White Collar Crimes
White collar crime is a by-product of the traumas and travails of the 20th century. It usually happens in a financial institution or any other business entity. It is usually committed and ‘executed’ by very competent officers of that business organization who may hold the key to the finances of that company. They are very knowledgeable and experts in their own field.
The advent of information technology enabled services has spun its share of white collar crimes that are carried out by computer experts capable of manipulating the computer software. So how can white collar crimes be defined? A general definition may be given as bribery in high places, financial fraud in companies, cheating, and misappropriation of company funds, and of course, forgery.
White collar crimes related to businesses that are totally computerized are usually committed with the aid of computer software experts who may be the prime perpetrator or the accomplice to the crime. The rest is done through routine paperwork. With the connivance of the computer expert, detection of such crimes becomes a Herculean task. Even routine auditing of the company’s books of accounts may not reveal the siphoning of the money. By the time the management notices something is amiss and does some serious internal snooping with expert auditing, the culprit would have made good his or her escape to enjoy a life of leisure in a far away sunny island in the Pacific.
The ordinary blue-collar criminal or the street criminal is usually a poor scoundrel or vagabond capable of committing murder, assault, vandalism, rape or just plain old burglary and theft. It may be his economic background that may have made him a victim of circumstances. They are usually ‘faceless’ people in the crowd who will have no reputation to safeguard should they be caught and punished. Poverty may be attributed to such criminal instincts.
Not so with the non-violent white collar criminals who are opportunists. They usually belong to the upper echelons of society. They usually have respectable facades, good family backgrounds and are financially sound. They may also wield some element of power to influence politicians and the like for their unjust gains. They carry on their reprehensible activities with the hope that they will never be caught. But when the law catches up with them, their stakes are very high indeed as the reputation of their entire family, innocent by-standers in the whole drama, is put on the line and even dragged to the streets. Corruption and greed in high places ruin not just the criminal but entire generations of their extended families. All for the sake of a few dollars more of tainted money that does not really buy them happiness.
White collar crimes are basically motivated by greed and greed corrupts. They commonly find themselves in situations or environments where they become custodians of large sums of money that does not belong to them. Left unmonitored they are tempted to make ‘hay while the sun shines’. These are usually educated and clever people wise enough to cover their tracks. By the time the authorities discover that something is amiss in their organization, the white collar criminals would have scooted with their booty.
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