Although white-collar crimes are different from traditional street crimes like theft or drug dealing, they are still just as severe and as devastating for society. Moreover, there are times when white-collar crimes can be more damaging to society than regular crimes. But what exactly is a white-collar crime, you might be wondering, and how do these crimes affect today’s society? If you want to find out more about this subject, then keep on reading this article.
What Are White-Collar Crimes?
As you have probably guessed by the name, white-collar crime is a crime committed by a person working in a respectable field and who has a respectable position within a company. The name is a reference to the suits with the white shirts that people working in the business industry, for example, would wear while at work.
Nowadays, the term is used to refer to a broad spectrum of people who commit these crimes for financial reasons. The crimes are not thought of as being violent. They are, in most cases, like you have just seen, committed by people working in professional positions, as well as business people or government officials.
Examples of White-Collar Crimes
These white-collar crimes, while not violent, are still just as severe and devastating as street crimes. Most of them are very complex, well-schemed, and require very skilled people. Nowadays, white-collar crimes are associated with technology and one’s familiarity with it, literacy rates, and information.
It is thought that the more technology will develop, the bigger, the more complex, and the more frequent these crimes become. One of the categories that might be affected is the older generation which has little knowledge about today’s technology.
Some of the most common types of white-collar crimes are insurance fraud (medical insurance, property insurance, or car insurance), trading and stock manipulation, mail, wire, and other such computer frauds. Next to those, charges like bribery, identity theft, embezzlement, or tax evasion always accompany white-collar crimes.
How White-Collar Crimes Affect the Society?
Last, but certainly not the least, you will have a look at how these white-collar crimes are affecting society. Throughout time, many people have argued about how these white-collar crimes should be punished. And although they are not violent, they can destroy someone’s life more irremediably than a gunshot wound would.
Many people who have been affected by these white-collar crimes have ended up losing all their life savings, which has led to ruining their families and ultimately pushing them to commit suicide. In other cases, when the network is bigger, more people can be affected by the pyramidal scheme, and even companies can end up going bankrupt as a result of these multi-million dollar white-collar crimes.
In conclusion, while white-collar crimes are indeed less violent, they are still very dangerous and threatening the well-being of many people and companies within a society. Because of that, it is better to have a white-collar crimes attorney deal with these accusations.
