An action that is considered to be an offense committed by an individual, group, or organization using the means available through a company or government office.

Ten Examples of White Collar Crime:

Substandard labor conditions – sweatshops
Health hazards in working areas
Unlicensed people allowed performing specific duties – unlicensed vet performing surgery.
Counterfeiting
Insider Trading
Forgery
Tax Evasion
Bribery
Black Mail
Insurance Fraud

What can be seen is that it stands in stark contrast to “street crimes” or the more emotional crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnapping.  Even if a crime such as murder occurs under this definition, it can be considered white-collar if the motivation is found to be in relation to the workplace, such as going to such a length to keep someone quiet or to make sure that their level of intimidation is known to others.  An individual or group or whole company may commit this type of crime. 

The psychological findings for such individuals to commit crimes when it is believed that their jobs are satisfactory salary wise for decent living standards falls into the same patterns of deviancy as other criminals.  Sutherland believed that differential association worked on a number of levels from gangs and new recruits, to workers influencing each other, to anyone learning a trait from someone else mixed with measuring the benefits and costs of such actions. If the benefits outweighed the costs it would take, then the crime is worth the effort. 

The term white-collar stems from the white shirts many males in professional businesses wear with their suits.  These crimes are often undetectable, not punished to the same degree as violent crimes, and do not arouse the same emotions as other forms of crime. 

To put simply:  

(example A) a person can be robbed on the street – they lose their wallet and everything in it.  Their present financial situation takes a blow.  This would be called a street crime.  
(example B) a company is faulted for insider trading and saving those employees and trusted ‘friends’ from losing money in their shares.  These privileged few sell their shares to save their money.  The rest of the shareholders who are not aware of the underhanded and deviancy of the company’s employees find that their stocks have failed, their money is lost, and their future was stolen.  This is white-collar crime.  

White-collar crimes can steal your future from you, whereas a mugging or robbery just takes your present.

Historical example:

Herbert Hoover was the Director of the FBI, not by his own integrity. The list of illegal practices that he did while he was in this position could all be summed up as abuse and misuse of power and privileges. He was a gangster just like the ones he associated himself with.

Short list of his crimes:

1. Befriended the mafia heads for several purposes as well as kept them from being targeted by FBI and other gov. offices.
2. Undermined the efforts of the FBI to do their job, presented the organization as one of hiring intelligent, ethical people yet, he was not.
3. Fraud
4. Used gov. property for his own comfort such as having the FBI car with a chauffer drive him and his associate to work and lunch everyday.
5. Taxpaying money paid for the limo service and for his vacations to Florida and California under the deception that these were not for fun but rather for work. Meanwhile, he was hanging out with organized crime heads.
6. Used the FBI agents to do home improvement.
7. Abuse of the FBI resources available such as having the crime lab examine the animal feces that was on his patio.
8. Gave the public the image that the FBI was cleaning up the streets of the gangsters meanwhile the real threat was the growing mafia and they were immune.
9. Hoover would make bets off the racetrack, which was illegal.
10. Had knowledge of stocks, insider trading.
11. Hoover openly displayed his prejudice and bigotry towards ideals- and ideas- black progressive movements by such men like Martin Luther King and also did not like the feminist movements that were growing.
12. His arrest for picking up a male prostitute somehow disappeared due to his position of power.
13. His personal life and sexuality was blackmail against him due to the stigma at the time- this in turn gave the mafia power over him. So they worked together.
14. He snooped – would wire tap or phone tap the lines of other influential and rich people – had files on them and could use it as blackmail such as he did with JFK.
17. LBJ and Hoover had a friendship, which may have contributed to the death of JFK and LBJ’s VP position and later presidency.
18. Hoover would not cooperate well with Robert Kennedy, when Hoover seemed to be losing control over his position to not touch the mafia rings – he sent memos to Robert Kennedy about JFK’s womanizing as a form of blackmail.
19. Hoover promoted one agent through what was seen as favoritism – probably due to the fact that they were a homosexual couple.
20. Intimidated LBJ and Nixon and neither one would call for his retirement; instead they would continue to keep him in his position until he died.