Report No. 29
11. Reasons why such crimes escape punishment.-Sutherland also elaborated the reasons why such crimes went unpunished. "The difference in the implementation of the criminal law is due principally to the difference in the social position of the two types of offenders". Because of their social status, implementation of the criminal law in relation to white-collar criminals becomes difficult. They are more powerful than the traditional criminals "Consumers, investors and stockholders are unorganised, lack technical knowledge and cannot protect themselves"1-2.
White-collar crime, it is stated, goes undetected because it "transcends the visibility of ordinary cheating practices of small merchants3". It can, however, be gathered from reports of investigating committees or from conversation with intimate friends4.
1. See Sutherland White-collar Criminality, American Sociological Review, (1940) p. 1, 8.
2. Embezzlement is an exception to this.
3. Reckless The Crime Problem, (1955), p. 206.
4. Cf. Sutherland Crime in Business, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, (1941), Vol. 217, p. 113.
4. Cf. Sutherland Crime in Business, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, (1941), Vol. 217, p. 113.
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