IS “WHITE COLLAR CRIME” CRIME?

EDWIN H. SUTHERLAND
Indiana University

T
HE ARGUMENT has been made that injury is applied to these 547 decisions the
business and professional men commit conclusion is reached that all of the classes of
crimes which should be brought within behaviors regarding which the decisions were
the scope of the theories of criminal behavior.1 made are legally defined as socially injurious.
In order to secure evidence as to the prevalence This can be readily determined by the words in
of such white collar crimes an analysis was the statutes— “crime” or “misdemeanor” in
made of the decisions by courts and some, and “unfair,” “discrimination,” or
commissions against the seventy largest “infringement” in all the others. The persons
industrial and mercantile corporations in the injured may be divided into two groups: first, a
United States under four types of laws, namely, relatively small number of persons engaged in
antitrust, false advertising, National Labor the same occupation as the offenders or in re-
Relations, and infringement of patents, lated occupations, and, second, the general
copyrights, and trademarks. This resulted in the public either as consumers or as constituents of
finding that 547 such adverse decisions had the general social institutions which are affected
been made, with an average of 7.8 decisions per by the violations of the laws. The antitrust laws
corporation and with each corporation having at are designed to protect competitors and also to
least i.2 Although all of these were decisions that protect the institution of free competition as the
the behavior was unlawful, only 49 or 9 per cent regulator of the economic system and thereby to
of the total were made by criminal courts and protect consumers against arbitrary prices, and
were ipso facto decisions that the behavior was to protect the institution of democracy against
criminal. Since not all unlawful behavior is the dangers of great concentration of wealth in
criminal behavior, these decisions can be used the hands of monopolies. Laws against false
as a measure of criminal behavior only if the advertising are designed to protect competitors
other 498 decisions can be shown to be against unfair competition and also to protect
decisions that the behavior of the corporations consumers against fraud. The National Labor
was criminal. Relations Law is designed to protect employees
This is a problem in the legal definition of against coercion by employers and also to
crime and involves two types of questions: May protect the general public against interferences
the word “crime” be applied to the behavior with commerce due to strikes and lockouts. The
regarding which these decisions were made? If laws against infringements are designed to
so, why is it not generally applied and why have
’The most satisfactory analysis of the criteria of crime
not the criminologists regarded white collar from the legal point of view may be found in the following
crime as cognate with other crime? The first papers by Jerome Hall: “Prolegomena to a Science of
question involves semantics, the second Criminal Law,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
interpretation or explanation. 89:549-80, March, 1941; “Interrelations of Criminal Law
and Torts,” Columbia Law Review. 43:735-79, 967-1001,
A combination of two abstract criteria is September-November, 1943; “Criminal Attempts—A
generally regarded by legal scholars as Study of the Foundations of Criminal Liability,” Yale Law
necessary to define crime, namely: legal de- Review. 49:789-840, March, 1940. protect the owners
scription of an act as socially injurious, and legal of patents, copyrights, and trademarks against
provision of a penalty for the act.3 deprivation of their property and against unfair
When the criterion of legally defined social competition, and also to protect the institution
of patents and copyrights which was established
1'Edwin H. Sutherland, “White Collar Criminality,” in order to “promote the progress of science and
American Sociological Review. 5 :i-i2, Febru the useful arts.” Violations of these laws are
2ary, 1940; Edwin H. Sutherland, “Crime and Business,”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
legally defined as injuries to the parties
Science. 217:112-18, September, 1941. specified.
3'Paper on “Illegal Behavior of Seventy Cor- Each of these laws has a logical basis in the
porations,” to be published later.
13
a
 IS “WHITE COLLAR CRIME” CRIME? 133

common law and is an adaptation of the violated and therefore that a crime was
common law to modern social organization. committed; the decisions of a civil court or a
False advertising is related to common law court of equity as to these violations are as good
fraud, and infringement to larceny. The evidence of criminal behavior as is the decision
National Labor Relations Law, as an attempt to of a criminal court.
prevent coercion, is related to the common law The Sherman antitrust law has been amended
prohibition of restrictions on freedom in the by the Federal Trade Commission Law, the
form of assault, false imprisonment, and Clayton Law, and several other laws. Some of
extortion. For at least two centuries prior to the these amendments define violations as crimes
enactment of the modern antitrust laws the and provide the conventional penalties, but
common law was moving against restraint of most of the amendments do not make the
trade, monopoly, and unfair competition. criminality explicit. A large proportion of the
Each of the four laws provides a penal cases which are dealt with under these
sanction and thus meets the second criterion in amendments could be dealt with, instead, under
the definition of crime, and each of the adverse the original Sherman Law, which is explicitly a
decisions under these four laws, except certain criminal law. In practice, the amendments are.
decisions under the infringement laws to be under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade
discussed later, is a decision that a crime was Commission, which has authority to make
committed. This conclusion will be made more official decisions as to violations. The
specific by analysis of the penal sanctions Commission has two principal sanctions under
provided in the four laws. its control, namely: the stipulation and the
The Sherman antitrust law states explicitly cease and desist order. The Commission may,
that a violation of the law is a misdemeanor. after the violation of the law has been proved,
Three methods of enforcement of this law are accept a stipulation from the corporation that it
provided, each of them involving procedures will not violate the law in the future. Such
regarding misdemeanors. First, it may be stipulations are customarily restricted to the
enforced by the usual criminal prosecution, minor or technical violations. If a stipulation is
resulting in the imposition of fine or violated or if no stipulation is accepted, the
imprisonment. Second, the attorney general of Commission may issue a cease and desist order;
the United States and the several district this is equivalent to a court’s injunction except
attorneys are given the “duty” of “repressing that violation is not punishable as contempt. If
and preventing” violations of the law by the Commission’s desist order is violated, the
petitions for injunctions, and violations of the Commission may apply to the court for an
injunctions are punishable as contempt of court. injunction, the violation of which is punishable
This method of enforcing a criminal law was an as contempt. By an amendment to the Federal
invention and, as will be described later, is the Trade Commission Law in the Wheeler-Lea Act
key to the interpretation of the differential of 1938 an order of the Commission becomes
implementation of the criminal law as applied "final” if not officially questioned within a
to white collar criminals. Third, parties who are specified time and thereafter its violation is
injured by violations of the law are authorized to punishable by a civil fine. Thus, although
sue for damages, with a mandatory provision certain interim procedures may be used in the
that the damages awarded be three times the enforcement of the amendments to the antitrust
damages suffered. These damages in excess of law, fines or imprisonment for contempt are
reparation are penalties for violation of the law. available if the interim procedures fail. In this
They are payable to the injured party in order to respect the interim procedures are similar to
induce him to take the initiative in the probation in ordinary criminal cases. An
enforcement of the criminal law and in this unlawful act is not defined as criminal by the
respect are similar to the earlier methods of fact that it is punished, but by the fact that it is
private prosecutions under the criminal law. All punishable. Larceny is as truly a crime when the
three of these methods of enforcement are thief is placed on probation as when he is
based on decisions that a crimirial law was committed to prison. The argument may be
i34 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

made that punishment for contempt of court is copyrights, and trademarks as crimes and
not punishment for violation of the original law agents of the state are not authorized by these
and that, therefore, the original law does not statutes to initiate actions against violators of
contain a penal sanction. This reasoning is the law. Nevertheless, infringements may be
specious since the original law provides the punished in either of two ways: First, agents of
injunction with its penalty as a part of the the State may initiate action against infringers
procedure for enforcement. Consequently all of under the Federal Trade Commission Law as
the decisions made under the amendments to unfair competition and they do so, especially
the antitrust law are decisions that the corpora- against infringers of copyrights and trademarks;
tions committed crimes.4 these infringements are then punishable in the
The laws regarding false advertising, as same sense as violations of the amendments to
included in the decisions under consideration, the antitrust laws. Second, the patent,
are of two types. First, false advertising in the copyright, and trade mark statutes provide that
form of false labels is defined in the Pure Food the damages awarded to injured owners of those
and Drug Law as a misdemeanor and is rights may be greater than (in one statute as
punishable by a fine. Second, false advertising much as threefold) the damages actually
generally is defined in the Federal Trade suffered. These additional damages are not
Commission Act as unfair competition. Cases of mandatory, as in the Sherman antitrust law, but
the second type are under the jurisdiction of the on the other hand they are not explicitly limited
Federal Trade Commission, which uses the to wanton and malicious infringements. Three
same procedures as in antitrust cases. Penal decisions against the seventy corporations
sanctions are available in antitrust cases, as under the patent law and one under the
previously described, and are similarly available copyright law included awards of such
in these cases of false advertising. Thus, all of additional damages and on that account were
the decisions in false advertising cases are de- classified in the tabulation of decisions as
cisions that the corporations committed crimes. evidence of criminal behavior of the
The National Labor Relations Law of 1935 corporations. The other decisions, 74 in num-
defines a violation as “unfair labor practice.” ber, in regard to infringements were classified
The National Labor Relations Board is as not conclusive evidence of criminal behavior
authorized to make official decisions as to and were discarded. However, in 20 of these 74
violations of the law and, in case of violation, to cases the decisions of the court contain evidence
issue desist orders and also to make certain which would be sufficient to make a prima jacie
remedial orders, such as reimbursement of case in a criminal prosecution; evidence outside
employees who had been dismissed or demoted these decisions which may be found in the
because of activities in collective bargaining. If general descriptions of practices regarding
an order is violated, the Board may apply to the patents, copyrights, and trademarks, justifies a
court for enforcement and a violation of the belief that a very large proportion of the 74
order of the court is punishable as contempt. cases did, in fact, involve wilful infringement of
Thus, all of the decisions under this law, which property rights and might well have resulted in
is enforceable by penal sanctions, are decisions the imposition of a penalty if the injured party
that crimes were committed. and the court had approached the behavior
The methods for the repression of infringe- from the point of view of crime.
ments vary. Infringements of a copyright or a In the preceding discussion the penalties
patented design are defined as misdemeanors, which are definitive of crime have been limited
punishable by fines. No case of this type has to fine, imprisonment, and punitive damages. In
been discovered against the seventy addition, the stipulation, the desist order, and
corporations. Other infringements are not the injunction, without reference to punishment
explicitly defined in the statutes on patents, for contempt, have the attributes of
punishment. This is evident both in that they
4 Some of the antitrust decisions were made against
result in some suffering on the part of the
meat packers under the Packers and Stock- yards Act. The
penal sanctions in this act are essentially the same as in corporation against which they are issued and
the Federal Trade Commission Act. also in that they are designed by legislators and
 IS “WHITE COLLAR CRIME” CRIME? 133

administrators to produce suffering. The required in all prosecutions under the regular
suffering is in the form of public shame, as penal code and the number of exceptions is
illustrated in more extreme form in the colonial increasing. In many states a person may be
penalty of sewing the letter “T” on the clothing committed to prison without protection of one
of the thief. The design is shown in the sequence or both of these rules on charges of statutory
of sanctions used by the Federal Trade Com- rape, bigamy, adultery, passing bad checks,
mission. The stipulation involves the least selling mortgaged property, defrauding a hotel
publicity and the least discomfort, and it is used keeper, and other offenses.6 Consequently the
for minor and technical violations. The desist criteria which have been used in defining white
order is used if the stipulation is violated and collar crimes are not categorically different from
also if the violation of the law is appraised by the criteria used in defining other crimes, for
the Commission as wilful and major. This these rules are abrogated both in regard to
involves more public shame; this shame is white collar crimes and other crimes, including
somewhat mitigated by the statements made by some felonies. The proportion of decisions
corporations, in exculpation, that such orders rendered against corporations without the
are merely the acts of bureaucrats. Still more protection
shameful to the corporation is an injunction
’Livingston Hall, “Statutory Law of Crimes, 1887-
issued by a court. The shame resulting from this 1936,” Harvard Law Review. 50:616-53, February, 1937.
order is sometimes mitigated and the
corporation’s face saved by taking a consent
decree.5 The corporation may insist that the
consent decree is not an admission that it
violated the law. For instance, the meat packers
took a consent decree in an antitrust case in
1921, with the explanation that they had not
knowingly violated any law and were consenting
to the decree without attempting to defend
themselves because they wished to co-operate
with the government in every possible way. This
patriotic motivation appeared questionable,
however, after the packers fought during almost
all of the next ten years for a modification of the
decree. Although the sequence of stipulation,
desist order, and injunction indicates that the
variations in public shame are designed, these
orders have other functions, as well, especially a
remedial function and the clarification of the
law in a particular complex situation.
The conclusion in this semantic portion of
the discussion is that 473 of the 547 decisions
are decisions that crimes were committed.
This conclusion may be questioned on the
ground that the rules of proof and evidence used
in reaching these decisions are not the same as
those used in decisions regarding other crimes,
especially that some of the agencies which
rendered the decisions did not require proof of
criminal intent and did not presume the accused
to be innocent. These rules of criminal intent
and presumption of innocence, however, are not

5 The consent decree may be taken for other reasons

especially because it cannot be used as 6evidence in other suits.
i34 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

of these rules is probably greater than the did not appear in the criminal court and the fact
proportion rendered against other criminals, that he had committed a crime did not appear in
but a difference in proportions does not make the face of the proceedings.
the violations of law by corporations cate- The Sherman antitrust law, in this respect,
gorically different from the violations of laws by became the model in practically all the
other criminals. Moreover, the difference in subsequent procedures authorized to deal with
proportion, as the procedures actually operate the crimes of corporations. When the Federal
is, not great. On the one side, many of the Trade Commission bill and the Clayton bill were
defendants in usual criminal cases, being in introduced in Congress, they contained the
relative poverty, do not get good defense and conventional criminal procedures; these were
consequently secure little benefit from these eliminated in committee discussions, and other
rules; on the other hand, the Commissions come procedures which did not carry the external
close to observing these rules of proof and symbols of criminal process were substituted.
evidence although they are not required to do The violations of these laws are crimes, as has
so. This is illustrated by the procedure of the been shown above, but they are treated as
Federal Trade Commission in regard to though they were not crimes, with the effect and
advertisements. Each year it examines several probably the intention of eliminating the stigma
hundred thousand advertisements and of crime.
appraises about 50,000 of them as probably This policy of eliminating the stigma of crime
false. From the 50,000 it selects about 1,500 as is illustrated in the following statement by
patently false. For instance, an advertisement of Wendell Berge, at the time assistant to the head
gum-wood furniture as “mahogany” would of the antitrust division of the Department of
seldom be an accidental error and would Justice, in a plea for abandonment of the
generally result from a state of mind which criminal prosecution under the Sherman
deviated from honesty by more than the natural antitrust law and the authorization of civil
tendency of human beings to feel proud of their procedures with civil fines as a substitute.
handiwork. While civil penalties may be as severe in their
The preceding discussion has shown that financial effects as criminal penalties, yet they
these seventy corporations committed crimes do not involve the stigma that attends indict-
according to- 473 adverse decisions, and also ment and conviction. Most of the defendants in
has shown that the criminality of their behavior antitrust cases are not criminals in the usual
was not made obvious by the conventional sense. There is no inherent reason why antitrust
procedures of the criminal law but was blurred enforcement requires branding them as such. 7
and concealed by special procedures. This If a civil fine were substituted for a criminal
differential implementation of the law as fine, a violation of the antitrust law would be as
applied to the crimes of corporations eliminates truly a crime as it is now. The thing which would
or at least minimizes the stigma of crime. This be eliminated would be the stigma of crime.
differential implementation of the law began Consequently, the stigma of crime has become a
with the Sherman antitrust law of 1890. As penalty in itself, which may be imposed in
previously described, this law is explicitly a connection with other penalties or withheld, just
criminal law and a violation of the law is a as it is possible to combine imprisonment with a
misdemeanor no matter what procedure is used. fine or have a fine without imprisonment. A civil
The customary policy would have been to rely fine is a financial penalty without the additional
entirely on criminal prosecution as the method penalty of stigma, while a criminal fine is a
of enforcement. But a clever invention was financial penalty with the additional penalty of
made in the provision of an injunction to stigma.
enforce a criminal law; this was not only an When the stigma of crime is imposed as a
invention but was a direct reversal of previous penalty it places the defendant in the category of
case law. Also, private parties were encouraged
by treble damages to enforce a criminal law by 7’ Wendell Berge, “Remedies Available to the
suits in civil courts. In either case, the defendant Government under the Sherman Act,” Law and
Contemporary Problems. 7:111. January, 1940.
 IS “WHITE COLLAR CRIME” CRIME? 133

criminals and he becomes a criminal according presented in the following paragraphs as partial
to the popular stereotype of “the criminal.” In demonstration.
primitive society “the criminal” was The Department of Justice is authorized to
substantially the same as “the stranger,” 8 while use both criminal prosecutions and petitions in
in modem society “the criminal” is a person of equity to enforce the Sherman antitrust law. The
less esteemed cultural attainments. Seventy-five Department has selected the method of criminal
per cent of the persons committed to state prosecution in a larger proportion of cases
prisons are probably not, aside from their against trade unions than of cases against
unesteemed cultural attainments, “criminals in corporations, although the law was enacted
the usual sense of the word.” It may be excellent primarily because of fear of the corporations.
policy to eliminate the stigma of crime in a large From 1890 to 1929 the Department of Justice
proportion of cases, but the question at hand is initiated 438 actions under this law with
why the law has a different implementation for decisions favorable to the United States. Of the
white collar criminals than for others. actions against business firms and associations
Three factors assist in explaining this dif- of business firms, 27 per cent were criminal
ferential implementation of the law, namely, the prosecutions, while of the actions against trade
status of the business man, the trend away from unions 71 per cent were criminal prosecutions.9
punishment, and the relatively unorganized This shows that the Department of Justice has
resentment of the public against white collar been comparatively reluctant to use a method
criminals. Each of these will be described. against business firms which carries with it the
First, the methods used in the enforcement of stigma of crime.
any law are an adaption to the characteristics of The method of criminal prosecution in en-
the prospective violators of the law, as appraised forcement of the Sherman antitrust law has
by the legislators and the judicial and varied from one presidential administration to
administrative personnel. The appraisals another. It has seldom been used in the
regarding business men, who are the administrations of the presidents who are
prospective violators of the four laws under popularly appraised as friendly toward business,
consideration, include a combination of fear and namely, McKinley, Harding, Coolidge, and
admiration. Those who are responsible for the Hoover.
system of criminal justice are afraid to Business men suffered their greatest loss of
antagonize business men; among other prestige in the depression which began in 1929.
consequences, such antagonism may result in a It was precisely in this period of low status of
reduction in contributions to the campaign business men that the most strenuous efforts
funds needed to win the next election. Probably were made to enforce the old laws and enact
much more important is the cultural new laws for the regulation of business men.
homogeneity of legislators, judges, and The appropriations for this purpose were
administrators with business men. Legislators multiplied several times and persons were
admire and respect business men and cannot selected for their vigor in ad
conceive of them as criminals, that is, business ’ Percentages compiled from cases listed in the report
men do not conform to the popular stereotype of of the Department of Justice “Federal Antitrust Laws,
“the criminal.” The legislators are confident that 1938.” ministration of the laws. Of the 547 de-
these business men will conform as a result of cisions against the seventy corporations during
very mild pressures. their life careers, which have averaged about
This interpretation meets with considerable forty years, 63 per cent were rendered in the
opposition from persons who insist that this is period 1935-43, that is, during the period of the
an egalitarian society in which all men are equal low status of business men.
in the eyes of the law. It is not possible to give a The Federal Trade Commission Law states
complete demonstration of the validity of this that a violation of the antitrust laws by a
interpretation but four types of evidence are corporation shall be deemed to be, also, a

8’On the role of the stranger in punitive justice, see 91914; George H. Mead, “The Psychology of Punitive
Ellsworth Faris, “The Origin of Punishment,” Justice,” American Journal of Sociology. 23: 577-602,
International Journal of Ethics. 25:54-67, October, March, 1918.
i34 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

violation by the officers and directors of the support for its own penal methods.10
corporation. However, business men are prac- White collar crime is similar to juvenile
tically never convicted as persons and several delinquency in respect to the differential
cases have been reported, like the six per cent implementation of the law. In both cases, the
case against the automobile manufacturers, in procedures of the criminal law are modified so
which the corporation was convicted and the that the stigma of crime will not attach to the
persons who direct the corporation were all offenders. The stigma of crime has been less
acquitted.10 completely eliminated from juvenile delinquents
A second factor in the explanation of the than from white collar criminals because the
differential implementation of the law as procedures for the former are a less complete
applied to white collar criminals is the trend departure from conventional criminal
away from reliance on penal methods. This procedures, because most juvenile delinquents
trend advanced more rapidly in the area of come from a class with low social status, and
white collar crimes than of other crimes because because the juveniles have not organized to
this area, due to the recency of the statutes, is protect their good names. Because the juveniles
least bound by precedents and also because of have not been successfully freed from the stigma
the status of business men. This trend is seen in of crime they have been generally held to be
the almost complete abandonment of the most within the scope of the theories of criminology
extreme penalties of death and physical torture; and in fact provide a large part of the data for
in the supplanting of conventional penal criminology; because the external symbols have
methods by non-penal methods such as been more successfully eliminated from white
probation and the case work methods which collar crimes, white collar crimes have generally
accompany probation; and in the not been included within these theories.
supplementing of penal methods by non-penal A third factor in the differential implemen-
methods, as in the development of case work tation of the law is the difference in the relation
and educational policies in prisons. These between the law and the mores in the area of
decreases in penal methods are explained by a white collar crime. The laws under
series of social changes: the increased power of consideration are recent and do not have a firm
the lower socio-economic class upon which foundation in public ethics or business ethics; in
previously most of the penalties were inflicted; fact certain rules of business ethics, such as the
the inclusion within the scope of the penal laws contempt for the “price chiseler,” are generally
of a large part of the upper socio-economic class in conflict with the law. These crimes are not
as illustrated by traffic regulations; the obvious, as is assault and battery, and can be ap-
increased social interaction among the classes, predated readily only by persons who are expert
which has resulted in increased understanding in the occupations in which they occur. A
and sympathy; the failure of penal corporation often violates a law for a decade or
longer before the administrative agency
“The question may be asked, “If business men are so becomes aware of the violation, and in the
influential, why did they not retain the protection of the
rules of the criminal procedure?” The answer is that they meantime the violation may have become
lost this protection, despite their status, on the principle accepted practice in the industry. The effects of
“You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.” methods to a white collar crime upon the public are diffused
make substantial reductions in crime rates; and over a long period of time and perhaps over
the weakening hold on the legal profession and millions of people, with no person suffering
others of the individualistic and hedonistic much at a particular time. The public agencies
psychology which had placed great emphasis on of communication do not express and organize
pain in the control of behavior. To some extent the moral sentiments of the community as to
overlapping those just mentioned is the fact that white collar crimes in part because the crimes
punishment, which was previously the chief are complicated and not easily presented as
reliance for control in the home, the school, and news, but probably in greater part because these
the church, has tended to disappear from those 10 The trend away from penal methods suggests that
institutions, leaving the State without cultural the penal sanction may not be a completely adequate
criterion in the definition of crime.
 IS “WHITE COLLAR CRIME” CRIME? 133

agencies of communication are owned or occurs in urban society. The characteristic

controlled by the business men who violate the reaction of the average citizen in the modern
laws and because these agencies are themselves city toward burglary is apathy unless he or his
frequently charged with violations of the same immediate friends are victims or unless the case
laws. Public opinion in regard to picking pockets is very spectacular. The average citizen, reading
would not be well organized if most of the in his morning paper that the home of an
information regarding this crime came to the unknown person has been burglarized by
public directly from the pick-pockets another unknown person, has no appreciable
themselves. increase in blood pressure. Fear and resentment
This third factor, if properly limited, is a valid develop in modern society primarily as the
part of the explanation of the differential result of the accumulation of crimes as depicted
implementation of the law. It tends to be in crime rates or in general descriptions, and
exaggerated and become the complete this develops both as to white collar crimes and
explanation in the form of a denial that white other crimes.
collar crimes involve any moral culpability Finally, although many laws have been
whatever. On that account it is desirable to state enacted for the regulation of occupations other
a few reasons why this factor is not the complete than business, such as agriculture or plumbing,
explanation. the procedures used in the enforcement of those
The assertion is sometimes made that white other laws are more nearly the same as the
collar crimes are merely technical violations and conventional criminal procedures, and law-
involve no moral culpability, i.e., violation of the violators in these other occupations are not so
mores, whatever. In fact, these white collar completely protected against the stigma of crime
crimes, like other crimes, are distributed along a as are business men. The relation between the
continuum in which the mala in se are at one law and the mores tends to be circular. The
extreme and the mala prohibita at the other.11 mores are crystallized in the law and each act of
None of the white collar crimes is purely enforcement of the laws tends to re-enforce the
arbitrary, as is the regulation that one must mores. The laws regarding white collar crime,
drive on the right side of the street, which might which conceal the criminality of the behavior,
equally well be that he must drive on the left have been less effective than other laws in re-
side. The Sherman antitrust law, for instance, is enforcement of the mores.
regarded by many persons as an unwise law and
it may well be that some other policy would be
preferable. It is questioned principally by
persons who believe in a more collectivistic
economic system, namely, the communists and
the leaders of big business, while its support
comes largely from an emotional ideology in
favor of free enterprise which is held by farmers,
wage-earners, small business men, and
professional men. Therefore, as appraised by
the majority of the population it is necessary for
the preservation of American institutions and its
violation is a violation of strongly entrenched
moral sentiments.
The sentimental reaction toward a particular
white collar crime is certainly different from
that toward some other crimes. This difference
is often exaggerated, especially as the reaction
11 An excellent discussion of this continuum is
presented by Jerome Hall, “Prolegomena to a Science of
Criminal Law,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
89:563-69, March, 1941.