CHAPTER –II

WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

White Collar Crimes:–
For a warrior, nothing is higher than against evil. The Warrior
confronted with such a war should be pleased. Arjuna, for it comes as an open gate
to heaven. But if you do not participate in this battle against evil, you will incur sin,
violating your Dharma & Your Honour.1
Necessity is not always the motive behind the commission of a crime.
This ideal evolved with the criminologist and sociologist Edwin H. Sutherland, in
the year 1939, who popularized the term ‘White collar Crime’ by defining such
a crime as one ‘committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the
course of his occupation’. Sutherland also included crime committed by
corporations and other legal entities within his definition.
Sutherland’s study of White Collar Crime was prompted by the view
that criminology had incorrectly focused on social and economic determinants of
crime, such as family background and level of wealth. Sutherland was of a view
that crime is committed at every level of society and by person of widely
divergent socio-economic backgrounds. In particular, according to Sutherland,
crime is often committed by persons operating through large and powerful
organizations. White Collar Crime, as Sutherland concluded, has a greatly
underestimated impact upon our society.
It is true to the common knowledge that there are certain professions which
offer lucrative opportunities for criminal acts and unethical practices which is
very often overlooked by the general mass of the society. There have been crooks
and unethical persons in business, various other professions, who tend to
become unscrupulous because of no reason apart from the thirst of gaining more
and more for themselves. These deviants have least regard for ethical and moral
human values. Therefore, they carry on their illegal activities with impunity
without the fear of loss of respect and prestige. These crimes are of the nature
of ‘White Collar Crimes’ which is essential outcome of the development of the
competent economy of the twenty-first century. Talking about the prevalence of
White Collar Crimes in India, they are spreading like a rapid fire in every
sphere of society. Though corruption, one of the species of White Collar Crimes,
has been the most talked about issue in all spheres – social economic and
political, not much has stringent actions had been taken to curb these menace. 2.
1
2.1 Meaning and Definition of White Collar Crime:–
White Collar Crime is difficult to define because it can be committed by
anyone with money and apply to many different activities. White Collar Crime
is illegal activity carried on within normally legal business transactions. For
example, White Collar Crime comes from within legal businesses such as
banking stock trading or insurance claims White Collar Crime is also
nonviolent.
“White collar violations are those violations of law to which penalties
are attached that involve the use of significant power, influence or trust in the
legitimate economic or political institutional order for the purpose of illegal gain
or to commit an illegal act for personal or organizational gain”.—Albert Reiss
and Albert Biderman...
As Prof. Hugh Barlow on White-Collar crime was of the opinion that White
Collar crime is not only committed by the people of high social status in their
occupational capacity but also is committed by the people of lower strata.
Thereafter Sutherland’s definition of White Collar crime faced a lot of
criticisms as many Criminologists were of the opinion that Sutherland himself
creates lots of confusion regarding the concept of White Collar Crime.
Sometimes he stressed crimes committed by individuals of high status, while at
other times he stressed crimes carried out in the course of one’s occupation. He
used various definitions and among them most frequently cited definition gained
the importance of Occupational status as an important tool for the White Collar
criminals.
The main motives behind these White Collar Crimes are personal gain. Individuals
or groups may use and abuse their positions within a company to hide of steal
money. White Collar Crime can be committed by one individual or it can
involve a number of individuals in a large corporation who deceive investors.
i) The term “White Collar Crime” describes non-violent criminal activity in
the commercial or business realm, usually committed for financial gain.
Examples of White Collar Crime include embezzlement, securities fraud tax
evasion, and money laundering. White Collar offences can be committed by
individuals or corporations and criminal statutes governing White Collar Crime
are found at both the state and Federal level.3
As has been mentioned earlier. Sutherland defined White Collar Crime
as “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the
2
course of his occupation”. A white collar criminal therefore is a socially and
economically

3
sound person who violates the criminal laws in due course of his performing
professional qualities. Misrepresentation through fraudulent advertisements,
infringement of trademark copyright by the industrialist, hoarding, black –
marketing, food adulteration etc. are considered to be some of the instances of
White Collar Crimes. However, the definition given by Sutherland is
considered to be wide and imprecise and therefore it is subjected to vehement
criticism in all quarters. It is wide in the sense that he did not define since he does
not specifically mentions what he means by a person of respectability, nor does
he describes the scope and ambit of the term ‘occupation’. Coleman and
Maynihan4 pointed out that the lack of definite criteria for determining who are
the ‘persons of respectability and status’ has made Sutherland’s definition of
crime the most controversial.
The term ‘high social status’ as used in the definition also leads to
discrepancy, since the term is a relative one and therefore not specific. As
mentioned earlier, the ‘occupation’ term used in his definition leads to ambiguity
as he does not categorize what occupation should come within its ambit.
Another criticism put against Sutherland’s definition is that White Collar
Crimes, in the general sense of term, also includes those violations which are
not committed in the course of occupation or profession and at the same time,
white collar crimes are not strictly committed by the members of the higher
socio-economic strata. For e.g. the White Collar Crime of tax-evasion is not
only committed only by persons belonging to the higher strata but also committed
by persons belonging to middle or even lower strata of the society.
However, it was not only Sutherland, but many others who preferred to
define White Collar Crimes on the status basis. Hartung5 defines a White
Collar offence as a violation of law regulating business, which is committed for
a firm by the firm or its agents in the conduct of its business. Cressey5 seems
implicitly to be using a wider concept broad enough to include also embezzlement.
Moreover there are some who argue that differentials of power and influence
are the keys to identify, satisfactorily frame, and unravel fundamental questions
about crime and crime control. For example, investigations of sexual harassment
have shown there the offender has always been of a superior status than that of
victim. Therefore the principle reason propounded behind the commission of
White Collar Crimes through light on the diverse criminal behaviour
generally. The status based
4
definition of White Collar Crime draws on and reaffirms criminological ties to
macro level analysis of social and political processes.
However, there are others who refuse to give much emphasis on offender’s
social position and repute as the only basis of classifying White Collar Crimes.
They advocate that collaring should be done not of the criminals but of the
crimes. The concept of abuse of trust, for example, can be considered to be a White
Collar Crime. Abuse of trust means exploitation of fiduciary position of the
agents responsible for the safe custody discretion, information or for property
rights. Here since the trust crime is being committed by citizens wearing both blue
collars and white collars. Similar instance can be done as that of adulteration of
food, where this type of offence is committed not only by the upper class
people but also by middle class businessmen involved in the food business.
Therefore we should not always peep into the offender’s wardrobe and his
official position but consider the modus operandi of his misdeeds and the way
he exploit. Whatever the merits of the position, they hold strong that in White
Collar Crimes the offenders are not always powerful and the victims are
ordinary citizens.
Therefore, Sutherland’s restriction of White Collar Crime to acts committed
by men/ women in the course of their operation, excludes extra vocational
crime whereas some other view refused to restrict themselves within the
circumference of the elite class and tried go deep into it. However, whatever
definitions have been offered, it failed to acquire general acceptance as it did
not seem to be adequate. Despite of its fundamental awkwardness, the term
‘White Collar Crime’ has now been deeply embedded within our legal, moral,
and social science vocabularies. The term persists and proliferates not so much
in spite of its back of definition precision, but because of it speakers attribute to
those meanings that correspond to their own particulars analytical or
ideological concerns.
Not surprisingly, this is the approach taken by various lawyers and
enforcement officials interested in formulating a standard definition of White
Collar Crime. For example, in 1970 U.S. Departments of Justice official
Herbert Edlehertz described White Collar Crime as ‘an illegal act or series of
illegal acts committed by non physical money or property or to obtain business
advantage’. Therefore in his definition he made an attempt to shed out the tag
of person of High Social responsibility from the concept of White Collar
5
Crime and tried to

6
concise its definition concentrating solely on the nature of acts that constitutes
White Collar Crimes.
2.2 White Collar Crime in various Domains in India:–
2.2.1 Legal System in India:–
Currently number of cases are pending in High Courts and Supreme Court,
which can be checked online using e-governance, also the dates for next
hearing are available to the parties e.g. Telgi Scam of bogus stamp papers was
having impact of Rs. 80,000 crores, yet no effective remedies are adopted and
the matter is dangling in legal system. Also, in some countries provisions are
made to make hearing using Webcam, wherein the terrorist are in Jail where they
are and no risk and extra incurred for carrying to court.
2.2.2 In trade and Industry:-
Santhanam committee gives detailed report of criminal behaviour of so
called respectable men, e.g. big business tycoons, industrialists, public servant
etc. Main point is ‘Corruption exists if there is someone willing to corrupt and
capable of corrupting which is found in industrial and commercial classes, they
indulge in evasion and avoidance of taxes, accumulate huge black money, dirty
money by various methods for instance, suppressing profits by manipulation of
transactions of immovable property by liason or men who live and spend and
entertain beyond their means of income disproportionately.’
2.2.3 Financial Institutional fraud:–
Financial Institution Fraud (FIR) continues to be a significant White Collar
Crime problem throughout the country. After the deluge of 26/11 in Mumbai, the
CBI has refocused its programme of the same and is now investigating higher
priority cases to a much greater degree. Large-scale mortgage fraud and
identity theft operations, many perpetrated by organized criminal enterprises, also
continue to plague India.
2.2.4 Corruption in Government and politics:–
This is global phenomena. Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 amended
in 1988 is in practice. Yet, unscrupulous public servants amaze wealth and posses
disproportionate assets to their known sources of income e.g. An encounter
specialist police official, ordinary sub-inspector of police of Mumbai crime
branch amassed Rs. 225 crores property in India and abroad. An officer attached
to Narcotic Drugs and psychopathic Substances Act implementation amassed
250 crores of rupees assets and now settled in USA. One of the best examples of
7
e-governnance

8
is that the Central Vigilance Commission’s famous case when it published on
its website the name of 34 IAS Officers against whom charges of corruption
were proved. The information percolated to millions on the net and led to the
social outcaste of those corrupt officers. Public servants have meager salary
and they have pressing needs of life and greed offices. Only its magnitude,
degree and proportion vary. Similarly, political corruption includes grafts right
from stage of giving ticket to election, abuse of political offices i.e. 1 Dozen MP’s
(members of Parliament) were punished for asking question in parliament, at
cost, proven by sting operation. There is rampant violation of election laws
(representation of People Act) Tul Mohanram Episode, Mundra Sirajuddin
affairs involves high ranking officials like cabinet ministers etc. In short, it can be
said that the criminal justice system is not delivering property and there is
serious erosion of people’s faith in its efficacy. It is commonly accepted that
corruption is dysfunction to the system of governance and to society as a whole.
2.2.5 Forgery:–
Another growing form of White Collar Crime includes all sorts of forgery,
varying from land record papers to Supreme Court judgments.
2.2.6 Violations of Foreign Exchange regulations and Import Export :–
This is more prevalent among businessmen who do under invoicing of
export goods and over invoicing of import goods thereby harming National
economy. This can be avoided by adding transparency to the process which is
the key to the problem.
2.2.7 Violation of Tax Laws:–
Tax evasion and tax avoidance, demarcation line is thin i.e. non payment
of tax which is to be paid and spreading of total income in such a manner that it
does not incur tax liability legally, respectively. The loss incurred to state
exchequer due to violation of tax is tremendous. Actual tax paid is only a
fraction of total income, remaining of which goes to black money is converted to
white money by various methods which adversely hamper economy of the
country.
2.3. White Collar Crimes in various professions in India:–
2.3.1 Legal Profession:–
Preparing false and fabricated claims, fabricating evidence delaying
litigation by colluding with opposite party, adopting unscrupulous tactics, violation

9
of ethical norms of legal profession i.e. Advocate Act, 1961 converting “Criminal
lawyer to lawyer criminal”.
2.3.2 Engineering:–
The underhand dealing in getting tenders passed for contractors,
suppliers showing oversight of the use of sub-standard materials for
constructions and thereby building are collapsing prematurely say within 25
years. Falsification of records, frauds, if the original tender of a lowest bidder is
‘X’ the completion costs of the project is usually ‘3X / 4X’ which proves there are
totally time-overrun and cost – overrun of the projects and social cost of delay of
project are very huge.
2.3.3 Educational Institutions:–
Private educational institutes e.g. not even approved by Delhi AICTE, run
private engineering colleges admission to which is given without merit, also
institutes running on government aid make fake and bogus enrolment of
students, give meager salary to teachers while getting signature for full salary
defrauding large sums of government grants. Large sums of Government
grants, issues of fictitious bogus manipulative certificates, collection of
unauthorized donation in the name of building fund, issuance of fake degrees
and diplomas by unrecognized institutes’ even professors are taking bogus
Ph.Ds cost and getting enhanced salaries.
2.3.4 Money Laundering Techniques:–
Black / dirty money converted into White. Black money means not obtained
from legal activities i.e. obtained by corruption/ held in secrecy to avoid
income tax liability and dirty money is obtained through completely illegal
means i.e. it can be hidden in Swiss banks but can not be used by the holder
until there is special scheme declared by government like amnesty scheme thus
is converted to clean money e.g. trafficking illegal drugs generate enormous qty
and dirty moneys, concealing its origin, ownership and other potentially
embarrassing factors by investing it to benami properties. (Unfortunately
legitimate in India.)
2.4. Distinction between White Collar Crimes and Blue Collar Crimes.
Generally speaking, the traditional attire of the person committed that style
of crime defines the crime’s classification. White collar refers to the dress
shirts worn by these types of office workers wear, with white of collars and
ties. Blue collar would refer to the standard uniforms worn by many working
10
class

11
individuals. These are very general terms, and there is no law that states that a
working class person cannot commit a white collar crime and vice versa. The
classifications refer more to the crime itself as a general definition than the actual
perpetrators. Also, these are generalized classifications coined by the media
and are not codified as crimes in the classic sense in our judicial system.
2.5 Definition of Blue Collar Crimes:-
A blue collar crime is a highly visible crime committed by the average
working class or poor individual from violent crimes to thievery and even drug-
related crimes. Most are perpetrated by people who believe that they have nothing
to lose, and everything to gain, by the success or failure of the crime and the crime
is committed due to a lack of hope, environmental pressures, peer pressure, or a
simple feeling that there are no other options.6
Blue collar crimes are typically associated with Americans who work for a living,
heading to day jobs or night shifts in order to earn an income and support a family
the hard way. According to experts, the unemployed are at highest risk for
committing what is classified as a blue collar crime. Crimes in this category
typically include theft, drug charges and violent crimes. Keep in mind that
many high- powered executives get charged without, crimes of violence and drug
crimes. The difference is that they aren’t charged with these types of crimes at
the same high rate as blue collar workers.
2.6 White Collar Crimes:-
Opposite of blue collar crimes, white collar criminals are typically the
high class people who inherited money or earn a lot of money at upper level
jobs, such as management, business or corporate bigwigs, et cetera, The types
of crimes committed are generally technical or money-related in nature, such as
computer- based crimes or embezzlement, and these crimes are steadily
increasing as more people discover the negative aspects of doing business
primarily online.’
There are many different sophisticated crimes that are classified as white
collar crimes according to legal precedent. They include, but are not limited to:
embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft, credit card fraud, hacking,
forgery, and similar crimes. The punishments for the white collar crimes are
drastically different as well, often incurring probation or community service in
conjunction with high monetary fines instead of focusing solely on
incarceration, as is the case with many blue collar crimes. However, with the
12
Satyam Computer Scam as

13
well as the other recent Wall Street crimes, more and more white collar
criminals are facing stiff criminal penalties that include long periods of
incarceration in federal prisons. This is due is large part to the severe societal
and economic impact of these crimes as well and the attention brought to these
crimes by the media.
1. In blue collar crimes victim is immediately located and is himself aware
that a wrong has been committed against him which is not so in case of
white collar crimes. Victims often do not know that what resulted in
sudden crash of market or why that bank or company closed down all of a
sudden. Here the impact may be so indirect that the victim does not
realizes the implications of a news and is unaware until some tells him that
the relation in news and his loss.
2. Second difference is due to judging of Mens rea in both cases. In case of
Blue collar crime it is seen that mens rea has to be there essentially whereas
in case of white collar crime it has been that arguments of many
sociologists that even if it is proved that there was no mens rea in case of
any white collar crimes it has to be punished severely so as to give
signal to such criminals that society has become aware of such crimes
and stern action would be taken to refrain the repetition of the same.
Going on such lines there have been certain steps in Indian legal reforms
like making a mere dishonoring of any negotiable instrument punishable
without looking in the mens rea aspect of the same.
3. In case of any blue collar crime, it can be done due to need or for greed but
it is seen in case of white collar crimes that as these are done mainly by
people from high social status so these are essentially done for greed
and not for need.
4. If we look towards the financial losses occurring to the economy of the
country and society then it is quite evident that society suffers in a much
severe manner in case of white collar crime than all blue collar crimes
taken together. The cost of one big white collar crime may cover the
total cost of all blue collar crimes happening in the country in same time
period. For example if we see the share scam of 1992 done by Harshad
Mehta which was so big and its victims were so large in number that it
become quite impossible to identify them all.

14
5. In case of white collar crime an aspect of constructive mens rea is taken up
by sociologists to enable the judiciary to punish the white collar
criminals where as in case of blue collar crimes both, judiciary and
sociologists, look for the absolute mens rea to prove a person as guilty.
2.7. White Collar Crime & Traditional Crime:–
The term “white-collar crime”, strictly speaking, has no legal
significance. However, it was coined and popularized by Edwin H. Sutherland, 7 an
American sociologist, in his classic paper ‘White Collar Criminality” some
sixty five years ago. In the paper he defined this crime as “one committed by a
person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”.
By such definition Sutherland hoped to point out weaknesses in the typical
crime theory by bringing into sharp focus the sociological differences that
existed between traditional crimes such as murder, rape and theft where the
crimes were defined without reference to the social status or occupation of the
offender, and other crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, antitrust violations,
price-fixing by cartels, of public and corporate funds, income tax evasion,
abuse of political and legal processes and widespread violations of administrative
regulations, all which were nearly always, according to his studies, committed
by those with power, high social status and occupation, i.e. the respectable
citizen. Sutherland noted that those who administered justice spared the well-
off and influential by postulating that many of such offences were victimless or
the victims did not see themselves as victims of crime; that offenders were not
really criminals or that the offences were of a non-violent nature or that a mere
implication of a person of high status in an illegal act was provided with
sufficient punishment as such person would lose his status or his professional
hence or privilege. Imposition of a jail sentence was rare. He also saw in most
cases typical concealment of offences within the organizational routine leading-
to difficulties in detecting the offences by the victims and the police. Some of
the blame, he conceded, no doubt, lay in the law of the state which had until the
20th century rendered corporations immune from criminal liability.
Sutherland, therefore, in challenging the paradigm of traditional criminality
which blamed crime on the underprivileged and the lower class were
considered dangerous elements of society, required that the general theory of
crime explain white-collar crime so that the foundation for fairness and equal
justice for all
15
could result. Sutherland’s definition, though, had a weakness as it was
predicted on the status of the offender and not the characteristics of the offence.
Arival School of sociologists clamoured for a new definition that could
emphasize this latter aspect of the offence. This was necessary so that White-
collar crime would be better understood in all its ramifications and attempts
8
made to control it. In 1970 Edelhertz, a sociologist offered a redefinition of
white-collar crime by not identifying it with any social class. His definition
gained favour with the US Justice Department and reshaped thinking on the
subject. Edelhertz’s definition emphasized on illegal acts committed by non-
physical means and by concealment in order to obtain property or to obtain
business or personal advantage.” Relevance and usefulness of this concept is
very important as a tool to show the continual shift of crime to the white-collar
type amongst the educated and privileged social classes on an even larger scale
than before, especially in the light of technologically- savvy perpetrators amongst
these classes. It draws attention to the unmitigated consequences of such crime
on the public, White-collar crime is regarded much more as a broad umbrella
that denotes ‘business crime’, ‘commercial crime’ or ‘economic crime’, all
terms that hay titled great currency and usage at both the national and
international level. Nevertheless, whatever the descriptive terms that are used, the
overriding concepts common to these offences are fraud, cheating, dishonesty
and corruption committed by businessmen, conmen, political or public officials by
both sophisticated and crass methods.
For convenience of discussion, white-collar crime described by its other
names has been broadly divided into two categories by the sociologists Appelbaurn
and Chambliss, namely:
(a) Occupational crime
(b) corporate or organizational crime.
a) Occupational crime is more of an ‘ad hoc’ nature and is committed by
an offender in his occupation or taking advantage of his occupation to
promote his, selfish interests. In such a crime, the offender seldom has to
face his victim and the typical offence would cover acts of insider
trading, corruption, altering of accounts by accountants, overcharging
by professional men, cheating on taxes, committing credit card frauds
and abuse of trust by those who have custody over others’ properties.

16
b) Corporate or organizational crime is committed by corporate personnel
to benefit their company rather than themselves and covers a plethora of
illegal acts and wrongdoings such as price fixing, violating antitrust
laws, producing shoddy or inferior goods, endangering the environment
through pollution and nonobservance of regulatory industry standards,
engaging in false and misleading descriptions and the stating of false
weights. This category of crime has been described by Edelhertz as the
“most troublesome” of all categories. These types of crime are nearly
always contested. Again, the bull market in the 1990s in our country has
added new categories of crime to the above with the currently ongoing
disclosures of large scale deception practices by stock brokerage and
investment bankers.
Finally, there may be added a category of white-collar crime that stands all
by itself, that is conducted as a business by a full-time conman or a group of
conmen covering all types of scams and swindles.
2.8 The Scope of White Collar Crime:-
As it is important to distinguish between two distinct forms of white-collar
offences. The first type of offence is, classically, fraud by any other name. Business
certainly differ in the details of how they are executed, in the sophistication of
those who execute them and, candidly, in the difficulty that prosecutors in
unraveling them. But at their core, business frauds are no different in kind from
any fraud occurring on the street. They are called white-collar offences simply
because of the socio-economic status of the actors and the means they have chosen
for committing their criminal offences- not because of anything unique or
inherently different in the nature of their conduct. This sort of white-collar
crime has been around for a long while. Fraudulent white-collar crime is no less
serious today. This kind of blatant fraudulent white-collar crime is a drain on
the economy and a significant concern. When it goes unpunished, respect for
the rule of law is diminished.
The second type of white-collar offence is, however, quite different. It
involves prosecutions for violations of rules and regulations that are part of a
larger statutory structure. They involve violations of the regulations of the
Companies Act, MRTP Act and various other statutes. Three doctrinal
developments define this second type of white-collar offence and differentiate
it
17
from the classic frauds first, this type of white-collar offences involves the
criminalization of conduct in most instances, is not inherently wrongful in the
same way that fraud and bribery are. Rather there is a growth in the category of
“public welfare involve first created with modest penalties and now
increasingly feloniezed Second and of special significance in weighing moral
culpability the statutes involves offences where the mental element (or mens
rea requirement) is substantially diminished, if not eliminated. For example, we
not punish as strict liability offenses like dishonour of negotiable instruments-
even if done utterly by accident. Third, this type of white-collar offense
increasingly involves criminal prosecutions of managerial officers for, in effect,
vicarious liability. As a result, for this category of white-collar offenses, the
criminal law is increasingly being used interchangeably with civil remedies.
If all ingredients are same in traditional and white collar crimes, then
why are two considered as different. Is there a disparity in enforcement and
sentencing for’ white-collar crimes (of both types) and ‘street” or blue-collar
crimes in the legal system of the country. In other words, do judges ignore the
guidelines and reduce the sentences in white-collar offences or are the
guidelines sentences for white-collar crimes regularly imposed? The answer is that
the courts do not appear to depart from the guidelines with any greater frequency
in white-collar cases than in street-crime cases.
If we see the emergence of both traditional and white collar crimes then
we find that both owe their emergence to common law principles and are
adaptation of principles of theft, fraud etc to modern socio-economic
institutions.9
2.9 Causes of White Collar Crimes in India:-
The causes of white collar crimes are many and complex. Following are
some of the causes of white collar crimes. Emergence of political elite who believe
in interest-oriented rather than nation-oriented programmes and policies.
Artificial scarcity created by the people with malevolent intentions wrecks the
fabric of the economy White collar crime is caused as well as increased
because of the change in the value system and ethical qualities of men who
administer. The old ideals of morality, service and honesty are regarded as
anachronistic. Tolerance of people towards white collar crimes, complete lack
of intense public outcry against white collar crime and the absence of strong
public forum to oppose white collar crimes allow white collar crime to reign
18
over people. Vast size of population coupled

19
with widespread illiteracy and the poor economic infrastructure lead to
endemic corruption in public life. In a highly inflationary economy, low
salaries of government officials compel them to resort to the road of corruption.
Graduates from IIMs with no experience draw a far handsome salary than what
government secretaries draw. Complex laws and procedures alienate common
people to ask for any help from government. Election time is a time when white
collar crime is at its peak level. Big industrialist fund politicians to meet high
cost of election and ultimately to seek personal favour. Bribery to politicians
buys influence, and bribery by politicians buys votes. In order to get elected,
politicians bribe poor illiterate people, who are slogging for two times meal.
2.10 Victims of White Collar Crimes:–
A Major feature of White Collar Crime is its ambiguous criminal status
and it often not deal with by criminal law should these activities be regarded as
‘Crime’ to critical criminologist, the role of class and power is crucial in
understanding differences in criminalization.
Compared to what are often described as ‘Convention, non-white-collar
crimes, there is less systematic research on victimization, the distribution of
risk factors, repeats victimization and the impact of offences on victims. A
major reason for this often criticized neglect is ideological. Offences are not
generally seen as part of the ‘crime problem’ and the high status of offender is
generally assumed to lead to their being able to avoid the criminalization of
their activities alongwith indirectly influencing the direction of criminological
research through control over funding. In short, ‘the powerful’ are less likely to
fund research critical of their own activities.10
2.11 Technical and methodological problems deriving from the nature of
offences:–
a. Many victims are unaware of any harm and can not detect it themselves as
happens, for example, with some major Frauds, pollution, foods adulteration
and descriptions of consumer goods.
b. Victimisation is often indirect and impersonal, affecting entities such as
‘The Government’ although there are indirect affects on individual – tax
payer, for example, have to pay more and receive fewer benefits due to tax
evasion.

20
c. Individual victims may loss very little yet the ‘illegal’ profits may be large
as in cases in which a bank employee takes one penny out of thousand
of accounts or a firm sells goods which weigh less than indicated.
The victims of socio economic offences are normally the entire community.
Society or even the entire nation besides the individuals.
While this does not apply to offences, many are difficult to capture in
standard victim surveys. Some such frauds are covered by United States National
Victim Survey, but information is limited to only frauds of which victims are
aware. This means that different source of information must be used, often
lying outside criminological and victim logical research. Although they may
not be seen as ‘Crime’, many of activities involved are associated with harm,
they are subject to regulation and lined to wider social issues such as work
place safety, the environment, consumerism of financial regulation. They are
subject to investigation and research and useful sources of information include
regulatory agencies, investigative journalism relevant interest groups? along
with a small amount of criminological research largely restricted to fraud.
”There is hardly anybody in India who has not been a victim of the practice
of hoarding, cornering and profiteering. Whenever there is a slight shortage
even temporary in any consumer goods for which the demand is urgent and
inelastic, almost every trader it is perhaps unnecessary to use the qualification
‘almost’ conceals his stock and blindly tells the customers that he has not got the
commodity in stock.”
In the course of their research Prof. Hugh Barlow and Sutherland repeatedly
pointed out that White Collar crime was more dangerous than any ordinary
street crime because the financial loss to the society from White Collar crimes is
probably greater than the financial loss from ordinary burglary, theft or
robberies. It was very much advent from their opinion that they were more
concerned on the economic welfare of a country.11
While computing the quantum of loss in India it was estimated that the
average loss per theft or burglary is less than Rs. 5000/- or so is rare and the
same amounted to lakh is unknown. But on the other hand embezzlement and
frauds of lakhs and millions of rupees are very much advent.
After discussing all above ingredients it seems that white collar crimes are
not only in business but also equally in profession, only the corruption is not

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white collar crime but various types manipulations and even improper services,
dishonesty with professions, illegal activities in normal business course.
Victims of white collar crimes are not a particular person or group but it
directly harms the National wealth, which is loss of whole country. We can say in
some cases whole country becomes victim and loses which occurred by these
crimes are really incurable. From above discussion one more thing is going to
clear that if any person appointed at job or contested election by paying huge
amount whether he/she will do their job with honesty, these practices are main
causes of white collar crimes.

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 References

1. Shri Mad Bhagawat Gita. Geeta press, 2008.pg.no.107

2. Sutherland, E. H. (1940). The white collar criminal. American Sociological Review 5, 1-15

3. Sykes, G. M. and Matza, D. (1957) Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. American

Sociological Review 22, 667-670.

4. Tappan, P. (1977). Who is the criminal? In G. Geis and R.F. Maier (Eds.), White collar crime: Offenses in

business, politics, and the professions — classic and contemporary views. New York: Collier and

Macmillan.

The Free Dictionary: Definition of criminogenic. Retrieved 04/01/2006, from The Free Dictionary. com

Web site:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/criminogenic

5 Paranjpe N.V. Criminology & Penology, 1994,pg,no.195

6 Siddique Ahmad, Criminology Problems & perspective,1993 pg.no.198

7 Paranjpe N.V Criminology & Penology, 1994, pg.no.197

8. http://www.aponline.gov.in/apportal/departments.

9. http://www.pefa.org/index2.htm

10 http://www.uh.no/themes/pfm/front

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