White Collar Crime

A phrase connoting a variety of frauds, schemes, corruptions, and commercial offenses committed by business persons, con artists, and public officials. The term was originally intended as a classification of offenders but has expanded to include a broad range of non-violent offenses that have cheating and dishonesty as their central element. Consumer fraud, bribery, and stock manipulation are examples of white-collar crime.

Traditionally, white-collar criminals were prosecuted sporadically, if at all, and were rarely subjected to jail sentences or any meaningful sanctions. A major obstacle to effective prosecution is said to be the complexity of the crimes. Enormous expenditures to prepare and try the cases are required. 11 Amer. Crim. L. Rev. 959, 960. Recently, however, due to the public's awareness of the huge social and economic cost of corruption in business and government, law enforcement agencies have made the prosecution of sophisticated white-collar crimes a top priority. Mann, Defending White-Collar Crime, 19-21 (1985).

Report White Collar Crime To FBI Washington DC