Organised Crime & Crime Prevention - what works? - Scandinavian ...

NSfK’s 40. forskerseminar, Espoo, Finland 1998
The controller´s viewpoint is quite different from that of the enterpreneurs. The whole
perception of white collar offenders differs radically from that of the traditional offender.
“You can not trust these white collar criminals, they are not “honest criminals“ like
the traditional ones, who played by the rules and understood that it is in the nature of matters
that policemen were supposed to chase criminals; that was not called persecution“. 13
The way the police look at the new control mechanisms is basically that there is nothing new
in them with respect to crime control in general:
“White collar or street crime, all in all they are crimes that we are supposed to
investigate...why should we go easier with the white collar criminal?“ and “They (white
collar criminals) just cannot perceive that they get subjected to the treatment criminals are
supposed to...“14
The rhetorics used by the police show that the police in its turn is not used to the constant
questioning of its actions. Surely, the police has always been subjected to complaints and
litigation, but the measures used by white collar criminals are different and the according to
the police, the legal grounds are new and more innovative and they are done for different
reasons than traditionally:
“They use all possible legal means against all possible parties in order to prolong the
process....one cannot breathe during the investigation of white collar crimes before one has
answered to numerous complaints that the accused and his legal adviser fabricate“15 ,
and
“... the only point of the complaints is to make the investigation more difficult...and to
take away the attention away from the real matter, the crime that has been commited“ 16
Also the police see that the basic nature of the reactions against control measures is reflecting
the general skewed mentality of the white collar criminal:
“Using all those legal measures involves the same logic as illegal business...it´s
playing games with the law...twisting and bending it, and using it to get what one wants“.17
The fact that quite many policemen refused to answer my question on their knowledge of
cases where the accused had taken legal measures against the police gave the impression of
sensitiveness in this matter:
and
“Yes, I know, but I dont´t want to talk about them.“
“Lets let the parties involved tell about them...“18
13 Comment of a white collar crime investigator (interview).
14 Comment of a white collar crime investigator (interview).
15 Comment of a white collar crime investigator in the questionnaire.
16 Comment of several white collar crime investigators in the questionnaire
17 Comment of a white collar crime investigator (interview).
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