Crime
Distinguish between the concepts of governmental crime, state crime, and political white collar crime. Identify as well the special significance of the following concepts: abuse of power, corruption, bribery, and political scandal. In what respects are the first set of concepts controversial, and how do they relate to the traditional concept of white collar crime? Why has governmental crime been relatively neglected by criminologists?
Sources (Please use at least one of these):
Organized Crime, 6th Edition. Lyman, M. & Potter, G. Prentice Hall, 2014 (The
latest edition of this textbook is the 7th Edition).
ISBN-10: 0133571734
ISBN-13: 978-0133571738
(2) Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society, 4th Edition
(Most recent edition of textbook). Friedrichs, D. Wadsworth, 2009.
ISBN-10: 0495600822
ISBN-13: 978-0495600824
Crime
A crime is an activity that is against the law towards the public or law governing a country and the state wishes to prevent these activities. When convicted, the activities are punishable either by fine, imprisonment or even by death. Governmental crime affects a country’s border or their main target is sometimes the country at large or the federal law governing them. These crimes affect the stability or safety of a country hence their punishment is at times severe. It ranges from imprisonment to capital punishment. They may include treason, voter’s intimidation, flag burning, and also terrorism. These crimes are also in violation of immigration customs, and they may also include more than one country. They also include the activities that threaten to expose a nation’s top secret.
State crimes are those crimes committed by the government. These crimes are committed on behalf of a nation’s state to achieve their policies. They are also against the country’s standards. These crimes are difficult to define domestically unlike internationally, since these laws are made by these countries. To determine it’s a crime, the activities are compared to those standards that the state is trying to fulfill. These crimes are divided into four categories. Crimes by security forces which include genocide, torture, imprisonment without trials and disappearances (Mince-dider, 2010). Political crimes which involve corruption. Economic crimes that include violation of safety of health laws, and social-cultural crimes which involve constitutional racism. Political white collar crimes are those of non-violent nature but conducted for financial purposes. They are conducted by a public official either a public officer or a government official. It’s also conducted for a personal benefit or one’s political party’s benefit. They include bribes, corruption, racketeering, and insider trading.
Abuse of power involves taking advantage of someone of the lower authority. One can also be able to gain access to secret information that isn’t available to the public. One can also induce another to commit a wrongful act or also punish them if they don’t comply. Corruption is a form of dishonest activity conducted for one’s gain. It undermines people’s trust in political and economic systems. Bribery involves giving and obtaining something it’s conducted for the sake of obtaining influence in return. It’s aimed at exerting pressure over the official duties. The political scandal involves events that are legally wrong resulting in public outrage. These concepts all results in a public disagreement. They are all unlawful acts that are carried out for one’s gain and result in mistrust among the people being governed (Content team, 2015).
They all relate to the traditional concept of white-collar crime such that they are all non-violent crimes. They are committed by business, people, government official or people in professional positions to gain financial benefit. These crimes are ongoing over a greater time undetected making the criminals benefit for a longer period. They are all considered as a crime of opportunity since they are carried out by individuals with vast knowledge on how to conduct them with great secrecy. Even though the crimes are non-violent their effect is severe and long-lasting (Spiekermann, 2018). Criminologists over the world are focusing on conventional forms of crime, efforts to prevent these kinds of crime, and the criminal justice system in response to traditional street crimes. Hence governmental crimes have been relatively neglected by criminologists since they have internal focus and they primarily victimize constituencies within their border.
Reference
Berghoff, H., & Spiekermann, U. (2018, January 11). Shady business: On the history of white-collar crime. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2018.1414735
Content team. (2015, August 7). Bribery. Retrieved from https://legaldictionary.net/bribery/
Mince-didier, A. (2010, August 23). State Crimes vs. Federal Crimes. Retrieved from https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/state-crimes-vs-federal-crimes.htm
