White-collar crime is not as harmful as crimes against property

“White-collar crime is
not as harmful as
crimes against
property”
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The term white-collar crime was coined and described by Edwin Sutherland in one of his
speech as "crime committed in the course of one's occupation by a person of respectability and
high social standing." Nonviolent offenses for monetary benefit were categorized under this
heading in broad and vague terms. Antitrust violations, various forms of fraud (computer and
Internet, credit card, financial, etc.), insider trading, and environmental law violations are some
of the most notorious white collar crimes (Alvesalo-Kuusi and Barak, 2021). There are several
different types of crimes, each of which differs in some way. Some are particularly violent,
whereas some are less violent or non-violent. The purpose of this essay is to provide an
explanation of white-collar crime and to demonstrate that it is not as harmful as property crimes.
MAIN BODY
White-collar offences are nonviolent crimes which are committed mainly by corporate and
government officials and other individuals too, for financial gain (Mathew, 2020). Since the
criminals rely on their occupations to use specialized methods to hide their acts through a
sequence of complicated transactions, white-collar crimes may be difficult to prosecute. Since
the damage is normally spread out over a large number of victims, victimization is not as
apparent as it is in serious offences like property crimes; however, the monetary amounts
involved are usually very significant. White-collar crime refers to a wide range of nonviolent
felony crimes. Bribery, forgery, fraud, identity stealing, insider dealing, money laundering, and
other white-collar crimes are among the most common (Mares, 2020).
Fraud is the intentional use of deception to obtain an unethical or illegal advantage. Even if
the individual is able to pay for the land, obtaining it deceitfully is unethical. Section 192E of the
Crimes Act of 1900 (NSW) defines “fraud” as: “an individual who obtains property belonging to
another, or obtains some financial gain or causes financial disadvantage, through any deceit or
dishonesty.” Fraud has a maximum sentence of seven years in prison (Arora and Harvey, 2020).
Out of many cases relating to white-collar crime, there is famous case of an Australian
businessman named Brian Quinn. He was charged with fraud in 1997 after investing almost
around $4.5 million of invested capital of shareholders on the renovations to his Templestowe
mansion. The amount spent upon renovations were uncovered after an accountant realized that
invoices purportedly for the upkeep of company property were simply payments to workers or