Q1.
A criminologist studies and specializes in crime prevention, criminal behavior and how society reacts to crime. A criminologist analyzes crime and criminal behaviors with the aim of providing explanations on who commits crime and the reasons for committing it (Burney & Pemberton, 2013). Conversely, a criminalist is a person who studies crime by collecting and analyzing hard evidence and data. Criminalists study forensic evidence in a crime scene investigation. Imperatively, criminology deals with the study of crime and criminal behavior and why crime takes place while criminalistics is a specialized section in the forensic science aimed at studying hard criminal evidence that includes DNA materials, firearms and weaponry among other evidence. Criminologists and criminalists are used in the public sector as crime scene technicians, law enforcement officers, investigators and crime analysts. However, in the private sector, these personnels can be used as company investigators, security managers, and private investigators (Flavin, 2017). Further, criminalists can also work as forensic science technicians in the private sector. In addition, they can work as crime laboratory technicians.
If I were a criminalist, I would want to work as forensic technician in a private company (Burney & Pemberton, 2013). I would also work as a crime laboratory technician. These careers are linked in that I would apply the same knowledge and skills in practicing them; though in different perspectives. As a forensic technician, I would help the companies to carry out a forensic audit of their systems to ascertain any criminal activities while in the public sector I would help government agencies acquire hard evidence concerning a crime scene. As a criminologist, I would work as a security manager for an amusement park while in the public I would work as a law enforcement officer (Flavin, 2017). Being a security manager in an amusement park offers me the opportunity to use my skills and knowledge to protect the public while working as a law enforcement officer allows me to serve the public interests.
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Q2.
The differences between white collar and blue collar crimes emanate from their nature, attitude and social statuses of those who perpetrate them. White collar crimes are committed by people with high social and economic status as the perpetrators are professionals or perform administrative duties. White collar criminals are skilled employee who perform creative and critical thinking tasks and thus can calculate the impact of their actions (Justice Committee, 2013). White collar crime includes nonviolent criminal acts like fraud, identity theft, and embezzlement among others. On its part, blue collar crimes involve criminal acts orchestrated by people from the lower social class. The term is used in reference to blue-collar workers that may not have access to same resources as their white collar counterparts. Consequently, these people commit crimes that are personal and immediate like sexual offences, robbery, murder, and burglary among others. Imperatively, white collar crimes are difficult to prosecute because of their nature. In addition, they are more complex as compared to blue collar offenses because some of them involving huge networks that may be challenging to dismantle to obtain prosecutable evidence (Aspen, 2013). The Federal Bureau of Investigations measures the blue collar crimes in its Uniform Crime Reports. The agency’s reporting focuses more on criminal acts like murder, rape, robbery and burglary among other. However, it should be noted that in recent years, FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports include white collar crime statistics. The mass media has heavily focused on the blue collar crime as opposed to the white color crime. These news items generate public attention and the need to consider their overall impact to society. Thus the mass media in a popular culture focuses on crimes like robbery, homicide, and sexual violence like rape cases.
Q3
The FBI classifies crimes in its Uniform Crime Reporting as Index-1 and Index-Two. Index-1 crimes are wrongdoings orchestrated against people while Index-2 crimes are those wrongful acts perpetrated against property. Further, Part I crimes have two categories violent and property crime. Violent crimes consist of aggravated assault, murder, robbery and forcible rape (Barnett, n.d). Part one property crimes comprise of arson, burglary and motor vehicle and larceny theft. On its part, Part II criminal acts include curfew offenses, simple assault, embezzlement, loitering, forgery and gambling. Further, the category also has crimes like prostitution, sex offenses, vandalism, vagrancy, fraud, driving under the influence, and drug offences.
Under the current categorization, I would classify many of crimes in Part-1 as violent, for instance, sexual offenses, murder, robbery, and embezzlement. Conversely, I would classify vandalism, loitering, and burglary as property crimes. Further, forgery, motor vehicle theft and larceny theft qualify to be property crimes. The categorization of white collar crime using Uniform Crime Reporting data continues to improve after it was established in the 1970s (Barnett, n.d). Further, the two parts of crime categorization by the FBI do have white collar crimes like fraud, and embezzlement. Crimes under index-1 include violent rape, battery, murder and robbery. The commission of these crimes requires one to use force and their outcome is a direct harm to the affected person. Conversely, index-1 crimes also include motor vehicle theft, burglary and vandalism. These crimes do not cause harm or pose a threat to a victim directly.
References
Aspen, S. (2013). “White Collar or Blue? Differences in Criminal Law” Accessed from http://www.criminaldefenceblawg.com/criminal-defence-law/white-collar-or-blue-differences-in-criminal-law/
Barnett, C. (n.d). The Measurement of White-Collar Crime Using Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Data” Accessed from https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/nibrs_wcc.pdf
Burney, I & Pemberton, N. (2013). “Making space for criminalistics: Hans Gross and fin-de-siècle CSI”. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences , Vol.44, No.1,pp.16-25. Accessed from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3635120/
Flavin, B. (2017) “Criminology vs. Criminal Justice vs. Criminalistics: Your Guide to Finding the Right Field” Accessed from http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/justice-studies/blog/criminology-vs-criminal-justice-vs-criminalistics-guide/
Justice Committee (2013). “ Inquiry into white collar vs. blue collar offending: do current sentences reflect the economic and social impacts of these crimes?” Accessed from http://www.myd.govt.nz/documents/youth-parliament-/justice-committee-background-paper.pdf
