I. THE CONCEPT OF WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALITY
In the aftermath of World War II, with the increase in the number of branches of law where criminal sanctions were applied[1], the concept of economic crime began to be used in the late 1930s and countries began to work on the concept of economic crime in their criminal law legislation.
The concept of “White Collar Criminality” was created in order to reveal and classify the crimes committed by the people in this sector with the increase in the number of employees in the business life and service sector that started to develop after World War I.
The concept of “White Collar Crime” was first used by Edwin Hardin Sutherland, one of the most famous criminologists of the 20th century, in his paper titled “White Collar Criminality” presented at the American Sociological Society and the American Economic Association.[3] Sutherland defined the concept of white collar crime as crimes committed within the framework of the performance of the professions of people who are respected in society and have high status, and in violation of the trust placed in these people.
This determination made by Sutherland is revolutionary in terms of criminological science. Sutherland put forward the concept of “White Collar Criminality” when he realised that class prejudice occurs when defining crime types in criminal legislation. With this determination, Sutherland has broken the prejudices that the poor are more prone to crime than those with high social status, and has shown that people with high social status in the eyes of society can also commit crimes.
Indeed, in Sutherland’s time, both in crime definitions, in the application of laws and in crime statistics, crimes committed by white-collar workers were not subject to prosecution, and even if they were subject to prosecution, they were not subject to criminal sanctions and these crimes were not reflected in crime statistics. However, an analysis of current crime statistics clearly shows that crimes committed by white-collar workers cause much greater material damage than ordinary crimes.
II. CRIME STATISTICS
When the five reports of the ACFE (“Association of Certified Fraud Examiners”, “International Association of Fraud Examiners”) “International Reports on Global Business Fraud and Abuse”, the first of which was prepared in 1996 and published every two years since 2002, published for the years 2012-2020 are analysed, it is seen that companies lose almost 5% of their revenues every year due to fraud committed by white-collar workers.
When only the misconduct report published by ACFE for 2020 is analysed, 2,504 cases were reported from 125 countries, including Turkey, while only 13 cases were reported from Turkey. In the report prepared according to the 2,504 reported cases, in summary, it is stated that the average loss of companies per case due to crimes committed by white-collar workers is 1,509,000 USD, the most common type of misconduct in cases is the misuse of company assets, and the least common type of misconduct is financial statement fraud due to the need for expertise. However, when the types of fraud are analysed, it is found that although the least common type of fraud is financial statement fraud, company losses resulting from this type of fraud are approximately 9.5 times higher than the misuse of company assets.
When we look at the sectors and departments in which financial frauds committed by white-collar workers are most common, we find that financial frauds are most common in the energy, telecommunications, transport and warehousing sectors, and the departments in which financial frauds are most common are purchasing, senior management and operations departments.
When the methods of concealing the misconduct committed by white-collar workers are analysed; forging documents, falsifying real documents, altering electronic records and systems, and creating fake electronic systems and records are the most commonly used concealment methods.
When 2,504 cases are analysed, it is seen that 28% of the cases were referred to judicial authorities. The reasons for not reporting the cases to the judicial authorities are reconciliation, internal audit being deemed sufficient, and companies’ fear of loss of reputation.
III. COMMON CRIME TYPES
When the definition of “White Collar Criminality” made by Sutherland is examined, it can be argued that white collar criminality has two elements: the perpetrator has a high social status and the offence is committed during the performance of the profession. Based on this definition, we are of the opinion that accepting every economic crime as white-collar crime would expand the definition of white-collar crime too much and would constitute an obstacle in taking the necessary measures to combat white-collar crime.
Considering that every crime committed by white-collar workers against their property during the execution of their professions can be considered as white-collar crime and it may be almost impossible to count all types of crimes, the concept of “White-Collar Crime” has been discussed only historically, conceptually and criminologically in the first part of this study, which we call “White-Collar Crimes”.
In the following studies, some of the white-collar crimes such as Capital Market Crimes, Personal Data Violations, Unfair Competition, Fraudulent and Negligent Bankruptcy, Forgery of Documents, Disclosure of Trade Secret, Banking Secret or Customer Secret, etc., which are among the types of crimes that are generally encountered by white-collar workers during the commission of the crime and trying to conceal the crime committed, will be included and the crime of “Abuse of Trust”, which is one of the most frequently encountered crime types, will be discussed with its elements.
Later on, in our studies that will be the continuation of our “White Collar Crimes” study, the above-mentioned crime types will be examined in detail with their elements in each of our studies respectively.
[1] Sahir Erman, Commercial Criminal Law, General Part, Mathematics Research Institute Printing Workshop, Istanbul, 1976, p. 1.
[2] Fatih Selami Mahmutoğlu, Crimes and Administrative Offences Arising from Credit Law in the Context of Economic Crimes, Seçkin Publishing, Ankara, 2003, p. 28.
[3] See Edwin H. Sutherland, “White Collar Criminality”, American Sociological Review, Vol: 5, No: 1, February 1940, pp. 1-12; For the Turkish translation of the article see Edwin H. Sutherland, “White Collar Criminality”, Translation: Selman Dursun, Suç Politikası, Seçkin Yayıncılık, Ankara, 2006, pp. 295 et seq., Sulhi Dönmezer, Kriminoloji, Beta Yayıncılık, İstanbul, 1994, pp. 75-76
