Bureau of Justice Statistics - Essay Example

These findings, however, cannot be used as measures in profiling for potential white-collar offenders because white-collar crimes and crimes by race are different. Most common white-collar crimes are fraud, bankruptcy, bribery, insider trading, embezzlement, computer crime, medical crime, public corruption, identity theft, environmental crime, pension fund crime, fraud, occupational crime, securities fraud, financial crimes, RICO and forgery; while Crimes committed by race, according to the Bureau of Justice as categorized by circumstances are felony/murder/ sex, drug and gang-related, argument and workplace; and uses guns, poisons and arsons as weapons.

White-collar crimes are high end, uses advanced technology, connections, and power. One cannot easily identify a potential white-collar offender because he is shown as someone to be in the middle age, respectable, with high social status, living in an affluent community (Sutherland defined in Strader, J.Kelly, 2001), and therefore profiling is difficult. As Sutherland defined ” white-collar criminals are opportunists who learn to take advantage of their position over time to accumulate financial gain.

If this reasoning is to be followed, then poverty, social-economic status, and race cannot be the sole reasons for crime. White-collar offenders, according to Strader includes those who are professionals or semi-professionals and those who possess special skills as they can easily make false claims. The crime could also be seen in people who came from a good family, living in good surrounding and in any other ethnic backgrounds. Piquero et al. added another perspective that touches human behavior as a predictor of corporate offending, but due to immeasurability, this cannot be easily used as a predictor.

Profiling is therefore like making a landscape of criminals that joins various pieces of theories to make a picture of a potential white-collar criminal. It is more difficult to make for a potential white-collar offender than for the ordinary street crimes because it is not beset on the race, social standing or personality and not readily identifiable. So, the answer to the aforementioned question is no.