Crime
A crime is an activity that is against the law towards the public or law governing a country and the state wishes to prevent these activities. When convicted, the activities are punishable either by fine, imprisonment or even by death. Governmental crime affects a country’s border or their main target is sometimes the country at large or the federal law governing them. These crimes affect the stability or safety of a country hence their punishment is at times severe. It ranges from imprisonment to capital punishment. They may include treason, voter’s intimidation, flag burning, and also terrorism. These crimes are also in violation of immigration customs, and they may also include more than one country. They also include the activities that threaten to expose a nation’s top secret.
State crimes are those crimes committed by the government. These crimes are committed on behalf of a nation’s state to achieve their policies. They are also against the country’s standards. These crimes are difficult to define domestically unlike internationally since these laws are made by these countries. To determine it’s a crime, the activities are compared to those standards that the state is trying to fulfill. These crimes are divided into four categories. Crimes by security forces which include genocide, torture, imprisonment without trials and disappearances (Mince-dider, 2010). Political crimes which involve corruption. Economic crimes that include violation of safety of health laws, and social-cultural crimes which involve constitutional racism. Political white collar crimes are those of non-violent nature but conducted for financial purposes. They are conducted by a public official either a public officer or a government official. It’s also conducted for a personal benefit or one’s political party’s benefit. They include bribes, corruption, racketeering, and insider trading (Spiekermann, 2018).
Abuse of power involves taking advantage of someone of the lower authority. One can also be able to gain access to secret information that isn’t available to the public. One can also induce another to commit a wrongful act or also punish them if they don’t comply. Corruption is a form of dishonest activity conducted for one’s gain. It undermines people’s trust in political and economic systems. Bribery involves giving and obtaining something it’s conducted for the sake of obtaining influence in return. It’s aimed at exerting pressure over the official duties. The political scandal involves events that are legally wrong resulting in public outrage. These concepts all results in a public disagreement. They are all unlawful acts that are carried out for one’s gain and result in mistrust among the people being governed.
These concepts relate to traditional white-collar crime since it’s mainly based on the Assessment of moral standards, position held in the office, and one’s status. It also majorly focuses on the violation of trust. This leads to distrust and a distorted relationship between individuals such that they cannot successfully accomplish a given common goal. They are also committed by business people, government official or people in professional positions to gain financial benefit. These crimes are ongoing over a greater period undetected making the criminals benefit for a longer period. They are also considered as a crime of opportunity. Even though the crimes are non-violent their effect is severe and long-lasting. Criminologists over the world are focusing on conventional forms of crime. This is because of the harm inflicted due to these crimes. It also arises from the inverse hypothesis which states that, the greater the extent of harm the lesser the attention provided by criminologists. Hence criminologists have thus resulted in focusing away from the crime committed to the harm inflicted. This results in governmental crimes being relatively neglected by criminologists since they have an internal focus and they primarily victimize constituencies within their border (Wadsworth, 2009).
Reference
Berghoff, H., & Spiekermann, U. (2018, January 11). Shady business: On the history of white-collar crime. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2018.1414735
Friedrichs, & Wadsworth, D. (2009). White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society. In Trusted Criminals (4th ed.).
Mince-didier, A. (2010, August 23). State Crimes vs. Federal Crimes. Retrieved from https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/state-crimes-vs-federal-crimes.htm
