1、White-Collar Crime白领犯罪1 when the public demands “law and order”, and when newspaper editorials talk about the “rising tide of crime”, they have in mind mostly street crime committed be the poor. Even the massive report of the presidents crime commission, the challenge of crime in a free society, dev
2、oted only two pages to the entire subject of white collar offenders and business crimes. 当市民们诉求“法律和秩序”时，当报纸社论谈及“犯罪上升潮”时，他们认为大部分的街道犯罪主要是穷人们引发的。在总统所作的大量关于社会犯罪的报告中，如：“自由社会里面临的犯罪挑战”里仅有两页是专门谈及白领犯罪和商业犯罪的。The deep concern with street crime is understandable. Unlike a swindler, who merely takes the victims
3、money, an armed mugger threatens physical injury and even death. Yet the fact remains that a great deal of crime in American societyperhaps most crime, and certainly the most costly crimeis committed by respectable middle-class and upper-class citizens.对街头犯罪的深切关注是可以理解的。这不像一个仅仅拿走受害人钱财的骗子，武装劫匪毕竟会威胁人身伤
4、害，甚至死亡。但事实仍然是：在美国社会里大量的犯罪，或许是大多数的犯罪，同时也是代价最高的犯罪，它被受人尊敬的中产阶级和上层阶级公民所引发的。The term “white-collar crime” was first used by Edwin Sutherland in an address to the American sociological association in 1939. “White-collar crime,” he declared, “may be defined approximately as a crime committed by a person of
5、 respectability and high status in the course of his occupation”. Sutherland documented the existence of this form of crime with a study of the careers of 70 large, reputable corporations, which together had committed 980 violations of the criminal law, or average of 14 convictions apiece.1939 年， “白
6、领犯罪”一词在美国社会学协会被埃德温萨瑟兰首次使用，他宣称：“白领犯罪可能被近似定义为：具有很好名声和很高社会地位的人在他的职业生涯里所犯的罪行” 。萨瑟兰犯罪档案显示存在这样一种犯罪事实：通过研究 70 个大公司，这些声誉很好的公司一共有 980 次违法犯罪，或者平均每个公司有 14 人被定罪的记录。Behind the offense of false advertising, unfair labor practices, restraint of trade, price-fixing agreements, stock manipulation copyright infringem
7、ent, and outright swindles, were perfectly respectable middle-class executives. sociologists now use the term “white collar crime ”to refer not only to crimes committed in the course of business activities for corporate benefit but also to crimes , such as embezzlement, typically committed by person
8、s of high status for personal benefit. 在谴责虚假广告，不公平的劳动就业，贸易壁垒，价格操纵协议，股价操纵、侵犯版权以及公然诈骗等行为的背后，完全是受人尊敬的中产阶级高管们。社会学家现在使用的“白领犯罪”一词指：不仅指在公司经营活动过程中损害其利益的犯罪行为，还包括高职务人群为私人利益而实施的犯罪行为，如贪污。2 As Sutherland pointed out, the full extent of white-collar crime is difficult to assess. Many corporate malpractices go und
9、etected, and many wealthy people are able to commit crimes like expense-account fraud for years without being found out.正如萨瑟兰指出的那样，白领犯罪的充分程度是很难估量的。许多企业舞弊很难被发现，许多富人都能够确保类似于费用报销单欺诈这样的犯罪行为在很多年里不被人发现。More important, white-collar crimes are usually regarded as somehow less serious than the crimes of the
10、lower class, and attract less attention from police and prosecutors. Even the victims may be unwilling to prosecute because of the offenders “standing in the community” and trying to settle the matter out of court. 更重要的是，和下层社会的罪行相比，白领犯罪通常被认为无足轻重，警察和检察官对此也漠然。受害者甚至可能因为对方的社会地位而不愿诉诸法律，转而通过法庭外的途径加以解决。A c
11、ompany that finds its safe has been burgled in the night will immediately summon the police, but it might not do so if it finds that one of its executives has embezzled some of its funds. To avoid unwelcome publicity, the company official may simply allow the offender to resign after making an arran
12、gement to repay the missing money.当公司察觉到有人在夜间入室行窃时，他将会立即报警；可如果它发现部份公司高管挪用公款时，他就不会这么做了。该公司官员可能只是让罪犯承诺偿还丢失的钱财后立即辞职，以此来避免出现有损公司形象的言论。3 On the whole, American society is remarkably tolerant of white-collar crime. A pickpocket who steals $100 may well go to prison, but imprisonment of a person evading pa
13、yment of a similar sum in taxes is almost unheard of; indeed, tax evasion has to reach huge sums before the internal revenue service refers the matter to the FBI rather than settling it privately. The main reason for this tolerance seems to be that most white-collar crime involves large, impersonal
14、organizations: there is little feeling that a specific individual has been unjustly victimized. 整体而言，美国社会对白领犯罪是非常宽容的。一个偷了 100 美元的扒手很可能被送进监狱，但因逃避等值金额的税款而被押的人却是闻所未闻；的确，当逃税金额达到一定值后，国税局将把问题交由联邦调查局去处理，而不是私下去解决。宽容的主要原因似乎是大多数白领犯罪涉及数量巨大的非个人组织机构：这多少给人一种当事人受到不公正待遇的感觉Thus, many people who would never dream of
15、stealing items from a private home are quite willing to take “souvenirs” such as ashtrays, towels sheets from hotels. In fact, about one hotel guest in three steals something from his or her hotel room, amounting to a total annual loss of over $500 million. In commercial activity as well, we accept
16、a certain mount of deception as being normal, the most striking examples of this tolerance of deceit may be found in the field of advertising. As one writer points out： 因此，许多人从来没有想过从一个私人住宅偷取物品，但却很乐意从酒店里带走烟灰缸、毛巾、床单这样的“纪念品” 。事实上，一个旅客从酒店房间进行 3 次行窃，将会导致每年超过 5 亿美金的损失。在商业活动中也类似，我们把一定的欺诈当成平常之事，最突出的例子可以从广告业
17、中发现。正如一位作家指出的那样：Modern mass advertising at its heart represents a kind of deception and misrepresentationthe long term effect of advertising is to encourage an attitude to engage in fraudulent practices and to accept such practicesat all social levels of our society.mass advertising promotes a philo
18、sophy of behavior and of mans nature which cant help but exert indirect influence on the value patterns and dominant activities of our society.现代大众广告本质上代表一种欺骗和歪曲,广告的长期效应是鼓励欺诈行为，并默许这种行为。在社会的各个层面大众广告引导着人们的行为哲学和人性本质，也间接影响着人们的价值观和社会的主流活动。4 Because most white-collar crime is unreported and therefore unre
19、corded, its total economic impact is difficult to ascertain. Even when it is detected, the cost is not easily measured. How do we evaluate the social and economic cost of illegal pollution of air and water, of the use of false advertising, or of a major stock swindle? 由于大多数白领犯罪是未被报告的，因此也未被记录，它造成的经济损
20、失难以估量。甚至当它被发现了，损失同样是不容易测算的。我们如何评价：因非法排放废气和废水、利用虚假广告、严重股票诈骗而造成的社会和经济损失？We do have some indications, however, of just how great the economic impact of white-collar crimeembezzlement, forgery, tax evasion, and fraud-with the annual cost of four categories of property crime auto theft, robbery, burglary
21、, and larceny of sums exceeding $50.the total cost in 1967 of the white-collar crimes was almost three times that of the property crimes-$173000000 as opposed to $614000000. To cite another example, short weighting may cost American consumers as much as $10 billion a year 然而，我们确实可以从一些迹象获知，白领犯罪对经济造成的
22、巨大影响。通过将贪污、伪造凭证、逃税和欺诈等这些白领犯罪与每年的盗窃汽车，偷窃、抢劫，和案值超过 50 美元的入室盗窃等四类财产犯罪造成的损失相比，1967 年白领犯罪总案值 17.3 亿美元几乎是同年财产犯罪案值 6.14亿美元的 3 倍。再举一个例子，很小的比重可能会让美国消费者负担每年高达 100 亿美元的费用。5 These facts raise serious questions about our traditional conceptions of crime and criminals. So long as the typical criminal is stereotyp
23、ed as a member of the depressed lower class, it is possible to regard criminality as rising from personal problems, disorganized surroundings, or gaps between goals and opportunities.这些事实将我们关于犯罪和罪犯的传统观念提升到一个新的高度，只要是特殊犯罪常常被习惯性地划为更低层的社会成员，它可以将犯罪原因归于：复杂混杂的环境，或者没有合适的机遇以达成目标等个人问题而引发 But if, as is possibl
24、e, the typical criminal is a middle-class person who does not even regard himself of herself as criminal, our theories of the crime arises through the same process that generates lower-class crime: since business executives or professionals associate with others who regard white-collar crimes as nor
25、mal, defensible practices, they are also likely to begin conforming to these illegal norms.但是，很有可能的是，这些特殊罪犯是一个不把自己当成罪犯的中产阶层，我们关于犯罪的理论是在贫民犯罪的过程中出现的：由于企业高级主管和专业人士通过与被称作白领犯罪的人进行普通和可辩护的交往，他们可能开始遵循这些非法规范。6 Theorists who study criminal behavior have been quick to point out the implications of white-collar
26、 crime. A single price-fixing arrangement, for instance, may present consumers with a bigger bill than thousands of burglaries, yet it is the burglar who receives the stigma and the severe penalties, whereas the offending business executive receives only mild disapproval and nominal fine often to be
27、 paid by the company. 研究犯罪行为的理论家已经迅速指出白领犯罪的影响。比如：单单的价格垄断可能会给消费者带来比成千上万入室行窃损失金额更大的损失。这些窃贼已经被曝光和受到严厉的惩罚，然而这些卑鄙的企业高管受到的仅是轻微的批评和由公司代为支付的小额罚金。The explanation of this discrepancy, some theorists assert, is to be found in the power structure of society; the offenses that are considered least serious are those that are most likely to be committed by members of the dominant group.关于这种差异的解释，一些理论家认为，存在于社会的权力结构中。被当成最不严重的犯罪最有可能是优势群体做出的。
