White Collar Crime

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The concept of White collar crime’ was introduced for the first time in the field of criminology by Prof. Edwin Sutherland in 1941. He defined white collar crime as “crime committed by persons of respectability and high social status in course of their occupation”. Thus misrepresentation thought fraudulent advertisements, infringement of patents, copy-rights and trade-marks, etc. are frequently resorted to by manufactures, industrialists and other persons of repute in course of their business with a view to team huge profits. Other illustrations of white collar criminality include publication of falsified balance sheets of business. Passing of goods, concealment of defects in the commodity for sale etc. These white collar crimes by nature are such that the injury or the damage caused as a result of them is so widely diffused in the large body of citizens that their gravity as regards individual victim is almost negligible.White collar criminality has a closer affinity with the attitudes and values of culture in a particular society. This is evident from the fact that white collar criminals are intelligent, stable, and successful and men of high social status as compared to the ordinary criminals. They are farsighted persons belonging to the prestige group of society. The white collar crimes which are committed in business-world are indirect, anonymous, impersonal and difficult to detect.As against this, ordinary criminals commit crimes which are direct and involve physical action like beating, removal of property of use of force, etc.These may also be called ‘blue collar crime’ and are more common with the under-privileged class while the white collar crimes are committed by the members of privileged group who belong to upper strata of society.Prof. Sutherland, however, suggests that class position by itself is no determinant of the white collar or blue collar
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