White-Collar Crime (Un)Defined: A Literature and Case Study Approach

Abstract

Due to the commercial nature of white-collar crimes and because of the extraordinary costs of these offenses to both businesses and consumers, white-collar crime is an area of the law that many members of the business community would benefit to understand. Despite the need for businesses to understand and prevent these crimes, white-collar crime remains an ill-defined and controversial subject area. This SIP attempts to synthesize all the contentions surrounding white-collar crime in order to provide an overview of this often misunderstood area of the law. In order to provide a basic overview of white-collar crime, this SIP has been divided into two major academic sections. First, the disagreements in different areas of white-collar crime are reviewed. Specifically, the contentions surrounding the definitions of white-collar crime, types of white-collar crime, sentencing of white-collar criminals, and prevention of white-collar crime are described. After this review of the different controversial aspects of white-collar crime, a case study is prevented. Three cases from Kalamazoo County's 9th Circuit Court are examined, and concepts from the previous section are applied to real-word examples in order to further the explanation white-collar crime. Overall, this SIP provides an introductory view to the legal and business problem of white-collar crime, using both a literature review and a case study to examine the complexities surrounding it.