Richard V. Rupp

August 22, 2020

My plots often involve White-Collar Crime. Recently on doing research for my writing, I stumbled on a book by Roger Hopkins titled "An Introduction to Criminal Theory." His comments on 'white-collar' crime were of great interest to me because a lot of what I write about involves this type of crime. He writes that white-collar crime "has continued to be neglected and under-researched by criminologists... .Moreover, there has also been a tendency for much research conducted in this area to be atheoretical with white collar and corporate crime seen as a phenomenon completely separate from the 'normal,' that is predatory 'street' crime."

 

Most local police departments are not equipped to handle the investigation of white-collar crime cases. An article in the 'National Criminal Justice Reference Service Newsletter' by M.A. Brintnall indicates that "white-collar investigation has rarely been formally addressed by local police departments and more rarely considered a proper role for police. This circumstance is largely due to the nature of white-collar crime as it has been defined and the special investigative skills required for detection and case development."

 

With the above knowledge it is interesting to note the following from Roger Hopkins book, "It has been estimated that . . . in the U.S.A. the economic losses from various white-collar crimes are about ten times those for 'ordinary' economic crime with corporate crime killing and maiming more than any violence committed by the poor."

 

In the U.S.A., the law enforcement agency best equipped to handle white-collar crime is the F.B.I.

 

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