Abstract

There is a tendency to show that lower classes are more likely to commit crime. This misleading
idea overlooked the crime of upper class. But the crime and corruption of upper class is very
common phenomenon all over the world. White collar criminality developed in 1939 by E.H
Sutherland. He challenged the idea and argued that, the upper class committed crime by abusing
their position for self interest. Sutherland identified them as White collar criminality and argued
these crimes has more severe affect over society and it is also difficult to punish such criminals
due to their influence over the judiciary. Though, this concept was criticized by sociologists and
criminologists but the work of Sutherland and his follower scholars like Barnes, Teeters, Gilbert
geis etc, played vital role as a discourse of criminology.
In this paper we have tried hard to explain White collar criminality its character, severity and
also tried to show some examples of White collar criminality all over the world. Firstly we give
the conceptual analysis of the White Collar Crime with definition, typology, actors and its effect
to the society. Then we try to give a picture of the White collar Crime in Bangladesh. Here we give
you an idea about the actors of the White Collar Crime existing in Bangladesh with its immense
effects. We add some steps that may help the policy developer who are combating against the
crime.

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 WHITE COLLAR CRIME
Introduction
“Crime” and “criminal” both terms are very familiar to us. Criminals create a fear of terror in the
society and paralyze the normal flow of life. Though crime is a problem to all society but the type
of crime varies time to time, society to society for, social structure, norms, values etc. Though
crime varies society to society but some type of crimes is common to every time and all society.
These crimes are different from normal crimes and have a more severe affect. This kind of
offence is offended mainly by the higher class by abusing their power and position. Such crimes
are difficult to address as they are the violation of civil laws and rules and regulation rather than
violation of criminal law. Another important reason is they (upper class) influence the court.
These types of crime are known as “White Collar Crime”. Each year billions of dollar cost by
White Collar Criminality. According to FBI, annually USA cost 300 Billions dollar due to white
Collar Crime. The concept of white Collar Crime was developed by Edwin H. Sutherland in
1939. Latter many of his fellow Scholars namely; Barnes, Teeters etc contributed to develop this
concept.
In his writing Sutherland argued that the upper class committed crime by abusing the power
which is more dangerous then the crime offends by the lower class. Though this concept was
primarily criticized by sociologists but letter Sutherland give more strong logic, information
which establish this as a new discourse of criminology.

White collar crime

White collar crime refers to some category of illegal or deviant conduct by the upper class for
their own interest by abusing the power they have.
Edwin H. Sutherland first coined the term, ‘’White collar crime’’ in his presidential address in
1939.1
Sutherland challenged the prevailing idea that only the lower class and ill people committed
crime and argued that the upper class also committed crime by abusing their power and
position. He also argued that this class also capable to influence the court so it is difficult to bring
them under jurisdiction.

Edwin H. Sutherland defined White collar crime as a, “violation of criminal law by the person of
a upper socio-economic class in course of his occupational activities”. 2

1. Sheik HafiZur Rahman Karzon, Theoretical and applied criminology. P-170

2. Ibid,p-172.
The definition is very narrow and backdated. Many questions arises, such as the violation of
criminal law can be settled in criminal court, here he farther argued that, ‘‘white collar criminals
are relatively immune because of the class bias of court and due to their power’’ .3

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With the flow of time many scholars works on this and redefine the concept on the manner upon
which the crime is committed. In 1981, the United States Department of Justice described white
collar crime as;
“Nonviolent crime for financial gain committed by means of deception by persons whose
occupational status is entrepreneurial, professional or semi-professional and utilizing their special
occupational skills and opportunities; also, nonviolent crime for financial gain utilizing deception
and committed by anyone having special technical and professional knowledge of business and
government, irrespective of the person’s occupation.” 4

In 1970, US department of Justice Official Herbert Edlehertz described white collar crime as;
“an illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by non-physical means and by concealment or
guile to obtain money or property or to obtain business advantage.” 5

The FBI defined white collar crime as “those illegal acts which are characterize by deceit,
concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of
physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money,
property or services to avoid thee payment or loss of money services; or to secure personal or
business advantage”6

So, finally we can say that white collar crime is a particular crime where offender use his power
and position for benefit and most of the time it is the violation of the rules and regulations of any
organization, and such crime is nonviolent in nature.

White collar crime has some characteristics-

 Doesn’t involve force against a person or property;
 Directly relate to the possession,
 Directly relate to organized crime activities,
Directly relate to such national policies as immigration, civil rights, and national
security
 Involve “vice crimes” or the common theft of property.
 Individual or organization can be the criminal.
 Non-physical.

3. Ibid.
4. Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice, Dictionary of Criminal Justice Data Terminology
215 (2d ed. 1981).
5. http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-926858-4.pdf.
6. Ibid.

The White collar crime can be explained by the following figure;

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 Involvemen
t of
powerful
individual or

+
organization

Power
abuse Personal
White Collar
interest
Crime
+
Violation of
rules,
regulations
and civil
laws (most
of the time).
Figure; The White collar crime

Typology
Sutherland gave a concrete list of the different categories of white Collar crime. These types of
criminality are;
 Misrepresentation of the financial statements
 Manipulation of the stock exchange
 The bribery of public officials to secure desirable contracts or immunities
 Bribery in commercial transactions
 Misrepresentation in advertising and salesmanship
 Embezzlement and misuse of trust funds
 In dishonest bankruptcies
 Tax fraud, money laundering and so on. 7

7. Sheik HafiZur Rahman Karzon, Theoretical and applied criminology. P-172

Actors
As the scholars identify, the powerful and so often the upper-class peoples (some time the other
also) and corporations offended this type of crime. So, mainly the actors are the powerful class.

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The actors are;
Actors

Individuals Corporation
s
1.Bureaucr 1.Business
ats
corporation
2.Politicans
2.Financial
3.Judges corporation

4.Ddoctors 3.Other
institutions
and so on
5.Governm
ent
officials
and so on
Figure; Actors of white collar crime.

Difficulties in Enforcing White Collar Crime

One reason white collar crime remains widespread is that it is often very difficult to detect.
White collar crimes are usually committed in the privacy; usually there is no eyewitness.”Instead,
the government’s proof is more likely to depend upon circumstantial evidence culled from a
complex paper trail.
Moreover, the government’s ability to identify white collar crimes is sometimes hampered by
lack of resources and expertise. Particularly financial crimes such as tax fraud and money
laundering, prosecutors require technical assistance from government.
Harm Caused by White Collar Crime
White collar crime causes huge financial losses to state, local governments organizations, and
individuals. In 1988 US Supreme Court acknowledged the severity of the white collar crime problem,
stating that white collar crime “is one of the most serious problems confronting law enforcement
authorities.”8

8. http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-926858-4.pdf.

Examples tell the story, in 2002, “Wall Street was rocked by corporate accounting scandals.
Allegations have been made that this occurred because of illegal behavior by corporate executives
and their accountants.”9Large corporations filed for bankruptcy, causing huge losses to employee

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retirement and to other investors. This is an examples. Thousands of white collar crimes are committed
each year, causing untold harm.

White collar crime in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is not the out of victim of white collar crime, rather this type of crime lead the country
into a higher corrupted country in the world from 2001 to 2005 correspondingly. Here the politicians
who hold the power are mostly criminalized and corrupted. The higher educated people who sit in
the higher position of the governmental body commit different types of corruption. The business
groups take the chance and they also encourage the officers and politicians to engage in corruption
for their own shake. The professions of humanity such as –Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, NGO holder,
teachers are not out of this. That doesn’t mean that the all people in the high class are corrupted and
criminalized but the number of good people are very few.

However these white collar crimes have a massive impact over the society. It encourages the blue
collar crime and crime top to bottom in an institution. Corruption has many meanings, in Bangladesh
it properly stands for the meaning of “the misuse of public power for private profit”, associated with
this there are some corruption which done by the higher class for their own benefits. For example,
the officers in the governmental public service who are known as elite group take the ghoosh(ঘুষ) or
bribe from the clients for the patronage or persuasion known as tadbir( তদিবর).As these corruption
are the violation of law and social values, these are taken as the crime by the higher class people. A
report taken from TIB 2010 shows that the higher class officers are the most corrupted in the
governmental body than from the lower class officials.

Table 1: Number of Reported Cases by Level of Official

Actor Level Percentage %

Elected Official 8.18 110
Higher Official 6.99 94
First Class Official 29.67 399
Second Class Official 16.28 219
Third Class Official 3.57 48
Fourth Class Official 3.05 41
Autonomous Official 9.74 131
Unknown 22.52 303
Source: TIB report 2010

9. http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-926858-4.pdf.

White collar Criminal in BD Criminal activities

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 Politicians Manipulate and abuse power, bribe for special patronage, misuse
resources and practice nepotism

Governmental official Fraud, embezzlement and abuse of power, bribe for illegal task,
misuse resources

Lawyers and Judges malpractice litigation for the criminal ,discard criminal by bribe

Doctors Sold public medicine and equipments, prolong treatment, issue

false certificate, help illegal abortion etc

Engineers Illegal deal with contractors, take bribe from the tender holders

Stock Exchange manipulator, Create crisis in Share market, take loan but doesn’t pay back
Loan defaulter

Business group Encourage bribery, tax evasion, land grab

Why the intense of White collar crime?

 Some scholars rely on 'modernization' theory ,according to them Bangladesh have not
progressed from a 'primitive' to a 'modern' state of polity and hence are still showing signs of
'traditional' forms of organization, among which corruption features significantly.
 Some blame capitalism and the quest for 'modernity' as the root causes of corruption.
 Many blame politicians, bureaucrats, the state apparatus, regulatory policies, political
upheaval, tradition, culture and western influences for the prevailing 'high' level of corruption
in Bangladesh.

Impact of White collar crime in Bangladesh

The impacts of white collar crime cannot be measured by only financial value. It has different
spectrum of impacts. As the corruption engulfed all of public segment from top to bottom, the effects
are numerous in the good government process, development, culture, social values and progresses,
democracy and national integration.

Financial loss
When corruption in the higher level and economic growth co-exist, pay off of corruption introduces
additional costs and distortions that hit poor hard and worsen bureaucratic inefficiency. That prove
the accurate figure for Bangladesh. Every year we lost a huge amount for the corruption. The World
Bank in its report said that in the absence of corruption Bangladesh could achieve some 2-3

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percentage of GDP.10 A report by TIB 2010 are given which show the financial loss by corruptions
excluding the bribery.

Table: Financial Loss by Sector

Rank Name of the Sector Amount of Loss
(Tk. in Crore)
1 Education 2305.48
2 Local Government 2111.23
3 Health 2051.42
4 Water Resources 1978.83
5 Finance 993.25
6 Commerce and 783.47
Industry
7 Shipping 638.42
8 Forest and 228.67
Environment
9 Direct and Indirect 119.32
Tax
10 Communication 106.08
11 Power 87.58
12 Food department 12.09
13 Social Welfare 1.53
14 Passport & 1.05
Immigration
15 Law Enforcement 0.87
Agency
  Other Government 115.69
Sectors
  Total 11534.98

Source: Transparency International Bangladesh report 2010

1
10 World Bank (2000), Corruption in Bangladesh: Cost and curses.

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Effects in the good government process and development
The area’s most prone to corrupt practices are public Sectors. There is a bad practice of bribery from
high level to low level. These malpractices make hindrances in the good government process. Lack of
transparency and accountability, corruption engulfed public administration that makes it incapable
and inefficient those hamper the rule of law and the development policies.

Other effects
The corruptions in the higher lever create an environment of bribery where nothing is done without
bribe and everything is possible by it. General people lose their faith over the government and state.
Combating corruption
Reduce corruption in the higher level is not a trouble-free task. The corruption in the bottom level
may be reduced by effective law action but it desires courage and long-term pledge to eliminate
corruption in the higher level. A paper developed by Md. Awal hossain mollah (COMBATING
CORRUPTION IN BANGLADESH: SOME STRATEGIES) 11 gave some strategy to combat corruption. These
strategies can be used for combating white collar crime too. With these some additional requirement
are given.
We believe that an effective anti-corruption strategy builds on these elements;
1. Increasing Political Accountability
2. Strengthening Civil Society Participation
3. Creating a Competitive Private Sector
4. Institutional Restraints on Power
5. Improving Public Sector Management
6. Improve social awareness and bonding against the White Collar crime
7. Give higher execution for those criminal that can be example for others
8. Increase the social values and the idea of nationalism.

Conclusion
White Collar Crime is not a problem only in the developing countries but also in the developed
countries. However they can manage the effects somehow as they have huge honest people,
associated with their strong economic and legal structure. But in the developing countries the
scenario are total different. There the economic underdevelopments and the weak legal frameworks
give more chance to do white collar crime. When the higher class people engage in such crime in a
higher rate, the lower class officers also commit such crime in an extreme rate. Some people argue
that the increase salary may be helpful to reduce such crime. But we think its need some courageous
and long term policy in all the sector of the society. For these the government should be highly
honest and associated with the peoples a movement should be start against the White Collar Crime.

11. Md. Awal hossain mollah (COMBATING CORRUPTION IN BANGLADESH: SOME STRATEGIES)

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 References:
1. Sheik HafiZur Rahman Karzon, Theoretical and applied criminology.
2. Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice, Dictionary of Criminal Justice Data
Terminology 215 (2d ed. 1981).
3. http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-926858-4.pdf
4. http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-926858-4.pdf.
5. World Bank (2000), Corruption in Bangladesh: Cost and curses
6. Md. Awal hossain mollah (COMBATING CORRUPTION IN BANGLADESH: SOME STRATEGIES)

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 An Assignment
On

White Collar Criminality

Course: Criminology.
Course No: 229

Prepared for
Saber Ahmed Chowdhury
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Peace and Conflict Studies
University of Dhaka.

Prepared by
Nazmul Hasan(Roll:)
Nazmul Karim (Roll: 35)
4th year, 2nd Semester
Session: 2009-10
Dept. of Peace and Conflict Studies
University of Dhaka.

Date of Submission; 15 January 2011

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Topics page
Abstract i
Introduction 1
White collar crime 1
Typology 3
Actors 4
Difficulties in Enforcing White Collar 4
Crime
Harm Caused by White Collar Crime 4
White collar crime in Bangladesh 5
Why the intense of White collar crime? 6
Impact of White collar crime in Bangladesh 6
Combating corruption 8

Conclusion 8

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