Law – Blue-Collar Crimes

What separates blue-collar crimes from white-collar crimes? The answer lies mostly in societal positions and ranks. Blue-collar crimes are associated with individuals from lower class society, where as the white-collar crimes are committed by those with a higher standing in society.

A lot of the distinction comes from the range of opportunities presented to the would-be criminal. Every potential criminal is limited by their opportunities in the end – the ease with which a crime can be committed; some have access to a lot more resources that are not theirs but can be taken advantage of. These white-collar criminals have it differently than their blue counterparts. For somebody with no access to huge resources of money and stocks, the crime is automatically rated and categorized with the blue-collar types. In these cases, violence and other cunning is employed where lack of immediate access to funds and such is not available.

Stealing inventory from a workplace and other crimes of similar nature are unlikely to be the blue-collar guys, though, their crimes are much more likely to be reported as violence is more commonplace, and the distress to victims is obvious and measurable. Corporate crime has victims, but the effect is not always recognized, and this is why it’s hard to regulate and truly see the full extent of. In these situations, skill and cunning instead of force is usually preferred, and it gives those in higher societal standing an unfair advantage of being able to commit crimes and get away with it, when the poor person who steals for very different reasons (to eat, to pay rent, etc.) is committing the same or a similar crime for hugely different reasons. This is where the grey area exists.

Police are always being assigned in more numbers to the blue-collar areas of cities to stamp out violence and other crimes, but watchdogs for corporate offices and facilities have very limited involvement and rely on insiders to dish out dirt on companies in exchange for small rewards. This again makes it hard for the same observation to take place, and creates an environment that preys on the less fortunate while ignoring those who steal not to live, but to increase their already-comfortable lifestyles. Until this trend is addressed, the statistics will be skewed and many illegal activities will continue to go on unreported and unaddressed. Is this really what we want in this day and age?