There are two specific categories of crime: white-collar crime and organized crime. Edwin Sutherland’s original 1939 definition of white-collar crime focused on the social standing of the offender; today, the focus has shifted to the type of offense committed. Currently, one commonly used term is occupational crime, which includes any criminal act committed through opportunities created during a legal occupation. Gary S. Green developed a typology of occupational crime that includes four categories: organizational occupational crime, state authority occupational crime, professional occupational crime, and individual occupational crime. Corporate crime, another form of white-collar crime, is committed for the benefit of the corporation rather than the individual employee. One new area of corporate crime is environmental crime. There have been a number of attempts to explain white-collar crime. Sutherland applied elements of differential association theory to white-collar crime. Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson stated that white-collar criminals are motivated by the same forces that drive other offenders and suggest that a general theory of crime can explain white-collar crime and other forms of crime as well. John Braithwaite states that white-collar criminals are motivated by a disparity between corporate goals and legitimate means and suggests that business subcultures encourage illegal behavior. Dealing with white-collar crime may require ethical, enforcement, structural, and political reforms.
Drugs, and the relationship of drugs to crime, is one of the most significant policy issues today. There are several sources of data on drug abuse in the United States; this chapter reviews the findings of several recent surveys of both juveniles and adults. The costs of drug abuse are extremely difficult to measure, as they include not only measurable expenditures (law enforcement activities, criminal justice case processing, drug-treatment programs, etc.) but also related costs (illness and death resulting from exposure to controlled substances, drug-related crime, family fragmentation caused by illegal drug use, attitudinal change, etc.). There are seven main categories of controlled substances: stimulants, depressants, cannabis, narcotics, hallucinogens, anabolic steroids, and inhalants. In addition, there is a separate eighth category, dangerous drugs, which refers to broad categories or classes of controlled substances other than cocaine, opiates, and cannabis products
Which of the theories that have been offered in this text on crime causation do you feel best explain organized crime?
Reflection posts are to be a minimum of THREE fully developed paragraphs must include a reference.
