doctor shouldn’t matter because there has been a breakage of trust. The patients put a great deal of trust in Robert Courtney and everyone along the way when the medicine is being processed and one crime along the way will have an extremely harmful effect on the patient.

Access to Opportunity

Some may say that high status executives have higher access to opportunities and thus have a higher ability to commit heinous crimes. It is true that they have an opportunity but an average store owner has access to commit such crimes too. As mentioned previously, the doctor or the lady working at the prescription counter has the ability to water down medicine and this puts a patient’s life in their hands. Those in a lower position or those of lower status have access to opportunity, the kind of access is what’s different.

Impact on the Business

One may assume that if a crime is committed by a high-status individual, it will result in a greater financial loss. If the same crime was committed by an average employee that is working for a small business, the financial loss will be much lower. As much as this is true, the lower level employee will still gain a certain amount of money. The issue at hand is whether white collar crime should only refer to high status individuals. The amount of money the offender gains depends on the company or the post the individual is at. Either way, the crime is the same. Both individuals have put their company at a loss. There was a certain level of trust put into those individuals and when those individuals commit a crime, they not only put their company at a financial loss, but they also betray the trust that a consumer puts in them. As is shown in the various white collar crime theories, there is a victim in every one of the situations. Either the large corporation or an individual is at a loss. The motive behind white collar crime, as stated by Sutherland is to benefit either oneself or a company or organization. When a small convenience store owner commits such a crime, the buyer is at a loss. When a large corporation makes a misleading product, the buyer is at a loss. In both scenarios, the buyer is suffering and thus, white collar crime shouldn’t be limited to high status individuals because if the same crimes are committed by lower status individuals the victims are usually still the consumers that purchase the products.

Falsified Information in Businesses

White collar crime can be found in small business settings. One such example is keeping a falsified record book. This occurs when “figures or receipts are altered in order to create a false impression that the business is more profitable than it really is”. This creates a false impression of the business’s status in the eyes of the government and possibly the consumer. Similar incidents can occur in large corporations. A large company can commit account fraud. This is the “intentional manipulation of financial statements to create a facade of a company's financial health”. This makes the company seem like its doing extremely well when it maybe isn’t doing too well. This creates a false impression in the eyes of the government and investors or shareholders. A well-known case in which a company has falsified records to make the company appear as if its doing better than it actually was is the WorldCom scandal. The CEO of the company was named Bernard Ebbers and he used certain tactics to make potential investors think the company was flourishing. The total came to around $3. 8 billion and the company ended up going bankrupt and Ebbers was later imprisoned for 25 years.

Conclusion

White collar crime has been defined as crime that only involves individuals of high status but when one delves deeper into the similarities between crimes committed by lower status individuals. Small businesses can commit similar crimes to those who work for large corporations. Either way, the company will be at a loss. Illegal pricing and economic exploitation are found in both small businesses as well as large corporations. The consumer purchases a product or service and expects to get what they paid for and when this doesn’t happen, the consumer is the one who ends up at a loss. Product substitution and product mislabelling involve tricking the consumer into thinking that they are getting what they paid for, when in fact there have been techniques used to save money. These issues are found in both small businesses and large corporations. When a consumer buys a certain product or goes to receive a certain service, the consumer trusts the individual providing the service. When the one proving the service uses money saving tactics and betrays the consumer. The level of trust is shattered. High status executives and an average store owner both have the ability to commit similar crimes which will have similar results. Falsified records can be used to show the government or the potential consumers that the company is doing better than it actually is in reality. This is something that is found in both small businesses and large corporations. The victim is the one who ends up suffering at the end when these crimes are committed, if a greater emphasis was placed on the victim rather than the status of an individual, one should discover that there isn’t a huge difference between the crimes committed by lower status individuals and high status individuals. The status of an individuals doesn’t determine their ability to commit a crime. An individual with a lower status can put their company at a financial loss just as much a higher status individual can. When white collar crime has been defined in the past, an emphasis has been placed on the fact that a high status individual is at a respectable position and thus there’s a certain level of trust between the individual and the people the individual is proving goods or services to. A lower status individual, such as a convenience store owner is providing a service as well. There is a level of trust between an individual who visits the convenience store and the store owner. Both the high status executive and the store owner have the ability to breach the level of trust that is between the consumer and themselves. White collar crime has been defined loads of different ways but the term ‘status’ has been mentioned multiple times, status doesn’t affect an individual’s ability to commit a crime and the ability to cause a consumer harm.