What is white-collar crime and corporate crime?
White-collar crime is a broad term used for crimes relating to abuse of trust. The term was originally used to distinguish between the criminal activities of well-educated, high status individuals and those from blue-collar or manual labour occupations. This term is clearly less useful these days as individuals from a wide range of occupations and socio-economic backgrounds have the education and opportunity to commit such crimes. Corporate crime is a subset of white-collar crime, and encompasses: • corporate crime by a corporation for its own benefit; • corporate crime by the agents or controllers of a corporation for the benefit of that corporation; • corporate crime against a corporation but for the benefit of another corporation; and • corporate crime against a corporation but for the benefit of its agents or controllers. What are some examples of the areas in which corporate crime occurs? The most common areas where corporate conduct may be in breach of the law are: • companies an
