"Although white-collar crimes do not tend to be of a violent nature, they most certainly have their victims. The victims are often financially affected to a great degree, and some victims have their life savings taken. When leniency is applied to crimes such as fraud, identity theft and the like, the only winner is the culprit." (Haury). 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, financial, or political gains. These crimes are usually committed by a high positioned businessmen or politicians, labeling their crimes as "white collar". Time and time again we see a certain demographic of businessmen and political figures committing crimes including fraud, money laundering, and extortion in efforts to receive political or monetary gain. Unlike street crime, engaging in fraudulent behavior like this doesn't only affect an individual or a small group of people, but can financial ruin up to tens of thousands of lives over one person's selfish acts. White collar crime sentencing is necessarily harsh for a reason, which is to bring justice to those who potentially ruin lives by unjust political or financial acts.

Even though white collar crime is more rare when in comparison to street crime, however because of the potential for monetary loss, or even illegal positions of power, the crimes have larger implications. Certainly most people believe white collar crime wouldn't happen to them, but unfortunately only one crime could affect hundreds of thousands of people when referring to political or monetary offenses. When looking at the big picture, white collar crime is increasing and a serious issue that can affect anyone around the world. Thus sentencing these offenders for their illegal activity must be lengthy and strict, in order to ward off further instances. 

Although these crimes are not new and have been going on for decades, cases connected to white collar crimes have escalated in recent decades due to the advancement in technology and resources. This not only making it easier for these culprits to commit such crimes, but technology is also giving way for more opportunities to occur. Also considering more people are connected today than ever before giving a whole new playing field of innocent people who could be effected at any moment. With fraudulent behavior more rampant than it's ever been before, lengthy and strict sentences must be implemented in order to prevent or ward off further white collar crime from occurring. After reviewing and searching through several blog based and scholarly articles, it's safe to say we could be heading in the right direction when learning news ways to sentence and deal with the convicted.

Many articles, scholarly and more blog post related, can be found discussing the topic and it's debate how to treat white collar crimes and what measures to take when sentencing such criminals. One peer reviewed article titled, "Public perceptions of white-collar crime and punishment" by author Kristy Holtfreter, gave the view of how the public perceives white collar crime. In this article the author refers mostly to a survey including 405 telephone participants who answered questions relating to the issue. As a result most felt more vulnerable to street crime rather than they felt threatened from white collar crime. Which is concerning because of the statistic from, Identitytheft.info.com, which claims "Approximately 15 million United States residents have their identities used fraudulently each year with financial losses totalling upwards of $50 billion." (Holtfreter). Which 15 million is an alarming amount of people each year. Some think since it's considered a "non violent" crime that repercussions for certain related crimes should only entail a fine to strip those who stole so much. However this proposal is flawed. Even if the argument was to be made that these criminals once tried and convicted are not in any place of power to harm others. As they're danger to society led to their corrupt actions or connections with large sums of illegal money. For instance even if you were to take the knife out of a killer's hand, that doesn't mean he or she is no longer a threat. People who deliberately steal, launder, or cause corruption in positions of power that ultimately affect a large number of people should be treated no differently.

When a law is broken and someone inflicts harm on another, mentally or physically, than that criminal should be punished. One article called, "Shaming White -- Collar Criminals: A Proposal for Reform of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines", from the Journal of Law and Economics backs this statement. This article argumentatively proposes a new way to asses and sentence a white collar criminal. "To summarize the argument so far, the government can punish a person by taking away current assets (fining), by destroying his reputational asset (shaming), and by taking away future opportunities (imprisonment). A person can satisfy preferences by consuming assets he has or generating new assets by selling his labor. Fining removes the first means of satisfying preferences; shaming eliminates the possibility of generating new assets through cooperative ventures; and imprisonment also eliminates the possibility of generating new assets through cooperative ventures" (Kahan 7). Here Kahan separates his strategy into three ways to punish a criminal on white-collar criminal charges. It argues the put of how could you punish someone solely by fines when that convict stole everything they possess, why it wouldn't make sense to fine them an amount of their illegally acquired beholding's? Which is exactly why Kahan not only proposes this sentence strategy but advocates it's the only solution that makes sense. Although this does make sense it's unrealistic to implement because there is too many stages for just each case.  With a justice system like U.S it would take way too much time and resources to sentence the criminal making it ultimately not worth it.

When a white collar criminal steals from a person, they are not only stealing their money or freedom, but these criminals are stealing their security and well being in the community. These criminals do this by stealing money from homes who can't afford next month's rent, they take social security numbers which can financially ruin a person's life if taken and used improperly. Multiple offenses including identity theft can lead to financial destruction in the victims lives, leaving them with the mental and emotional stress to put their life back together. "{I had no desire to live, no prospect of earning a living, no way to pay the bills."  --  Retiree and Madoff fraud victim, as quoted in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law}"(Fraud Magazine). All of these issues are a result from just one person's selfish acts, and with the ability to affect such a broad range of people, one must understand how important it is to implement harsh sentences towards white collar crimes. A petty fine towards a selfish and unlawfully criminal will just feel like a slap on the wrist towards them, teaching them or any who dare to involve themselves in such crime no consequences attitude towards the crime. Which cannot be the norm as white collar crime is only increasing and something must be done to slow down or ward off further instances from occurring.

However one article called, "Sentences For White-Collar Criminals: Too Harsh Or Too Lenient? "by author Amanda Haury, took the side of harsh punishment towards convicts of white collar crimes as she pushes her article to sway towards a more argumentative aspect rather than informative. The author pulls quotes and evidence from famous cases and victims in the past, including the well-known case of Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff was a man in a powerful position, when speaking financial power that is, but his power was abruptly stripped when it was discovered that he had accumulated his wealth and good standing through schemes and scams which robbed people across the nation. Madoff's victims mostly fell on his investors, such as Steven Spielberg and Kevin Bacon (Haury). His case was well known for the amount of money that Madoff had stolen under the radar until his arrest . Only half a decade ago Madoff was sentenced to around one hundred and fifty years of imprisonment for his fraudulent acts (Henning). The criminal had managed to swiftly steal or lose around 65 billion dollars from his investors, which is an astronomical amount of money for one man to simply take from people's pockets. Why this case is so important is the lesson Madoff's case made future white collar criminals learn before they felt the urge to get their illegal share. The amount of money taken and lives disturbed by Madoff's acts could never be counted or repaid. Which is sad to see innocent people be blindly robbed by a man they don't even know. Which is what makes white collar crime so dangerous, that it can happen swiftly without warning. Yet what Madoff's case did was stand as a lesson to those involved in such illegal acts and discourage future perpetrators from committing such crimes.

White collar crimes are a different kind of crime. As I've stated previously it's a non-violent crime which entails that the criminal doesn't directly force physical pain onto his or her victim, but it should be treated any different. White collar crime can choose it's victim anonymously or directly, it all depends on each individual case. Which is the point, each case can vary from identity theft to something as extreme as stealing billions of dollars from innocent people. In an article named, "White-Collar Crime Punishment Too Much or Not Enough?" by Frank Perri, the author discusses my point of differentiation when breaking down each white collar criminal case. Each case projects a different strategy, somewhat different motive, and even the outcome from case to case can largely vary due to the vast effectiveness the one criminal can cause. This is why the article suggests a different kind of proposal. Not a fine or certain set length of imprisonment, but rather more personalized guidelines specialized to each case based on damage done and amount of people affected by it. 

Considering the differentiation from case to case when it comes to white collar crimes, one must agree each personal case should be examined and sentenced like one. This concept, proposed by author Frank Perri, is rather new to the white collar crime world. Legislation towards white collar crime hasn't changed over recent decades because the issue hasn't been such a threat until most recent years. Furthermore because of the increase in white collar crimes and the escalating battle with it, laws must adapt in order to fend off the wave of fraudulent behavior increasing due to technology and more opportunities. For instance laws should hold a firm stance on crime including identity theft, money laundering, and extortion so that no leniency can allow criminals to get away with a minor sentence when they cause havoc to so many lives. As legislation and laws against the crime have not adapted to the current situation which faces us today, that white collar crime is increasing by availability in technology which gives way to more opportunity. 

Considering how the Internet has erupted in the past decade, allowing information on people at the click of a button, now more than ever is it easier for someone to be a victim of a white collar crime and not even know it till it's too late. Laws and legislation must combat this increase in opportunity by strengthening their grip on the matter and handing down harsh sentences to those who break the law. A quote from the Robert Kerr's article on white collar crime titled,, "White Collar Crime: Do The Harsh Sentences Fit The Crime?";"In the age of hacking, information and identity theft and a host of other internet crimes, you don't have to be a seasoned and hardened criminal to find yourself facing prison time. The term for cybercrime and similar non-violent charges is "white collar" which refers to criminal charges that can range from internet fraud, possession and distribution of copyrighted materials."(Kerr 1). This sums the concern for not only our present, but our future when dealing with increase in white collar crimes. Advancement in technology must bring advancement in law in order to combat political or monetary crimes from occurring. Kerr stresses not only is their a new category of crime, but that we must fully be aware of this new kind of crime and to what we can as a society to combat it. "White-collar crime is considered a special breed in the criminal justice system because there's a long history of perceived leniency for these criminals; many erroneously believe that white-collar crimes have no victims"(Perri). A whole new playing field has be opened for potential criminal activity. We must understand that a criminal behind a computer can be just as threatening as a person with a knife, just in different ways.

A great example of how we could be moving in the right direction towards harsh sentences involves once a well known business tycoon, Thomas J. Petters, "who is the latest in a string of harsh punishments imposed on defendants convicted of orchestrating frauds. Twenty years ago, a sentence of more than five years for a white-collar offender was rare, and most sentences were measured in months, not years." (Henning). Peter's who was recently sentenced to a "50-year prison term" (Henning), sets forth another milestone case along with Bernie Madoff's which is bringing us in the right direction that we must take to prevent further instances from happening.

All together with past cases and present problems, the issue over whether or not white collar crimes should be hasrh is not whats at stake. What's at stake is the potential danger and escalation in white collar crimes that will occur if nothing is change. The choice to push for strict and lengthy sentences is simple because without it, the opportunities and resources for future incidents will only continue to grow. Engaging in fraudulent behavior like such as identity theft, money laundering, and extortion in order to achieve monetary or political gain is threatening as any other crime out on the streets and should be treated as such. White collar criminal activity doesn't only effect and individual or a small group of people but can financial ruin up to tens of thousands of lives over one person's selfish acts. "White-collar crimes should be punished with stern judgment, just as any other crime would be. Although no blood is shed with white-collar crime, it adversely affects the lives and futures of the victims." (Haury). White collar crimes are necessarily harsh for a reason, which is to bring justice to those who potentially ruin lives by unjust political or financial acts.

