When crime gets creative

Case I: A prominent socialite allegedly evades customs duty flying into India from abroad; she’s carrying lakhs of jewellery

Case II: The CEO of a multi-national company, ‘cooks the books’, sending share value soaring

Case III: A software professional of a leading IT company is caught trying to sell project details to a rival organization

Three examples of white collar crime, the misdemeanor defined by criminologist Edwin Sutherland as “committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” Over the years, the definition has become somewhat broader. K Jaishankar, editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cyber Criminology, says new forms of white collar crime have emerged and “white collar crime now needs to be seen beyond Sutherland’s definition.” Jaishankar points out that “the advent of internet and sophisticated technologies have made the field wider. For instance, the person committing the crime need not be of high social status. He need not even be employed – he could be someone like a hacker.”

The scope of white collar crime has increased. As also the number of cases. According to a KPMG fraud survey report, published last year, 60% of organizations said that they had experienced fraud. This was more than double the number who said so in 2006.  Even so, it’s hard to put a concrete figure on white collar crime in India because data on economic crime is scant and can be misleading. “Most of the data is based upon official statistics, which are so unreliable that no comment can be made upon the trend. For instance, according to official figures, crime rates in India have been declining over the past two decades! In some states, like UP, the rate is on a par with the situation in 1953! This is ridiculous and everyone knows that crime data has little relevance to the real amount of crime,” says Arvind Verma, a former IPS officer who now teaches at Indiana University.

Abuse of organizational trust – embezzlement, bribery, kickbacks – remains the commonest form of white collar crime. But there are other more individual middle-class misdemeanors -income tax and credit card fraud. Both of these are on the rise. Criminologists attribute this to increased social tolerance of such seemingly small acts of dishonesty. “People who carry out these crimes are not looked down upon. They are not socially outcast. Perhaps, that’s what makes them more brazen,” says Professor G S Bajpai of Bhopal’s National Law Institute University.  Greater opportunity for white collar crime has led to it growing. Verma says it’s “human nature” for people to take advantage “if there is smaller risk and greater reward” in committing a middle-class misdemeanor.

(Times of India, 14 June 2009)