White-collar Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

White-collar Crime - Essay Example White-collar crimes normally take place within a business and can involve embezzlement, lying, cheating, fraud, or blackmail. The individual uses resources that their business has to offer to allow them to achieve whatever their crime is, though they mainly involve money or stealing items or services to sell illegally to others. However, there are also instances of white-collar crime that consists of a high social class, respected individual committing a crime someplace other than their place of employment. Examples of this would be an individual attempting to fraud a bank, becoming involved in racketeering, or even a person using someone else’s position in business for personal gain (Wand, 2009). What sets white-collar crimes apart from other crimes, such as street crimes, is not so much the individual committing the crime, but the crime itself. White-collar crimes tend to be sophisticated in nature, as well as less violent. A street criminal would hold up a convenience store at gunpoint to obtain money, yet a white-collar criminal would fraud a bank or counterfeit money. A street criminal may harm someone in the process of his robbery, but this is uncommon in white-collar crime, though it still has the chance of happening. Reference Wand, K. (2009). White-collar crime. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage Learning.