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.