White-Collar Crime

White-collar crime is financial crime committed by the elite in society. Offenders abuse their positions for financial gain. While being like any other investigation concerned with the past, investigating white-collar crime has its specific aspects and challenges. For example, while street criminals typically hide themselves, white-collar criminals hide their crime. Burglars leave traces of the crime and disappear from the scene. White-collar criminals do not disappear from the scene. Instead, they conceal illegal actions in seemingly legal activities. Bribed individuals stay in their jobs, bribing individuals stay in their jobs, embezzling individuals stay in their jobs, and those who commit bank fraud stay in their jobs. They hide their criminal acts among legitimate acts, and they delete tracks. They create an atmosphere at work where nobody questions their deviant behavior. Another challenge in white-collar crime investigations is the lack of obvious victims. At instances of burglary, murder or rape, there are obvious and visible victims. In the case of tax evasion, nobody notices any harm or damage. In the case of subsidy fraud, where a ferry company reports lower passenger numbers, the local government does not notice that it has been deceived. Victims of white-collar crime are typically banks, the revenue service, customers, and suppliers. The most frequent victim is the employer, who does not notice embezzlement or theft by employees. A third challenge in white-collar crime investigations are the resources available to suspects. While a street criminal tends to be happy - at least satisfied - with a mediocre defense lawyer, white-collar criminals hire famous attorneys to help them in their cases. While a street crime lawyer only does work on the case when it ends up in court, white-collar lawyers involve themselves to prevent the case from ever ending up in court. A white-collar lawyer tries to disturb the investigation by supplying material in favor of the client, while preventing investigators insight into material that is unfavorable for the client. This is information control that aims at preventing investigators from getting the complete picture or aims at helping investigators to get a distorted picture of past events. In addition, white-collar lawyers engage in symbolic defense, where they use the media and other channels to present the client as a victim rather than as a potential offender.