White-collar crime vs. street crime essay

To start with, both street crime and white-collar crime have the major consequences. Robberies, thefts, and vandalism are considered to be serious crimes committed every day in the streets. Anyone can become the victims of street criminals. Often these crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs since ‘crime culture consists of a group or groups of individuals who live outside societal norms’ (Lifers, 2004, p. 57). As a result, street crime is one of the most dangerous types of crimes. This is due to the fact that the situation on the streets of big and small settlements creates a psychological climate for the population living here and contributes to the formation of public opinion about the criminal situation in a particular locality, region, country as a favorable or unfavorable impact on the formation of public opinion about the activities of criminal justice and the government as a whole. In this context, it is evident that the study of the regional aspects of street crime often serves as the determinants of specific criminal manifestations.

The most typical street crimes are the following:

1. crimes against life and health (murder, bodily injury);
2. crimes against sexual inviolability and sexual freedom (rape);
3. crimes against property (theft, robbery, fraud);
4. crimes against public security and public order (hooliganism, vandalism, illegal possession of weapons;
5. crimes against public health (drug trafficking).

In general, it is easier to prepare and to hide the committed crime in the city because the offenders can have more opportunities to use the proceeds of crime and to dissolve into the crowd of people. The development of the concept of ‘street crime’ has not only theoretical, but also practical significance. It is important to define the street boundaries, where the most typical and relatively resistant variants of criminal behavior can be found. Thus, one of the main elements of the scope of a city street is considered to be the predominant anonymity of communication and human behavior. Street criminals are basically young people with anti-social behavior formed on a background of alcohol or drugs, leading a parasitic way of life. Commonly ‘they have their own values, codes, practices, and principles that are oftentimes in direct opposition to the larger society’ (Lifers, 2004, p. 57). As a consequence, typical motives for street crime are to meet the need for purchasing alcoholic beverages or drugs.

In addition to the above-mentioned information, it is possible to add that the determination of street crime is characterized by a complex and multi-layered character. In this connection, it is important to address the issues of determination of street crime and pay specific attention to the most important factors, such as the crisis in the economic, cultural, spiritual, legal spheres of today’s society. Consequently, ‘unemployment, racism, and discrimination plays in pushing people toward the criminal underclass,’ and thus, leading a parasitic way of life (Lifers, 2004, p. 57-58). As a result, these processes largely determine those currently existing negative social phenomena, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, vagrancy, etc., which are considered to be the major background in relation to the crime phenomenon.

Given the above, we can understand street crime as a system of crime (against the person, against property, public safety, public order and public health), which is characterized by weak social controls, the passivity of citizens in regard to the prevention and suppression of criminal manifestations and anonymity of subjects of such relations.

Warning street crime can be very effective and efficient when attracting people to prevent this type of crime. The forms of organization of the population may be different: the voluntary militias, which, incidentally, are recreated in most regions of the country, student (youth) operational units, community helpers, wardens and others. Attracting people to policing on the streets, the authorities implement a dual function: on the one hand, they increase the level of social control in the streets, and thereby reduce the potential for committing crimes, and on the other hand, they increase the legal awareness of citizens, the extent of their civil liability, form the right social views, and allow the population to feel their involvement in the work of criminal justice system.

White-collar crime

Talking about white-collar crime, it is possible to say that in most instances this type of crime is financially more cost.  It is ‘estimated to cost the United States more than $300 billion annually (Berkeley, 2009, p. 201). However, this does not mean that white-collar crime does not cause harm to the individuals. In fact, it can inflict bodily harm upon people. For example, some corporations can be twice as deadly as a street offender, and thus, white collar crime can be even more dangerous than, for instance, street crime.

White-collar crime is a type of crime carried out on the basis of belonging to a criminal number of persons acting as the representatives of governments, businesses, officers and officials. It is also widely known as fictitious economy (which is part of the informal economy), which refers to illegal activities employed in the formal economy agents associated with a hidden redistribution of legal income. This type of crime can include fraud, corruption, industrial espionage, tax evasion, false bankruptcy and others. This type of crime is considered to be the one that may do the most economic damage to our modern society among all other types of crimes. Also, white-collar crime is a violation of laws for the protection of the environment, bribery of officials in order to obtain lucrative contracts, and other forms of corruption. The multiple ways to deceive consumers in the production of goods, trade and services can also be understood as the types of white-collar crime. However, white-collar crime only in very rare cases becomes the object of criminal repression.

In addition to intentional crimes committed in order to obtain property benefits, ‘white-collar crime’ is characterized by different  offenses related to criminal negligence, incompetence, violation of the technology of production, which can be very destructive to the individuals.

The subject of this type of crime must have certain distinct features. The most important feature is one’s professional status, i.e. an official position and the fulfillment of certain administrative functions, as well as a high level of expertise within the field of economic activity. Actually, they are ‘crimes by individuals in prestigious positions’ (Champion, 2011, p. 35). On this basis, we can conclude that the subject of ‘white-collar’ crime is a senior officer or director of a legal entity (a person with some managerial responsibilities). In fact, ‘white-collar criminals have no special personality traits, and argue that these individuals are just ordinary people who view illegal activity as the most reasonable way out of a difficult financial situation’ (Watt, 2012, p. 5). Indeed, those people do not possess special personality patterns or unique characteristics; they are just the ordinary individuals with different prestigious positions and various managerial responsibilities.

Hence, the object of this type of crime is the social relations in the sphere of economic activity and the normal functioning of the business. However, the state itself (represented by the authorities) can also serve as the major object of this type of crime. As a result, if the official organs of state power act as the subject of the economic crime, the damage is caused not only to individuals and institutions, but also to the entire system of state bodies in the form of undermining their authority.

The investigations carried out by the law enforcement authorities usually do not end with the pursuit of practical ends, but on the contrary, perpetrators are brought to administrative responsibility. All the above features make it possible to formulate a clear definition of ‘white-collar’ crime as acquisitive crime being committed by senior officers, directors of legal persons, who possess high social status in the course of one’s occupation and professional activities and aimed at the interests of the state, society, businesses and individuals in the area of ​​economic activity and normal functioning of the business (Berkeley, 2009).

Punishment for both types of crime

Hence, it is possible to conclude that both street crime and white-collar crime have major consequences. Firstly, white-collar offences are understood ‘as equally serious as street crimes’ (Payne, 2012, p. 53) that have almost the same characteristics. However, their punishments are strongly different in many ways. By its nature, white-collar crime is a lot harder to detect because it takes many hours in order to build a case around it and they usually do not involve serious bodily harms or people’s deaths. In addition, they are ‘…difficult to prosecute because the perpetrators have access to sophisticated means to hide their activities and the wrongdoing can be hidden within legitimate economic activity’ (Berkeley, 2009, p. 201). Hence, they are referred to non-violent crimes motivated mainly by financial gain. If we are talking about the priorities, it is necessary to say that the law enforcements agencies are required to focus their particular attention on the violent crimes then, for instance, the property ones. The perfect examples of more violent crimes are street crimes that are understood as more visible. In this case, there are always the victims who have been seriously damaged or wounded. Hence, these crimes are given higher priority to prevent the offenders from committing the same crime again and again. As a result, the need to resolve street crimes and find the perpetrators is of great importance for law enforcement agencies.

Conclusion

Thus, taking the above-mentioned information into consideration, it is possible to draw a conclusion that crime itself that accompanies us everywhere in our everyday lives is one of the main issues, which haunt today’s society. In this case, white-collar crime and street crime are both very serious offences against the individuals and the community as a whole. On a daily basis, people can hear of various rapes, robberies and murders. These particular crimes are called street ones. However, when we are talking about white-collar crime, it is possible to mention about cybercrime, fraud, corruption, false bankruptcy, industrial espionage, tax evasion, and others.  As a result, both crimes have their own victims and the effects of these crimes can be very destructive to the community. Both street crime and white-collar crime have major consequences. They both can inflict bodily harm upon people causing harm to the individuals. However, their punishments are strongly different in many ways. In fact, white-collar crime only in very rare cases becomes the object of criminal repression. In return, street crimes are given higher priority to prevent the criminals from committing the same crime again and again. As a result, the need to resolve these particular crimes and find the perpetrators is of great importance for law enforcement agencies.

Do you like this essay?

Our writers can write a paper like this for you!

Order your paper here.

(11 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)

Loading...