Sutherland, an American sociologist, wrote his paper , “White-Collar Criminality,” where he described white-collar crime as ‘ a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” (Norris and Price 2) This definition faces scrutiny considering his emphasis on a high social status, which limits the application of his definition to a small percentage, thus leaving aside individuals who could execute such crimes. Sutherland was not wrong in his assertion that these crime, especially at the time due to a less educated populace, were typically executed by individuals of higher social status. Yet, as the country progressed in measures of education, technology, and economically, white-collar crime as of 2017 has become widely available to more citizens. Sutherland’s work, by becoming the pioneer in discussing white-collar crime it created the concept that these were the crimes of the higher class. Thus, the time in which his text was written plays a major role in the limits to defining white-collar …show more content…
White-collar crimes are crimes that occur usually in the business world. If this perspective is followed, then this narrative will limit the crime to certain sectors of the population. Such generalizations of white-collar crime help promote the conclusions that these crimes are usually attributed to Caucasian males with well-paying jobs. The authors demonstrate an expansion of categories of white-collar crimes as they state “ the 1980s saw the creation of the Financial Crimes Section of the FBI to investigate white-collar crime. Financial crimes investigations centered on fraud in corporations, securities and commodities, healthcare, financial institutions, mortgages, insurance, and mass marketing, and on money laundering “ (3). The holders and administrators of services are usually Caucasian due to the country’s complex socio-economic history. As a result, the narrative on which of white-collar crime is generally thought about will tend to include Caucasians. On the other hand, crime in the United States is extremely racialized with African-Americans generally attacked for drugs , Latino-Americans attacked for immigration , and Muslim-Americans attacked for terrorism. The stereotypes that developed attribute certain races to certain actions, furthering a narrative of crime that restricts how many sectors of the population view crime. To conclude, the complex racialized structure of the United States leads to