Introduction

In 1939, the president of the American Sociological Society, Edwin H. Sutherland, gave a presentation at a joint meeting of the society and of the American Economic Society. That presidential address was later published in the society’s journal as ‘White-Collar Criminality’, and still later developed into a book titled White Collar Crime. Defining white-collar crime as ‘a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation’, ¹ Sutherland brought to the public’s attention that ‘respectable or at least respected business and professional men’ ² were involved in criminal activities that were otherwise unrecognized as such, introducing the concept of white-collar crime both to sociology and to the general public. He also pointed out that these same elites had the influence and power to define crime so as not to necessarily encompass their activities within the penal code. He would later identify the activities of these white-collar criminals as a form of organized crime, recognizing both formal and informal organizations, which allowed for organized restraint of trade, the influence over both criminal and civil legislation, the limitation of enforcement through restricted funding, and the development of a consensus among the involved businessmen as their objective. ³