Economics Assignment: White Collar Crimes, Scandals, and Ethics

This economics assignment delves into the realm of white-collar crimes in America, examining various aspects of these offenses. The paper begins by providing background information on US leaders and then proceeds to analyze significant scandals such as the Monicagate and Teapot Dome scandals, emphasizing their severity and impact. The assignment further explores the characteristics of white-collar crimes, including money laundering, fraud, and corruption, as well as the characteristics of offenders. Additionally, the assignment includes reflections on personal experiences related to job opportunities and the use of government resources. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct and responsible use of government property. References and answers to specific questions from an assignment brief are also included.

Running head: ECONOMICS
Economics
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1ECONOMICS
Executive summary
The following paper discusses about the various white collar crimes that have been taken
place in America. The first part of the thinking set contains the background of the leaders of
the United states which came into the power after sometime. The second part of the paper
states about the scandal that took place in America like those of Monicagate scandal and the
Teapot Dome scandal. Those scandals were known to be quite severe in nature. The
following report mainly talks about the white collar scandals since these scandals are related
to those people who have higher authority and are of respectable position in the society.

2ECONOMICS
Table of Contents
Answer 1....................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2....................................................................................................................................2
Answer 3....................................................................................................................................3
Answer 4....................................................................................................................................4
Answer 5....................................................................................................................................4
Reference list..............................................................................................................................5

3ECONOMICS
Thinking Activity Set #3
Answer 1
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federal government of
US. The members of the House of Representatives known to serve two year term that is
known tot represent the people of single constituency. The President of the Senate is Mike
Pence since 2017. He had been an American politician and a lawyer as well. He was also the
committeeman for the Marion County Republican Party. He also had been the President of
the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. The speaker of the House is Nancy Pelosi since
January 2019. Pelosi had been the member of House of Representatives who have known to
serve on the Appropriations Committee along with Parliament select committee.
Answer 2
The Teapot Dome scandal was the bribery scandal where the president of United
States Warren Harding was involved in leasing Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome and
in other two locations in California to the private oil companies at very low rate without any
competitive bidding. The Teapot Dome scandal is also known as the greatest and one of the
sensational scandals in the American politics history. It has known to damage the reputation
of Harding administration. On the other hand, the Clinton Lewinsky scandal took place where
the American President Bill Clinton was involved in a sexual relationship with a twenty year
White House intern Monica Lewinsky which took place in White House. The incident came
into light in the year 1998. After the investigation, it led to charges of perjury as well as
impeachment of President of America, in the year 1998. The President had been acquitted of
the imprisonment charges of perjury along with obstruction of justice. The scandal lead to
high level of criticism of the press. The above scandal of Clinton- Lewinsky scandal is also
named as Monicagate. However, the Monicagate scandal was much more severe than the

4ECONOMICS
Teapot Dome scandal. This particular scandal took place in the 1990s. The scandal however,
known to have affect the presidential election of the United States of America in the year
2000. Some of the members at that time also stated that the scan dal made by Clinton had
been drag which hampered many of the democratic votes. Clinton Lewinsky scandal took
place where the American President Bill Clinton was involved in a sexual relationship with a
twenty year White House intern Monica Lewinsky which took place in White House. The
incident came into light in the year 1998. After the investigation, it led to charges of perjury
as well as impeachment of President of America However, the Teapot Dome Scandal had
historically been regarded as one of the worst scandals in the United States and had been
termed as the high water mark of the cabinet corruption. The Teapot Dome Scandal have
been one of the greatest scandals in the history of American politics. It has also known to
damage the reputation of the Harding administration which had already been affected by
handling of the Great Railroad Strike.
Answer 3
White collar is used by the criminologist of America in order to define violation of the
criminal law which are committed by the people of respectability and high social status in the
course of the occupation. White collar crimes include crimes related to money laundering,
banking fraud, copyright violations and securities and commodities fraud. Telemarketing and
insurance fraud, health care fraud and any kind of fraud that is related to the financial
institutions. There are various types of the white collar crimes. Susan Shapiro had known to
distinguish fraud, self dealing and other regulatory offenses. The seven characteristics of
abuse of the trust offenders of Shapiro comprises of lying, misrepresentation,
misappropriation, stealing, corruption, role conflict and self dealing. The societal interest in
case of the white collar crime had increased at a huge rate after the year 1970. The

5ECONOMICS
investigation targets involved businessmen, corrupt politicians and manufacturers who used
to manufacture some of the dangerous products which can lead to environmental pollution.
Answer 4
No. There have been no situation as such where job or promotion had not been
offered to me as a result of special connection of the person with the selecting official.
Therefore, I have never faced such situation before.
No, I have never used any kind of personal relationship for obtaining a job or
promotion. Even if someone had done that, it is not at all appropriate to use any kind of
personal relationship for obtaining job or promotion since it will be misusage of the
relationship.
Answer 5
There may arise several circumstances where the government equipment can be used
for personal use. However, as a responsible citizen or as employee it will be our duty to
protect and conserve the various government owned properties. It should be only used in case
of authorized purposes. Using the equipment for personal benefit might be misusing.
Although, surfing the internet and using the data available in the internet for doing homework
assignments is not misusage since it is helping us to learn and know about the work they do.
It also helps us to get various data and information for further studies and researches.

6ECONOMICS
Reference list
Benson, M. L., Van Slyke, S. R., & Cullen, F. T. (2016). Core themes in the study of white-
collar crime. The Oxford Handbook of White-Collar Crime. Oxford University Press,
New York, 1-21.
Brightman, H. J. (2011). Today's White Collar Crime: Legal, Investigative, and Theoretical
Perspectives. Routledge.
Cherny, R. W. (2017). Graft and oil: How Teapot Dome became the greatest political scandal
of its time.
Dougherty, K. L. (2018). Creating Parties in Congress: The Emergence of a Social Network.
Gottschalk, P. (2017). Convenience in white-collar crime: Introducing a core concept.
Deviant Behavior, 38(5), 605-619.
Michel, C., Cochran, J. K., & Heide, K. M. (2016). Public knowledge about white-collar
crime: an exploratory study. Crime, Law and Social Change, 65(1-2), 67-91.
Moretti, A. (2016). Book Review: The American Political Scandal: Free Speech, Public
Discourse, and Democracy by David R. Dewberry.
Morrison, A. B., & Shanske, D. (2017). Brief of Six Members of Congress in Support of the
Petitioner in South Dakota v. Wayfair.
Sutherland, E. H. (2017). White-collar criminality. In White-collar Criminal (pp. 3-19).
Routledge.
Twombly, J. (2018). Political Scandal and American Pop Culture: Sex, Power, and Cover-
Ups. Springer.

7ECONOMICS
Yonk, R. M. (2016). Congressional Capitulation: War Power and the United States Congress.
J. Pol. & L., 9, 172.
Zhao, H. M. (2016, November). The characteristics of euphemism in American News
English. In 4th International Conference on Management Science, Education
Technology, Arts, Social Science and Economics 2016. Atlantis Press.