NCJ Number
84131
Date Published
1980
Length
28 pages
Annotation
White-collar crime in the European Economic Community (EEC) is rooted in psycho-sociological, socio-legal, and economic factors, and efforts to counter it must take into account these factors.
Abstract
An analysis of a survey of businesspersons' attitudes toward various ethical and legal issues shows that the moral attitudes of businesspersons towards the business world tend to foster delinquency. At the socio-legal level, white-collar crime is developing because of the inadequate adjustment of incriminatory laws, problems of control, and the inadequacy of purely administrative regulations. Because of a lack of criminal law directly applicable in all the countries of the EEC, repression relies on the combination of EEC and domestic laws. This combination has the major drawbacks of the complexity within each country and disparities between countries. Problems of control ensure that offenders can operate with impunity, because illegal activities go undetected. In the case of purely administrative regulations, deterrence is reduced, because sanctions, if any are applied, do not carry the force attached to criminal convictions. Economic factors bearing upon white-collar crime in the EEC include complex laws that hinder the free circulation of goods and services in the EEC, the disparities in the economic levels of the member countries of the EEC, and the need for extended trade with foreign countries. Solutions to the problem of white-collar crime in the EEC must undermine the negative influence of the foregoing factors. A total of 21 notes are provided.