Old horizons of organised-white collar crime: Critical remarks about the current definition, development and perceptions of organised and white-collar crime

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show the interconnectivity between the economic sphere, governance and organised crime and to shed light on the role of white-collar crime and show that constant redefining of the term “organised crime” has certain downfalls.

Design/methodology/approach

Methods of analysis and examination of relevant domestic and foreign primary and secondary resources and legal acts are used. The paper is theoretical in nature, as review of literature was the main method used for our argumentation.

Findings

The term and phenomena of organised crime have now long enjoyed the attention of many researchers, institutions, policymakers and others. And yet, in this quest for unification, proper definition and classification, it seems that we have somewhat strayed from that original idea of what organised crime represented in the period when this term was first coined. Unfortunately, by doing so, we failed to include the most dangerous forms of behaviour, i.e. (some, not all!) white-collar crime, which falls within the scope of organised crime.

Practical implications

Despite the fact that ideas presented in this paper belong to the old masters of criminology, they have lately been slightly forgotten. The paper is therefore useful to those who are interested in seeing how original ideas about the nature of organised crime are applicable today.

Originality/value

The paper provides an insight into the somewhat overlooked scholarship of those who deal with organised crime and white-collar crime.

Citation

Dobovšek, B. and Slak, B. (2015), "Old horizons of organised-white collar crime: Critical remarks about the current definition, development and perceptions of organised and white-collar crime", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 305-317. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-03-2014-0013