What is white a collar crime?

Aslam Parvez Magsi
White-collar crime is a crime which is committed in order to protect one’s property or money by secretly dealing with ordinary people in order to get one’s benefit through fraud. In this crime, a person cheats another person to gain his own interest, especially high-ranking people. Basically, white collar crime is non-violent because it does not involve murder, but the person who is victimized in this crime has to face huge financial loss, destruction and ruin. White-collar crime is actually a term that was first given in 1939 by an American criminologist (crime expert) Edwin Sutherland. He was professionally respected in his time and had a high social status. He coined the term white-collar crime when non-working people held high positions. And those who were industrious people worked in mills and factories; those, whom he called ‘blue collar’, usually wore blue shirts. Edwin Sutherland put light on different types of crimes, which at that time were mainly committed by big businessmen, politicians and high-ranking figures. According to him, the reach of crime was not only limited to the cities, the streets and roads, but educated people and men with a good social status were also involved in this crime. This crime is synonymous with fraud. According to the FBI, there are three characteristics of white collar crime. The first characteristic is deceiving someone or misrepresenting the truth, which is called deceit. Another characteristic is to hide or veil something so that the ordinary people can’t know about it. That is called concealment. While the third characteristic is getting wrongful benefit from someone’s trust or credibility, that is, someone trusts you, and you get wrongful benefit from him in return, which is called violation of trust. There are many examples of white collar crime. Including bribery, money laundering, extortion, cybercrime, credit card fraud, counterfeiting, blackmailing, forging documents, insurance fraud, investment scheme fraud, theft of personal property and fraud, are important examples of white collar crimes. There are two main causes of white-collar crime. Firstly, this crime is committed for the benefit of big companies, traders and businesses. Secondly, this crime is committed to avoid a great loss. The reason for this is that any single hack or fraud can affect any company or business, which not only destroys the business or company, but the investors suffer losses of billions of rupees, along with their families and become destroyed as well. White collar rents are the most affected by taxpayers. In addition, the burden on the poor class people increases and their conditions worsen. Because of this, intense anger and resentment against the government and the rulers arise in their hearts and their trust in the law also ends. This is the reason why many people are involved in various types of crimes. That’s why many people are involved in theft, robbery and drug trafficking, which creates a lot of distortions in our society.In addition, in any country where white-collar crime occurs, it has a bad and profound effect, especially on the younger generation and educated people, due to which there is a serious loss of their younger careers. In this way, a bad effect on them is also due to the fact that white-collar crime is seen in various institutions, due to which many people become victims of it. This is the reason why young and educated people get involved in white collar crime after getting an opportunity or a good job. White-collar crime is actually non-violent, but this crime has a very negative impact on an individual. In particular, it has a deep impact on poor and middle-class people. Thus, in any country where white-collar work occurs, the ordinary people become very afraid to invest in that country. Apart from this, there are also negative and bad effects on the development and prosperity of developing countries. The main reason for this is that every institution is prone to corruption. This is the reason why outsiders get forged documents and fake licenses and money is embezzled from the funds of health, education and other institutions. As a result, most people have very big fake degrees; recommendations and money compensation; people with fake degrees hold high positions. While educated, capable and deserving people do not get any job without paying a bribe. White-collar crime is punishable and fined under the constitution. In which any person can face imprisonment and a very heavy fine on conviction and if a person is found to be a white collar crime worker at the institutional level, the state can also recover financial loss from that corporation and bank.