ABSTRACT
White-collar crime is a technical term that has migrated out of the realms of science and academia to become part of public discourse. This chapter helps the reader to understand the complexities of white-collar crime so that one can think critically and analytically about the important social problem, and for those who are looking for a more compelling reason to keep reading. It represents one of the most common types of white-collar crime. Throughout his career, Edwin H. Sutherland, who coined the term, used several different definitions of "white-collar crime." In his most famous book, White-Collar Crime, he defined it "as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation". Sutherland expanded on and further clarified his conception of white-collar crime in a 1949 entry in the Encyclopedia of Criminology.
