White-collar crimes - Research Paper Example

The entities that have been given the mandate to investigate the occurrence of white-collar crimes include the Securities and Exchange Commissions and the FBI. The most common white-collar crimes include embezzlement, fraud, money laundering, and corporate fraud. It is of increased importance to comprehend the different forms of white-collar crimes so as to understand how they fit in this crime category. Embezzlement is described as misuse of funds while fraud is the misrepresentation of financial investment information.

Additionally, money laundering is one of the most serious crimes and is described as giving a legitimate source to funds that have been obtained through means such as embezzlement implying that these crimes can at times be connected. Lastly, corporate fraud can be said to be illegal and dishonest crimes that may be committed by an executive or a company employee mostly dealing with money. This therefore explains how white-collar crimes are not related to violence and that the main individuals committing them are those holding respectable positions and those who have high social status (Gottschalk, 2010).

The term white-collar crime was coined to relate this crime to the individuals who commit it. It is committed by individuals holding the white-collar employment positions. Some of the white-collar crimes are not easy to prosecute due to the difficulties presented by the individuals who committed them with respect to using sophisticated means to hide the traces of their crimes. These crimes cause countries to lose huge sums of money, which is mostly discovered if some of the disbursed funds cannot be accounted for.

It can also be suspicious when the sum of money allocated for a specific project is unreasonably high as compared to the size of the project financially. Such suspicions usually lead to white-collar crime investigation and prosecution mostly of the individuals holding the positions