Politics Of Criminal Justice Essay Research Paper

Politics Of Criminal Justice Essay, Research Paper

Politics of Criminal Justice

White collar crime costs the United States more money than all street crime put together in any given year. There are more people each year that are willing to commit these crimes. Society does not feel that white-collar crimes are deviant; the people who commit these crimes do not think of themselves as criminals. This type of crime is one of the most vexing even though most people feel little threat of this crime in their communities. What many do not realize is that white-collar crimes, such as embezzlement, are affecting them much more in the long run and many times go unnoticed. Because embezzlement relies on the trust of many individuals, it can lead to tragic economic detriment. White-collar crime is caused by greed and lax control mechanisms including accounting controls(separation of duties and creation of audit trails), physical and data access controls, and management controls(supervision, work climate, and reward systems). The Criminal Justice System is also unsatisfactory in the manner in which it punishes these criminals. We have decided to change this.

Embezzlement:

The misappropriation or misapplication of money or property entrusted to one s care, custody, or control.

Problem:

Embezzlers steal 4 to 6 billion dollars a year from their employers, masters, and principals, yet their thefts are rarely detected.

Goal:

To reduce the number of white collar criminals, focusing on embezzlers, in each separate state.

Firmly entrenched, the study of white-collar crime travels under a number of criminological identities. Some prefer the term upper world crime , while others favor crimes of the powerful , avocational crime , economic crime , or abuse of power . No matter what they are called, the behaviors being classified have a similar core; they all include rip-offs of saving and loan institution, anti-trust violations, health care frauds, misrepresentation of financial statements, and unnecessary surgery or bills for services not rendered by physicians. In a nutshell, this is what law-abiding citizens call embezzlement. White-collar crimes can also involve mortality. Hundreds of people die each year from illegally, unsafe working conditions as well as medical procedures done only to collect hefty fees. More commonly, these crimes involve embezzlement in which unwary customers and consumers are cheated time and time again. This report will analyze the cost/benefit, present value, and a decision tree diagram of the

current policy, and two alternatives to that thereof in the goal of reducing the number of white-collar criminals engaging in embezzlement(Geiss,57).

Current Policy:

Embezzlement of $10,000.00 or more is a felony of the second degree. Maximum fine is $7,500.00.

Alternative 1:

Increase fines to a maximum of $10,000.00.

Alternative 2:

The 17,000 police departments across the United states will hire two accountants per agency who will do nothing but randomly check the financial books and records of the companies included in their district. The fine will also be increased to a maximum of $10,000.00.

The academic study of embezzlement has had an erratic history. It was forcefully brought to the attention of the scholarly community by Edwin H. Sutherland, then a 56 year old sociologist at Indiana University in the midst of his 1939 presidential address, when he coined the term white collar crime and denounced that in no certain terms those who engaged in what he saw as evil machinations at the expense of the public well being. The hostility toward business in Sutherland s pioneering polemic on white-collar crime has never been permeated criminological studies and statements on the subject. It reflects a belief among many social scientists that the conduct of business is an epidemically corrupt enterprise. Any endeavor whose basic goal is to profit maximization, it is felt, will be tainted and twisted(Geis,59). We have come up with new means, through Alternative 2, to keep a watchful eye in the process thereof. While the Current policy and Alternative 1 are both self explanatory, Alternative 2 may be in need of explanation. We have decided to hire two accountants per police district. Some smaller agencies will only hire one, while larger agencies will hire three. These accountants will go to every business in their district and check financial records to make sure that each is being ran in a legal manner. Investigations will be called to those which are in question and maximum fines will be placed on those who do not abide by the law.

White-collar crime is an area of study in which much material remains to be minded. It also is a realm of inquiry that sheds considerable light on some of the more significant aspects of contemporary life. Among the social and criminological issues that further work on white-collar crime can illuminate, the following seem notable:

1. White-collar crime challenges the more banal kinds of explanations of criminal activity. To say that poverty causes crime fails utterly to account for widespread lawbreaking by persons who are extraordinarily affluent. To suggest that criminals lack self-control similarly ignores offenders such as anti-trust violators and inside traders whose lives and achievem

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