White Collar Crimes 4 page paper only

Dr. Clinton Miller

CRJ 105

Spring Quarter

August 4, 2015

Annotated Bibliography

Friedrichs, D. (2009). Trusted criminals: White collar crime in contemporary society. Cengage Learning.

Friedrichs, a professor in sociology and criminal justice in this book provides detailed information about the challenges facing white collar crimes eradication. He explains that these crimes are committed by highly respected and trusted people who hold very sensitive positions in organizations that people are less suspicious about. Many reasons make this book relevant to the topic of research. The fact that these people are exposed to large sums of money and opportunities tempts them to such crimes. These crimes are not easy to find out about unless someone is being tracked. The complexities of these crimes make them hard to follow.

He further explains that since new versions of white collar crimes keep arising, compacting white collar crimes in the society will always pose a challenge. Such developments in white collar crimes ranging from insurance loans, mortgage loans, illegal pharmaceutical activities and different kinds of frauds will always evolve and get people unawares.

According to him, the rise in technology has contributed a lot to the new trends of white collar crimes. In methods of controlling such crimes, he advocates for initiative against crimes, shifts from the soft sentences in prosecuting white collar crimes to harder sentences that can deter potential offenders and a lot of surveys in the changing crime trends in order to improve regulation practices.

Benson, M. L., Madensen, T. D., & Eck, J. E. (2009). White-collar crime from an opportunity perspective (pp. 175-193). Springer New York.

This is a paper that acknowledges the devastating effect of white color crimes and in response tries to find out solutions to such crimes. This makes the paper relevant to the topic of study. Firstly, in developing superior ways of crime control, the opportunity structures associated with crime which allow crime to take place must be identified. Madensen proposes three theories of crime namely the crime pattern theory, routine activity theory and situational crime prevention theory which could be used to unveil specific white collar crimes and opportunity settings surrounding them. He argues that the control of white collar crimes lies best upon knowing the process through which such crimes are committed and not just knowing the reason. For any given crime, there are conditions which must be available for the crime to occur, which vary from one crime to the other and knowing these would provide a better position in fight against white collar crimes.

Braithwaite, J. (1982). Challenging just deserts: Punishing white-collar criminals. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 723-763.

Doctor Braithwaite John criticizes the sentencing and punishing of white collar criminals in the USA by claiming that there is no efficiency in deterring the occurrence of such crimes from the way they have been punished. He argues that the magnitude of the suffering of such offenders should be comparable to the crime and should not be assessed on the grounds of the public image of their threat in the community. According to him, just deserts have made attaining white collar crime enforcement impossible. Journal articulates for better policies of crime control other than just deserts in order to achieve justice for both the powerful and less powerful and deterrence to crime. This makes the journal relevant to the research topic.

Croall, H. (2001). Understanding white collar crime. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Croall Hazel recalls that fraud activities in the government or corporations endangers the safety of the society at large which has a lot to do with the public health and surrounding environment. Such activities like fraud of government resources like tax lower the resources available for offering services to the public. This article defines white collar crime and criticizes the way it is treated by criminal justice agencies in a softer manner which has led to its rise in popularity. The article is relevant to the research topic as it gives reasons that explain the rise of white collar crime. The development of finance and commercial activities are reasons to the availability of many opportunities for fraud.

Ogren, R. W. (1972). Ineffectiveness of the Criminal Sanction in Fraud and Corruption Cases: Losing the Battle against White-Collar Crime, The. Am. Crim. L. Rev., 11, 959.

In his journal, Ogren argues that white collar crimes committed by businessmen, public figures and con men do not receive any serious attention when it comes to investigations, conviction and sentencing as it deserves. He claims that dealing with such crimes at the current situation cannot eradicate white collar crimes. He suggests the revision of white collar crime statutes to include very heavy fines and longer periods of sentencing in order to deter future crime. The journal proposes proper training and education for prosecutors and investigators in order to be effective and efficient in their roles of fighting against economic crimes. Ogren also proposes undercover investigations when dealing with some special types of target crimes. He notes the sentencing disparity between white collar crimes and other violent crimes yet white collar crimes may have six times as much effect on individuals as violent crimes yet there is little attention. According to him, investigations and resources for carrying out prosecutions should be proportional to the crime in hand.

Podgor, E. S. (2007). The challenge of white collar sentencing. The Journal of criminal law and criminology, 731-759.

This journal by Podgor examines the major challenge that has faced white collar sentencing which has encouraged the rise of white color crimes. This makes the journal relevant to the topic of research. According to him the sentencing is so soft such that it cannot deter such crimes form being committed by offenders in future. In his explanation, the fact that the offenders do not pose any physical threat makes the punishment less yet such economic crimes they commit have really caused harm to individuals. He proposes that the US sentencing commission should apply social needs in sentencing since white color crimes has some social roots. In questioning draconian sentencing, he does not see the sense in being cruel to people who have committed lesser crimes and leaving fraudsters to walk free by fining them money which they can afford and letting them hire the best lawyers to set them free. He argues that neutral sentencing should consider the social classes of offenders and the differences present between offenders.