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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.legal
Subject: Re: White-collar crime != victimless crime
Message-ID: <2190@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-May-84 17:39:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.2190
Posted: Tue May  1 17:39:38 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 2-May-84 05:48:54 EDT
References: <90@tilt.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
Lines: 33

Stuart Wiener (tilt!smw) in reference to a password hacker sentenced to
two years of probation:

>> Who thinks this guy should have served time in prison?  I don't, but
>> then I favor probation for most "white-collar" (or victimless) crimes.

Am I misreading this, or is Stuart equating white-collar crime and
victimless crime?

As I understand it, "white-collar" crime refers to a class of crimes
committed by people in the upper social, financial or professional
classes: embezzlement, tax evasion, certain kinds of fraud, and much
computer crime.  This sort of crime is generally non-violent, but it
most definitely is not "victimless" -- the victims are the owners of
the embezzled companies, the U.S. government and citizens who do pay
their full taxes, the people who are defrauded, and the operators and
users of the computers which are tampered with.

"Victimless" crime, on the other hand, generally refers to various
vices which directly harm only those who practice them: prostitution,
gambling, drug abuse, etc.  (One can argue that these crimes have
victims, too -- the families of those who indulge, the people who
provide the services involved, or even all of society -- but the term
"victimless" is commonly used to describe them anyway.)

Off the top of my head, I can't think of  a n y  cases where these two
sets of crimes intersect.  Although I'm not sure that prison is
necessarily the appropriate response to either white-collar or
victimless crime, I certainly don't think that the two call for the
same sorts of penalties.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle