Society
Tiffany Horvath
SOC 305: Crime and Society
Instructor: Efua Akoma
October 28, 2013

If you asked 100 random people to describe a criminal, they would describe someone uneducated, in and out of the justice system, a minority or just a basic street criminal. “National surveys suggest that when Americans think about crime, they see the face of a black jobless high-school dropout from a broken home” (Society, 2013). “Federal researchers found, for example, that many prisoners are reasonably well-educated. More than six out of 10 prisoners are high school graduates, and many attended college. A majority of federal prison inmates and nearly half of all state prisoners are white or white Hispanic, not African American. More than four out of 10 prisoners were raised in two-parent families, and more than half had fulltime jobs before their arrest” (Society, 2013). Most people lose focus of the different kinds of criminals including white collar crime. “It’s important to understand that as white collar crimes evolved over the years, so too has the white collar criminal. It is this phenomenon that criminologists, sociologists, law enforcement, fraud examiners, and forensic accountants must take into consideration as they investigate white collar crimes. Credit card fraud, forgery, identity theft, internet schemes, larceny, mail fraud, and telemarketing fraud, do not require the perpetrator to be an executive within an organization. In fact, those who would be considered by most as common street criminals are committing many of these types of crimes. Another issue to consider is than white collar criminals are becoming more transparent and harder to trace with the rise of the internet. One major misconception of white collar crime, is the notion that these crimes are non-violent and are committed by those who are non-violent in nature. This is a dangerous misconception as it implies that all white collar crimes are not harmful nor do they result in violence” (Brody & Kent, 2010). Crime in general, is often glorified through movies and music. Crime happens in many forms and has different effects. Just about everyone in America has been exposed to some form of crime in their lifetimes, if not performing crimes themselves. Typically, crime is kept under control by processes of the law and law enforcement. Sometimes, however, crime has a tremendous effect on society and the people within it as a whole. Different types of crime can serve different purposes and functions. For example, in the early 1900s, the Ku Klux Klan began a series of lynchings to keep mental and physical control over the recently freed black population. Other organized crime factions, such as the rise of the Italian Mafia in the early 1900s, also served to control neighborhoods and stimulated gigantic profit for those involved and in charge of mob operations. Some crimes, however, aren’t as obvious or condemned, such as traffic violations or “soft Drug” uses, such as marijuana, which is still illegal in most areas of the United States. Crimes are not committed solely by any single race of people or class of people. Crime is committed by people of all origins and backgrounds, and its effects are felt by all in society, not just those in direct contact with crime. Some myths about crime are “lack of education leads to crime. It’s a warning that rings in the ears of children for a lifetime. Drop out of school and drop into a life of crime. The problem is, most state and federal prisoners aren’t high school dropouts. Nearly six out of 10 state prison inmates-59 percent-and more than three out of four federal prisoners-77 percent have at least a high school education. In fact, 28 percent of all federal prisoners and 12 percent of state prison inmates attended at least some college. Broken homes lead to crime. It’s true that children raised in single-parent households are disproportionately more likely to become involved in criminality than those who are not. The face of crime is black. It is true that blacks are disproportionately represented in the overall prison populations in both state and federal facilities, relative to their proportion in the population” (Society, 2013). In the end, all of those who are involved in active society end up experiencing some effect of crime. Besides the obvious unrest that is experienced by citizens of a society that has crime, it is also felt in the pockets of tax payers. New prisons and jails, programs for criminals and money for more police protection all come directly and indirectly out of the pocket of taxpayers in America. Some neighborhoods even involve themselves in programs such as neighborhood watches to prevent crimes. In areas where crime is prevalent, residents notice direct effects in terms of depreciated housing, education, and job availability in the surrounding economy. Society loses when investing in new jails rather than paying employee’s higher wages. A study has proven that society pays over twice the average household income for one inmate’s incarceration. This means that instead of that money being invested in prevention through higher wages or better education, taxpayers pay more to keep criminals safe and well fed. The point is, if we only focus on street crime, we don’t see the greater problem, of white collar crime that allows corporations to influence the government, through campaign donations and lobbying. This in turn affects legislation that protects corporations and shields them from paying for their crimes and injustices.

Society, (2013). Redrawing The Face Of crime. Corporate ResourceNet.Web.

Weiss, R. (2010). Criminology and Law Enforcement: Rethinking White-Collar Crime. ProQuest 231940691.

Brody, R. & Kent, K. (2010). Journal of Financial Crime: From white-collar crime to red-collar crime. ISSN: 1359-0790.