Blind Jurisdiction: White Collars, Essay Example

There is a growing disparity in the criminal justice system when dealing with white-collar crime. The negligence shown in the criminal justice system in regards to white-collar crime proves that there’s a difference in level of crime when it comes to different types of thievery. While a burglary may land a person in prison for at least 25 years (this is anywhere from first to third degree robbery), white-collar crime (that is to say, robbery) doesn’t even come close to these numbers. This is where the disparity occurs. This paper will establish what white-collar crime is and the rules that are in place currently in the criminal justice system for offenders, then will examine how these rules are unfair, and how white-collar criminals should be punished fairly according to the rules of the criminal justice system in regards to robbery. This paper argues that the current rules that are in place in the criminal justice system are not being adhered to when it comes to white-collar criminals and that they are currently being punished “lightly” for their crimes, that, had they been crimes committed by a regular criminal (that is to say, someone who wasn’t dealing with millions of dollars) the punishment would have been far more severe in length of prison sentence as well as the amount of the bond set in the criminal hearing.

The F.B.I.’s “Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines robbery as the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear” (para. 1). In the data presented by the F.B.I., they breakdown the minimum and maximum amount stolen per year. In this division of robbery the highest amount stolen is nearly five thousand dollars. This does not even come close to the numbers reflected in fraud schemes. This means that the F.B.I. considers such frauds to be a step beyond robbery and something in its own class of crime. Thus, the rules that apply to typical robberies may be different for white-collar crimes.

In recent news Forbes reported on a mortgage lender in Pittsburgh, Lia Berger, who was caught dealing in fraudulent mortgages and her sentence was supposed to be for 30 years. In a similar crime, Kevin Ring, “was found guilty of pushing Disney On Ice tickets to a few government officials” (Pavlov para. 2) and only received 20 months for his crime. His appeal was shot down which means he felt that even 20 months was too long a term. The government, in response to such white-collar crimes, is asking for life sentences in most criminal cases. The 30 years the prosecutor asked for in Berger’s case was not an unusual amount of time for a person to serve for mortgage fraud. In the A&O case (insurance company) former CEO, Allmendinger, was found guilty of fraud and was sentenced to 125 years in prison even though Allmendinger had previously left the company prior to A&O being brought down for fraud by the F.B.I. “Judge Payne said that the recommended 125 years was, “harsher than is necessary in order to achieve the objectives of the sentencing.”  He then proceeded to give Allmendinger 540 months in federal prison, 45 years and remanded him into custody immediately” (Pavlov para. 9). The other CEO in the company, Oncale, cooperated with the feds during the prosecution and only received 10 years in prison even though they were the ones perpetuating the fraud after Allmendinger left. There is certainly an unfair balance being presented by the criminal justice system in regards to how they treated each defendant. Although cooperation in a criminal case comes with some rewards it certainly shouldn’t come at the cost of someone doing more than 100 times the amount of jail time for not even being involved in the crime (or at least knowingly involved). In essence, Allmendinger is paying with his life for crimes that he perhaps wasn’t aware of simply because he plead not guilty during trial. The only time that those involved in the crime were given “fair” treatment was when they agreed to plead guilty to their crime and implicate others (such as Allmendinger) in their stead.

In a two-year undercover operation, F.B.I. agent Collateral Monte (an obvious alias to protect his identity for when he’s undercover) followed leads from victims of a fraud scheme. Monte enticed three white-collar criminals with a billion dollar handover in order to implicate them on charges of fraud and it worked. The online scheme posted that investors would receive a 100 million dollar return after almost a year on a 10 million dollar investment. What was enticing about this deal was that the poster stated that the funds were backed by the Federal Reserve. The scheme was “offered international investment opportunities through the trading of bank securities, gradually progressed to its ultimate goal—to gain control of all or a portion of the victim’s money”

(F.B.I. para. 6).Even though some agencies and people view white-collar crime as non-dangerous, the fact that the F.B.I has to get involved in order to curtail and arrest individuals involved in fraud (as in the above case) should exemplify just how dangerous such crimes are as Meier and Short (1982) state

most research on perceived crime seriousness suggests that the public generally ranks white-collar violations as serious, especially embezzlement and activities which result in death or injury to individuals. In addition, researchers have left virtually unexamined the damage to social morals and structures caused by white-collar crimes. Areas which warrant investigation include alienation from society, with consequent feelings of normlessness and powerlessness, and public confidence in major institutions (1).

The issue up for debate in regards to white-collar crime is whether or not the punishment matches the crime. White-collar crimes have no immediate physical effect on a person that’s a victim of these crimes and as such, these crimes are not considered to be as serious as regular robberies (Robinson & Williams 10). White-collar crimes aren’t spread throughout the geographic location of America, and they don’t cause as much physical damage as other crimes, however, these assumptions are false

Every year, white-collar crime causes far more economic damage than street crime. For example, in the FBI’s 2001 Crime in the United States Report, the FBI estimated the country’s total economic loss from robbery, burglary, larceny/theft and motor vehicle theft in 2001 was $17.2 billion23— less than a third of what Enron’s scandalous collapse cost investors, employees, and pensioners that same year (Dutcher1299).

Victims affected by White-collar crimes may loss all of their property and finances, may commit suicide, and may begin a downward spiral in all realms of their lives. Robinson and Williams state “in 1990, the amount of property loss from conventional street crime annually was approximately $5 billion. The loss from the savings and loan scandal during the same period of time cost anywhere from $200 – $500 billion, although one estimate puts the cost at $1.5 trillion” (11).  Even with these statistics, fair punishment for white-collared crimes is rare.

Part of this unfairness comes from the lack of police investigation into white-collar crime. Despite the above scheme by the F.B.I. to bring down a fraudulent company, that took years and many tax dollars to achieve. Police are being forced to focus their attention on other crimes that are deemed more serious (at least more physically serious) than white-collar crimes. Police officers are spending their time and resources policing urban areas of high crime (usually drug related) instead of online fielding possible white-collar criminals. Thus, the arrest rates show a deviant pattern were less white-collar criminals are being arrested than others (Robinson & Williams 15-16). In order to change the fairness level of white-collar crimes certain issues in the criminal justice system need to be addressed such as seeing white-collar crime as a serious criminal offense deserving of equal time in jail. This may be done by instituting financial hardship (not just time served but restorative justice terms) on those found guilty of white-collar crime. Also, “criminal justice agencies must shift their focus away from relatively harmless acts toward those that actually do the most damage-white-collar and corporate crimes” (38).

In the past the criminal justice system has traditionally punished white-collar crime less harshly than other crimes with the same elements. This is because the law sees a difference between civil and criminal offenses and penalties. Civil offenses are on the lower end of the spectrum because it’s only money that’s involved while criminal offenses deal with something as physical and real as murder (Dutcher 1301). Americans have a sense that money isn’t as important as someone’s life and thus white-collar crimes aren’t punished as harshly as other crimes. Harsher punishments however are something that is needed because people will begin to think that they too can commit fraud on someone because they won’t get a heavy sentence thus instigating further crime.

Harsher punishments are needed for white-collar criminals in order to prevent recidivism and to stop people from believing that they can commit crimes without harsh punishments. Something that would help to stop this belief would be for higher civil fines (Dutcher 1301) which would eventually “deter would-be white-collar criminals, restore equity, and properly incapacitate the offenders. Furthermore, only harsher punishments will truly fit the devious and devastating nature of white-collar and corporate crime by serving offenders their just desserts” (1301-1302). When white-collar criminals are treated like regular criminals instead of like civil criminals a sense of balance and fairness will happen in the criminal justice system. Otherwise, these criminals will go on believing they can get away with such crimes. Since white-collar criminals cause the most damage, are the most costly (both for investors, and the courts/police) our “criminal justic apparatus will remain a social control mechanism aimed at only some elements of society which serves limited interests” (Robinson & Williams 16). Thus, despite white-collar crime as being seen as something that doesn’t cause damage, it in fact does. In fact, the damage that it causes is on par with criminal behavior and white-collar criminals should be punished to mirror this belief. This would ensure a fair treatment of criminals across the board of the criminal justice system and further ensure that no one else believes that they can get away with such fraud.

Works Cited

“Billion Dollar Investment Fraud.” FBI. Web. 1 June 2013.

Boehlert, Eric. “The Truth About Chicago’s Falling Murder Rate.” Web. 1 June 2013.

Dutcher, Scott. “From the Boardroom to the Cellblock: The Justifications for Harsher Punishment of White-collar and Corporate Crime.” Arizona State Law Journal 37 (2013). 1295-1319. Print.

Meier, R. & J.F. Short. “Consequences of White-collar Crime (from White-Collar Crime – An Agenda for Research).” National Criminal Justice Reference Service (1982). 23-49. Print.

Pavlo, Walter. “Doing Life for a White Collar Crime-The Tale of Christian Allmendinger.” Forbes, 19 March 2013. Web. 1 June 2014. Print.

Robinson, Matthew &Marian Williams. “The Myth of a Fair Criminal Justice System.” Justice Policy Journal 6. 1 (2009): 1-52. Print.

“Uniform Crime Reports.” FBI. Web. 1 June 2013.