Criminology

White collar crimes refers to corrupt business crimes that are committed by people occupying positions that are powerful in high office especially the people occupying corporate positions and government officials. The major ones range from insider trading, theft, computer crimes, pension fund crimes forgery medical crimes, internet scams, security and financial frauds, environmental crimes, identity thefts corruption and consumer fraud among other non classified and minor crimes. They are hard to identify and detect since they are executed via paperwork, computer and internet.

They pose a lot of headache to government agencies in their investigation because of their complexity and their hard to detect nature. These crimes have continued to be more sophisticated and more complex as   these fraudsters and scammers artists craft more clever ways of committing these crimes posing even more challenge to the agencies assigned by the government to investigate them like the FBI, CCID, EPA, Internet Revenue Service, the secret service, securities and exchange commission, customs department, National White Collar Research Centre and the Bureau for Justice Assistance (Wiesenberger L. 2010).

FBI estimates annually that these crimes cost the government around three hundred million dollars per year, a figure that throws the efficiency of these government agencies in combating white collar crime into question. Several laws exist for punishing these crimes like sanctioning corrupt business and charging the individuals involved and imposing hefty prison terms and restitution for them among other measures but these crimes have persisted despite these measures showing that these federal agents have continued to fall short of curbing these crimes to a minimum number that can be acceptable, a major limitation for these federal government agencies.

A major advantage of the investigation by these federal government agencies is there wide network of connections and coverage that make them to unravel even the biggest network of fraud networks. For example, the FBI runs many local offices within the United States where people can check in and report any flatulently activity going on in their area. These government agents also offer information on their offices and on their websites that sensitize people on how to avoid white collar crimes, a major advantage to the general public on staying alert to avoid being conned (Wiesenberger L. 2010). The agencies also provide guidelines on the necessary steps to take in case one becomes a victim of whiter collar scams and even help the victims in recovering their lost investments in a way that is unmatched by other investigating agencies like the private investigators.

One of the major limitations associated with these federal agencies is victimization and unfairness in the trial for these crimes. In most of these agencies, suspects under investigation is subjected to an unprotected trial and biased notion by the prosecutors that heshe might be guilty even before the guilty verdict is passed. Unfairness occurs when the witnesses may be forced to cooperate or side with the government or even forced guilty pleas. There are also reports of big companies manipulating the system when found guilty by siding with the government leaving individuals and not well connected people at the mercy of the justice system or the scammers (Wiesenberger L. 2010).

In summary, these government federal agencies have achieved considerable achievement in combating white collar crimes. If the unfairness and manipulation in the justice system can be eliminated, they can be able to achieve considerable success in combating white collar crimes