Crimes committed by respectable persons in high status positions in occupation, was once referred to as white collar crimes. Today, some non-violent crimes committed for financial benefits and appropriated gains have been labeled white collar crimes. Those committing white collar crimes have sophisticated methods of concealing these acts.
Some criminal acts which fall under white collar crimes are:
Various fraud crimes, such as: bank, computer, internet, credit card, phone (wire), mail, bankruptcy, healthcare, environmental law violations, insurance, mortgage, government, financial, securities; as well as other crimes such as tax evasion, bribery, insider trading, kickbacks, counterfeiting, money laundering, embezzlement, trade secret theft, perjury, identity theft, severe drug crimes, RICO, public corruption, to list a few. (We saw what perjury did to Bill Clinton, as well as other well-knowns.)
White Collar Crimes are being defined as the crime committed by a person at a specific socio-economic status. The greatest factor in committing the crime is the origin of the person involved, which are most likely the people from the middle or upper class. This is very much the opposite of a crime committed with violence.
More often than not, it is believed that these crimes are less punishable than most crimes involving violence . However, embezzlement and stealing of the company funds may result to an eventual harmful effect to many people involved. If for example the fund that was stolen can never be recovered, it will lead to the suffering of the people who depend solely on the funds for their living and the white collar criminal technically stole the money of these people. In this case, the white collar criminal has inflicted more harm than the crime committed by a mugger. But, in reality, the mugger will receive more rigid punishment than the white collar criminal.
The fact that the white collar crime is committed by persons who belong to the higher socio-economic class is already an advantage. People who are of higher social value can afford to have the best lawyer they wanted to argue their defense. However, those who are at the lower socio-economic standing most likely will not be able to be represented by the best defense lawyers and are therefore dependent on the overworked defense attorneys of the state. Having a private lawyer fare better chances at winning the case as compared to people who just rely on state attorneys and this has already been shown on statistics.