White-Collar and Corporate Crime1

From an employee who steals $50 from the company’s cash box to a multi-billion-dollar conspiracy to manipulate interest rates, the costs of white-collar and corporate crime are far reaching and touch virtually every member of society. However, white-collar and corporate crime costs often extend beyond the pure financial realm. For example, some fraud victims suffer severe psychological harm akin to victims of street crimes such as theft or assault, while other crimes might cause human health impacts from falsely labeled drugs or environmental harms. This chapter provides an overview of the varied types of costs imposed by white-collar and corporate crime. While data for many crimes are sparse, the chapter also includes national estimates of victimization costs that are known. Estimates of the incidence and tangible victim costs are provided for the crimes of occupational theft and employee fraud; tax evasion; cybercrime; counterfeit products and piracy; fraud against retailers; insurance fraud, consumer fraud; identity theft; government benefits and procurement fraud; financial, securities and mortgage fraud; and other regulatory crimes. Tangible victimization costs that have been quantified total hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the United States. Once non-quantified costs (including intangible costs) and other crimes are included, total victimization costs of white-collar and corporate crime easily exceed the cost of street crime in the United States.