White-collar crime is among the subtlest, most non-evident, and most impactful types of crime, which affects the population on a scale of millions. An observant person might notice that this type of behavior is prominent in both governmental and corporate structures. It is also important to note that the cases, which become unveiled publicly, do not result in a similar degree of outrage as physical and violent crimes. In other words, the public’s reaction is not guided by the impact of the crime but by the visceral response to imagery. In addition, there is a certain degree of power imbalance, which makes it more difficult to prevent white-collar crime.
Although people are more eager to be outraged and displeased by violent physical manifestations of crime, the general devastative impact of white-collar crime is far more massive. The term was coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 in order to describe the type of crime committed by a person of high social status and respectable position (InsideOut TV, 2013). It is important to be able to compare the sheer scale of the property loss in the case of white-collar crimes, where they can reach several billion. It can even affect a wide range of areas of society, where science becomes manipulated, people’s rights are suppressed, and governmental structures are corrupted and colluded, such as in the case of Monsanto (Robin, 2008). Society gets affected by people being caught in fraud, where they lose their possessions to unfair practices, such as insider trading (Berger, 2011). The devastative effect can be more significant, where public health is threatened due to unethical practices of GMO usage without proper testing and verification (Robin, 2008). Some manifestations of a white-collar crime can result in support for evil regimes and genocide, such as the case of IBM’s cooperation with Nazi Germany and its involvement in the promotion of the Holocaust (Achbar & Abbott, 2003). In other words, the general impact of such actions can be both massive and detrimental to the lives of millions of people leading to pain and suffering on a national and even global scale.
In order to properly address the issue and solve the problem of white-collar crime, it is important to understand the key driving forces. It is stated that one of the most traditional ways of treating any form of crime is to de-incentivize it through more severe punishment (TheACFE, 2019). However, post-2008 penalty changes, which led to reduced sentences for white-collar criminals, do not improve the current state of the issue (TheACFE, 2019). The core of the issue of this type of crime is the fact that it has high-reward and low-risk properties, whereas violent or physical crimes usually have low-reward and high-risk characteristics (TheACFE, 2019). Therefore, there is a significantly larger incentive to commit white-collar crimes, which needs to be altered by increasing the risk partly through more severe sentencing.
Another key approach toward preventing white-collar crime is making the general public, which is always the main victim, more eager to condemn and fight back. The given condition can be achieved through proper education, which cannot be delivered at the current moment. The main reason is that the members of the powerful elite are not interested in highly educated people, and education itself needs to be limited to keep producing obedient workers (EdBlackmail, 2008). In other words, a correctly designed education, which does not represent the interests of a certain group of people but rather the society as a whole, will prevent the occurrence rate of white-collar crime. It will be driven by the fact that people will be more eager to whistleblowing, and the organizations will experience more outrage and public flashbacks (Berger, 2011). In addition, society will be more aware of the instances of white-collar crime, which will be accompanied by a more severe condemnation in the form of voting appropriate public officials and holding them accountable.
Whistleblowing can be another key solution to both prevent and unveil white-collar crimes. Although regulatory and legislative measures can be effective at making such a crime a riskier endeavor, it is whistleblowing that refocuses the attention on a particular suspect. It is important to encourage whistleblowing and make it safer for a person doing it because it can be considered the only effective solution to address the problem (Berger, 2011). In order to achieve such a public attitude, it is critical for citizens to become conscientiously minded because the effect of white-collar crimes is more mass-scale and impactful than violent crimes (Berger, 2011). It is important to note that the given approach is tightly associated with education, which needs future workers and citizens aware that they have the power to overturn the white-collar crimes’ “success.” The mere change in the tendency of people to adhere to whistleblowing will make corporations reluctant to commit such crimes. In addition, one should be aware that these massive frauds or financial manipulations cannot be performed by a single individual, which is why it always requires a collective engagement in order to make a white-collar crime plausible. Therefore, a society, which is prepared for whistleblowing on any form of white-collar crime, will make the people in positions of power to be less likely to consider such an action.
The final solution is more conceptual and relies on redefining the term of the corporation itself. It is evident that corporations, as legal entities, enjoy the same rights as a regular individual citizen does, which is questionable at best. The problem lies in the fact that if one analyzes the exhibited behavior of corporations as a person, they can be categorized as psychopaths (Achbar & Abbott, 2003). In other words, they are highly antisocial with no respect for social rules and laws, incapable of experiencing guilt and being compassionate, lack empathy, and have a reckless disregard for others’ wellbeing and safety (Achbar & Abbott, 2003). Therefore, the proposition revolves around limiting or even eliminating the rights of corporations as legal entities by stopping equating them to regular citizens. They should not have a similar level of political influence as citizens can have because there are evident limitations to a person’s capability. A corporation is equated to a person, but the former’s performance and actions are conducted by a large number of individuals.
In conclusion, the potential criminal impact of a corporation is more massive than a human. For example, a corporation should not be able to donate to political leaders as individual citizens can because it can be considered a legal form of bribery and influence on politics. The system should be altered in such a way that governmental and corporate entities are unable to interact by allowing the latter to influence the former, especially monetarily.
References
Achbar, M., & Abbott, J. (2003). The corporation [Film]. Big Picture Media Corporation.
Berger, R. J. (2011). White-collar crime: The abuse of corporate and government power. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
EdBlackmail. (2008). George Carlin on who owns America [Video]. Web.
InsideOut TV. (20131). The business of white-collar crime [Video]. Web.
Robin, M. M. (2008). The world according to Monsanto [Film]. Image et Compagnie.
TheACFE. (2019). How white-collar criminals differ from other criminals [Video]. Web.