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Michael Banerjee
Dr. Yevchak
CRIM 012 Tuesday & Thursday 2:30-3:45 PM
12/2/12
Critical Thinking Assignment 3
In today’s society, both white-collar crimes such as counterfeiting and street
crimes such as burglary are prevalent. Both white-collar crimes and street crimes affect
society negatively—sometimes in similar ways and in other cases, in much different
ways. More often than not, white-collar crimes directly cause more financial detriment
than anything else, while street crimes more often than not directly cause more physical
harm. The emotional implications of both types of crime are also significant and should
not be overlooked. The emotional trauma of having been the victim of a street crime like
robbery can be analogous in severity to the trauma of having been the victim of a whitecollar crime such as embezzlement, so it is difficult to determine whether or not one type
of crime causes more trauma of this sort than the other.
White-collar crime is, according to the law school of Cornell University’s
website, “A variety of nonviolent financial crimes, generally committed by
businesspeople or public officials, involving commercial fraud, consumer fraud,
swindles, insider trading on the stock market, embezzlement, bribery, or other dishonest
schemes” ("White-collar crime: An," 2010). White-collar crimes cost the United States
approximately $300 billion every year ("White-collar crime: An," 2010). As per the
definition provided by Cornell University, white-collar crimes are nonviolent, meaning
that the significance of direct bodily harm caused by crimes of the sort is largely
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negligible. While white-collar crimes are not likely to directly cause physical detriment,
white-collar crimes intrinsically involve the causation of financial detriment. Whitecollar crimes such as embezzlement and fraud can result in a victim losing his or her life
savings, which is, needless to say, a terrible consequence and one that is, in some cases,
irrevocable.
Unlike white-collar crime, there is no limpid definition of street crime ("New
jersey state," 2001). The term street crime is often times used interchangeably with the
term violent crime to describe the group of crimes that includes rape and murder ("New
jersey state," 2001). As evidenced by the aforementioned link between the term street
crime and the term violent crime, street crimes are widely considered to be crimes
involving violence or the threat of violence; for this reason, it is safe to state that street
crimes are likely to directly cause physical harm. In addition to the notion that street
crimes are likely to directly cause the victim physical harm, street crimes also have a
propensity to cause financial detriment. In the United States during the year 2000, there
were 12,225 murders, costing an average of $894,848 per victim (Silverman, 2004).
Clearly, the financial implications of murder (a street crime), much like the physical
implications of the crime, are considerable.
While street crimes and white-collar crimes are both detrimental to society, it
becomes clear that street crimes are more costly than are white-collar crimes overall
when the emotional, financial, and physical harm caused by the two are compared.
White-collar crime is likely to cause both emotional and financial harm to victims. For
example, if a fiduciary were to embezzle funds from an account, he or she would be
harming the victims of the crime by depriving them of funds that are rightfully their
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own—this is the financial harm that is done—and also by causing the mental trauma
associated with the loss of property as important as money—this is the emotional harm
that is done. Unlike white-collar crimes, street crimes are likely to cause emotional,
financial and physical harm to victims. As the result of a street crime such as purse
snatching, which is a form of robbery, the victim of the crime is likely to experience
emotional harm possibly involving the fear of future victimization, financial harm
involving the loss of personal belongings, and physical harm stemming from the coerced,
aggressive nature of the crime. Because street crimes are likely to cause emotional,
financial, and physical harm, these types of crimes are more costly to society than are
white-collar crimes.
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Works Cited
New jersey state police. (2001). Retrieved from
http://www.njsp.org/info/ucr2000/sec6_ucr2000.htm
Silverman, D. (2004). Street crime and street culture. Retrieved from
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dansilv/streetculture.pdf
White-collar crime: An overview. (2010, August 19). Retrieved from
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/White-collar_crime