A white collar crime is defined as a person who has broken the law by means of a non violent crime, but is driven by economic gains. These crimes are usually committed by professional businessmen or politicians, labeling their crimes as "white collar". Even though "white collar" can categorize a broad group of people, time and time again we see these criminals in similar positions of power looking for similar financial gain. Why i'm interested in this topic is because I'm always coming across in articles another person on wall street or some CEO is being prosecuted for stealing billions of dollars from innocent people and why some believe jail time for these crimes is too harsh. When I read about a person who has murdered another and the convicted individual gets a life sentence I am pleased with our judicial system and can be satisfied justice was brought to him or her. Yet if someone had scammed billions of dollars out of hard working people, I believe they should be treated the same. Considering they had potentially ruined thousands of lives by taking away their financial stability to live. White collar crimes are necessarily harsh for a reason, which is to bring justice to those who potentially financially ruin thousands of lives. 

One interesting article named, "Sentences For White-Collar Criminals: Too Harsh Or Too Lenient?" by Amanda Haury. on Investopedia.com discussed famous cases of convicted white collar criminals and how extreme their sentences were. Yet even though this article was written in 2012, the information is still relevant considering how white collar crimes have been in the spotlight in recent decades than ever before. Also since these cases have been so recently popular, one must understand why the severity of these repercussions is so important when discussing this topic. This article addresses the debate when referencing past examples of these crimes including Thomas Petters, Chalana McFarland, Sholam Weiss, and most famous of all Bernie Madoff. Madoff's 2008 case is so well known for the staggering amount he had stolen from investors, summing up to around fifty billion; because of all the money lost, investors were outrageous and Madoff was sentenced 150 years. Another article by Frank Perri I found useful was called, "White-Collar Crime Punishment", because instead of a very bias one sided argument, the author seem to discuss both sides and provide reasons for each before pushing a conclusion. This article serves as an information resource. The article pulled quotes from those victimized of the white collar crimes and those who were being convicted of them, all to share both sides of the issue. The author does a great job of pulling evidence from New York Times magazine to help support a claim he was making, somewhat establishing some ethos for the claim because of how recognizable the source is. Even though overall Perri's claims were mostly unbiased he still provided a lot of useful information for the reader to make an educated stance on the issue.

My last resource I came across was called, "White Collar Crime: Do The Harsh Sentences Fit The Crime?" by Robert Kerr, and within the article was more evidence than I was even looking for. As it had more than enough evidence to effectively support the author's and my own claim. First the author, Robert Kerr, effectively defined the term "white collar crime "to those readers who weren't familiar with the topic. "The term white collar crime was first used in 1939 by a sociologist named Edwin Sutherland who defined it as A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his/her occupation. Today the term is used for charges of fraud or bribery, insider trading, cyber crime, copyright infringement, laundering, forgery or information and identity theft."(Kerr 1). Kerr not only defined and explained the term but he delved further into the issue by presenting pieces of evidence such as categories where white collar crimes are most common, headline worthy cases we have seen in the past, and addressing the debate of how these crimes should be treated harshly by using past examples. Kerr with a background in criminal law, Haury with eleven years experience in journalism, and Perri with 12 years of being an attorney gives credibility to all of these authors towards the highly debated topic. All three articles were informative even though two of them were more argumentative towards the claim I agree with in that  "white collar" crimes are necessarily harsh for a reason. Overall considering how most of the articles I found generally agreed upon one another's claim about the issue, I feel as though these resources will strengthen my argument towards my research question.

