Here you will learn about the different types of crimes. Crime has various forms and types but here you will know about three major types of crime which include:
- Organized Crime
- White Collar Crime
- Corporate Crime
1. Organized Crime
Organized crime is a group of individuals, local, national, or international, that engage in criminal enterprises for profit. The rationale behind why they are formed varies because they may be politically motivated, financially motivated, or an organized criminal gang.
Any group having a corporate structure whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities often survives on fear and corruption.
Further types of organized crime:
Organized crime has three major types:
- Gang criminality
- Racketeering
- Syndicated crime
The first has simple characteristics while the last one has a fully developed form because of which it is considered to be most dangerous to society.
1. Gang Criminality
This type of criminality includes kidnapping, extortion, robbery, vehicle theft, etc. on a large scale. Gangs are composed of tough and hardened criminals who do not hesitate to kill, assault, or use violence. They are equipped with modern pistols, bullet-proof vests, cars, etc. The gang criminals are efficient, and disciplined but dangerous.
These notorious gangs operate in different parts of our country, and, are engaged in robberies, kidnapping small children and wealthy individuals for obtaining ransoms, murder, extortion, and smuggling.
Some gangs organize activities and furnish brains to individuals and groups engaged in anti-social activities, taking a cut of the loot or a fixed amount of money for the help rendered.
From time to time, these gangs are hunted down by the police and destroyed, though most often the gangs operate with the active cooperation of the police.
2. Racketeering
Racketeering, often associated with organized crime, is the act of getting involved in a dishonest and fraudulent business dealing or offering a service to solve a problem that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
The law defines 35 different offenses that constitute racketeering, and the list
includes gambling, kidnap, murder, arson, drug dealing, and bribery.
Racketeering also refers to a criminal offense in which someone commits an illegal
activity in order to advance the role of an organization, or on behalf of an illegal enterprise.
Racketeering works on a similar theme and involves malpractices of offering a deceitful service to fix a problem that otherwise won’t exist.
There are hundreds of other crimes that could qualify as racketeering activity depending on the circumstances. Racketeering is an activity of an organized criminal gang engaged in the extortion of money from both legitimate and illegitimate businesses through intimidation of force.
A favorite approach of these racketeers is to approach a businessman, suggesting
that he needed protection and that it could be furnished at a stipulated monthly fee.
The racketeers thus do nothing but live on the blood and labor of others, collecting
tribute by intimidation, force and terrorism. Assault and destruction of property often accompany the organization of the racket.
3. Syndicate Crime
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations, or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Crime syndicates are formed to coordinate, promote, and engage in organized crime, running common illegal businesses on a large, national, or international scale.
The subunit of the syndicate is a crime family or clan, organized by blood relationships, as seen in the Italian Mafia and the Italian American Mafia crime families, Sicilian Mafia, Yakuza and ISIS, etc.
The leaders of big crime syndicates periodically gather at fixed places to discuss
problems of mutual interest and concern. While the scope and effect of the criminal operations of syndicates vary from one area to another, the wealthiest and most influential groups operate.
2. White Collar Crimes
White-collar crime refers to financially motivated non-violent crimes committed by
business and government professionals. Within criminology, it was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”.
Types of White Collar Crimes
Far and away the most common type of white-collar crime, fraud involves the intentional misrepresentation or omission of a material fact. The most prevalent types of fraud that is associated with the white collar crime include:
- Computer fraud: Stealing bank, credit card, or proprietary information from a computer.
- Bankruptcy fraud: Concealing assets, misleading creditors or illegally pressuring
debtors. - Health care fraud: Accepting kickbacks or billing for services not performed,
unnecessary equipment and/or services performed by a less qualified person; applies to all areas of health care, including hospitals, home health care, ambulance services, doctors, chiropractors, psychiatric hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, and nursing homes. - Telemarketing fraud: Using the telephone as the primary means of communicating with potential victims.
- Credit card fraud: Using someone’s credit card information to make unauthorized purchases.
- Insurance fraud: Falsifying, inflating, or “padding” claims.
- Mail fraud: Using the mail to commit a crime.
- Government fraud: Engaging in fraudulent activities in relation to public housing, agricultural programs, defense procurement, educational programs, or other government activities, including bribery in contracts, collusion among contractors, false or double billing, false certification of the quality of parts, and substitution of bogus parts.
- Financial fraud: Engaging in fraudulent activities relating to commercial loans, check forgery, counterfeit negotiable instruments, mortgage fraud, check-kiting, and false applications.
- Securities fraud: Manipulating the market and stealing from securities accounts.
- Counterfeiting: Printing counterfeit money or manufacturing counterfeit designer apparel or accessories.
- Embezzlement or Misappropriation of Property: Theft of money, goods, or services by an employee
- Blackmail: Demanding money in exchange for not causing physical harm, damaging property, accusing someone of a crime, or exposing secrets.
- Anti-trust violations: Fixing prices and building monopolies.
- Environmental law violations: Discharging a toxic substance into the air, water, or soil that harms people, property, or the environment, including air pollution, water pollution, and illegal dumping.
- Tax evasion: Filing false tax returns or not filing tax returns at all
- Kickbacks: Compensating an individual or company in order to influence and gain profit. Kickbacks result in an unearned advantage, benefit, or opportunity, even if others are more qualified or offer better prices. Kickbacks hurt businesses by interfering with competition in the marketplace.
- Insider trading: Trading stock or other securities with knowledge of confidential information about important events that are unavailable to the general public.
- Bribery: Offering money, goods, services, or information with the intent to influence the actions or decisions of the recipient.
- Money laundering: Concealing income raised through illegal activity in order to evade detection. Illicit proceeds are laundered to appear as though the funds were generated through legitimate means.
- Public corruption: Breaching the public trust and/or abusing a government position, usually in connection with private-sector accomplices. A government official violates the law when he or she asks for or agrees to receive something of value in return for being influenced in the performance of official duties.
3. Corporate Crime
Corporate crime means crimes committed either by a business entity or corporation or by individuals that may be identified with a corporation or other business entity. A corporate crime is the act of its personnel and need not be authorized or ratified by its officials.
Thus, to a substantial degree, the crime of the corporation is interwoven with the acts of its officials. Such criminal acts are reflective of the character of the persons who manage the corporation.
Hundreds of companies routinely commit crimes that injure the public much more than street crimes in many ways: economically, socially, physically, and environmentally.
White-collar crimes are committed by individuals for themselves in the course of their occupations for personal gain. It is committed without knowledge.
Corporate crimes are offenses committed by corporate officials for their corporation and the offenses of the corporation themselves for corporate gain.
Types of Corporate Crimes
1. Corporate Violence
Violence against workers: 6 million workers injured on the job in the US and 10,000
people die in the workplace from injuries and 10,000 from long-term effects of
occupational diseases. Corporate executives are responsible for the vast majority of
deaths because they have violated occupational health and safety standards or have
chosen not to create adequate standards. So, workers are safer on the streets than on their job. For every person murdered by a stranger on the street, two are murdered by their employees.
Violence against consumers: thousands of unsafe products injure or kill consumers
every year. 100,000 people are permanently disabled each year and 30,000 die.
Another important factor to take into account is the dumping of products in the third world.
Corporate pollution: The general public also experiences violence in the form of
pollution and other green crimes. There are many different green crimes but they are all committed for the sake of profit and they all harm the environment.
2. Economic Corporate Crimes
Price fixing: tacit price fixing occurs when a limited number of controlling companies in a particular market follow the lead of their competitors in price increases. Overt price fixing involves secret meetings and subtle communications between competitors in given industries. Most common forms:
- Setting prices at predetermined, similar levels,
- Dividing the market into regions, with each firm agreeing to stay out of the
other’s territory, - Agreeing to take turns submitting winning competitive bids for contracts, often
from government agencies.
3. False advertising
When companies use false advertisements to entice consumers to buy products or services that offer few, if any, of the publicized benefits. They offer two forms:
- Blatantly false and
- Puffery is a legal, more subtle form of false advertising that typically, involves making exaggerated claims for a product or service. It does not violate criminal or civil laws, but it is designed to mislead consumers. Companies are ordered to refrain from using advertising campaigns.
Corporate crimes may be similar to white-collar crimes in many respects. They can also include the types of crimes listed above. One main difference, however, is that with corporate crimes, the person (or people) committing the crimes are working on behalf of the company they work for.
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