Meaning, Background, Causes & Types of Socio Economic Offences
MEANING
Offenses
are the illegal actions resulting from the breach
of law.
These
offenses can be classified into two main categories namely,
·
Conventional
offenses
·
Non- conventional
offenses.
Conventional Offences – Where mens rea is
considered, e.g: Murder
Non-
Conventional Offences- Where mens rea is not considered, e.g: organized crimes
But Socio-economic crimes as its name suggest
are social
crimes that affects the health and morals of the public and economic
crimes consist of those offences that affect the economy of the country as
a whole.
These
are
punishable under the general as well as special laws of crimes.
Traditional
crimes like theft, robbery, rape,
murder etc. are more common and dealt with the general law of crimes.
Now, if the historical
background prevailing behind the emergence of these types of offenses
is traced back, then it can be found that even the Greek philosopher Aristotle had
written about cases of embezzlement of the fund by some road commissioners
and by some other officials.
Even in the Bible and in some ancient religious
texts there were statements regarding the condemnation of fraud.
In the twentieth century, one of the
eminent American
sociologist, namely E. A. Ross had raised his voice against business
duplicities and had mentioned that there are some powerful business owners and
also some members
of the executive who has a tendency to exploit people and they do it
and they also
manipulate the marketplace to fulfill their uninhibited desire regarding
maximization of their profits, but while doing so, they pretend that they are pious and
respectable.
The term “white-collar crime” came into the picture
when eminent criminologist Edwin H. Sutherland first coined it,
but it is also a fact that from
his works it can be found that he has not given only one definition of white
collar crime, rather he had used several definitions of white
collar crime in his works. He says “crime which is committed by such a person
who is having a high social status and also having respectability which is
acquired by him in the course of the occupation is white-collar crime”
This term should be used
for the purpose
of referring principally to the managers of business and to the members of the
executive
It should be noted that under
this definition many of the crimes which are committed by the upper class
is excluded, such as, murder, intoxication and adultery as these
crimes are not customarily a part of the occupational procedures of these
persons .
SALIENT FEATURES
·
In these types of offences the particular
motive of the criminal is not lust or hate rather the motive is avarice (GREED)
·
If the background of these types of offences can
be seen then it can be understood that the background is non-emotional which is not
the same in cases of murder, rape etc.
·
If compared with these types of offenses, generally there is no
existence of any emotional reaction between the offender and victim,
· Usually, the victim is a large portion of the public, there is no harm to any particular person, but the harm is caused to the society
·
The act which results in the commission of these types
of offenses
is generally a deliberate and willful act,
·
The commission of these types of offenses are
two-fold- social and economic.
If a big corporation evades tax accordingly,
it comes under the purview of white collar criminal but if a person for
his personal use smuggles illegally some costly sets of television, but
he will fall under the category of the offender who has committed social and
economic offenses
For e.g., in case of theft or assault to a person, the only person
benefited by the punishment given to the offender is the one who got
assaulted because the act is physical and hence it creates individual and
social vengeance. But in these types of offenses the for eg., if some commodities are hoarded or adulterated
then though there will be a ‘victim’ also the act of the wrongdoer is
capable of harming a large part of the society. Thus it is most likely an
injury to the whole society.
CAUSES
In India, socio-economic offenses can
be outlined, after the World War.
Gradually these factors developed these types of offenses, which subsequently breed after freedom and Partition of India, due to lack of proper legal and administrative control.
1. Industrial Revolution: The evolution from agricultural-based country to industrialization bought changes in the country which led
to offenses changing its paces from traditional to these new ones.
2. World War II: Postwar conditions of the
countries were pathetic which led to changes in the normal working of the
society. There was a scarcity of
essential and basic needs after the war, which caused an increasing
demand for such things and resulted in avarice among the businessmen.
3. Business: When new businesses started to emerge in the country it
created a sense of extreme competitiveness
among them. Everyone desired to one-up each other by any means necessary.
MRTP Act was not sufficient to curb these malpractices.
4. Technology: One of the aspects which changed our country for better is
also responsible for causing such offenses.
The emergence of scientific developments and the Internet resulted in the creation of a a new genre of offenses- Cybercrimes.
5. Lack of Morals: As the fear for the ultimate judgment or the world beyond all
humanly things started to disappear, people’s morals and ethics started to
decline. This resulted in an increase in
frauds and also greed and lust for materialistic happiness.
6. Laissez-Faire: the state decided to leave
things as they were and lack of public resentment resulted in grave
consequences which are now noticeable in our country.
LAW COMMISSION REPORTS
When the above factors were
influencing the country the Government started to recognize these problems and
appointed different committees to investigate the matter and tried to control the
situation by implementing some measures as can be found from the
reports of these committees.
The Santhanam Committee Report,
1964
In 1962, Lal Bahadur Sastri appointed
Santhanam to preside over the committee
on anti-corruption. Because of its thorough investigative work and
recommendations, the Committee earned a reputation as Santhanam's Committee on
Anti-Corruption.
In his 'Code of Conduct for persons in power, authority
or positions of trust in our country', he explicitly included ministers and members of Parliament and state
legislatures.
·
There should be no use of position for personal or family advantage;
·
No actions motivated by considerations of, religion, caste, or community;
·
No unofficial
dealings with businessmen or hospitality or gifts accepted from them or
other private persons.
This Santhanam Committee while
providing suggestions regarding the change in the legal framework, which is
needed for the purpose of curbing the problem of corruption, has also dealt
with the concept of the white collar crime and had attached a
great importance towards it and accordingly the report had stated the scenario
in which these evils evolved.
According to the report of the committee, as there were advancement in the sphere of technology and science, it resulted in
the emergence of “mass society”, where there was a group of large rank
of controlling elite who encouraged the growth of monopoly, there is a rise of the managerial class also, all of which resulted in a necessity regarding
strict adherence to the high standard in relation to ethical behavior,
so that the new processes which have emerged in the social, political and
economic spheres can function honestly, but the inability of the sections of
the society to strictly adhere to these standards resulted in the emergence of
a new type of offense, i.e., white-collar crime, which resulted in difficulty
of enforcement of the laws, these offenses are dangerous, not only for
the reason that the financial stakes are much higher in these cases, but also for
the reason they are causing such damage to public morals, which is
actually irreparable in nature.
TYPES
In 29th report of law
commission some categories of socio-economic offenses are mentioned.
·
Offenses
calculated to prevent or obstruct the economic development of the country and
endanger its economic health
·
Evasion
and avoidance of taxes lawfully imposed:- This is particularly dealt with by the Income Tax Act, 1961
·
Misuse
of their position by public servants in the making of contracts and disposal of
public property, issue of licenses and permits and similar other matters:- This actually commits one of the
social and economic offenses, and they specifically misuse their public
position while making contracts and dealing with the matters relating to
disposal of public property.
· Delivery
by individuals and industrial and commercial undertakings of goods not in
accordance with agreed specifications in fulfillment of contracts entered into
with public authorities:- which are not in accordance with the previously agreed
specifications while fulfilling the contracts which are entered into with a
public authority.
·
Profiteering,
black marketing, and hoarding:-
· Profiteering means the act of selling anything in
such a rate which is in excess to the controlled price of that thing and hoarding is the acts of storing anything in
excess to the permissible quantity is meant and black-marketing is illegal traffic or trade-in
officially controlled or scarce commodities.
· Adulteration
of foodstuff and drugs:- It has become a very common problem. It had started after the
industrialization took place in the 20th century. It is not only the problem in
India, rather there are so many countries suffering from the same problem.
· The
offences which are related to theft as well as misappropriation of the
properties or funds which actually belongs to the public:- Previously the Indian Penal Code,
with the help of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and some special enactments
enacted to deal with the problems, tried to fight with these offences and tried
to curb the problem. But as there were many loopholes in the previous Act of
1947, the Act was amended and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 came into
force to effectively fight with these evils.
·
Trafficking
in licenses and permits etc.:- the acts which include the outright sale of the licenses, as
well as permits, are meant, whereby these licenses and permits any other person
is allowed, apart from the person who is intended, to enjoy the benefits accruing
from the licenses as well as permits. The laws relating to the imports try to
control the situation relating to these offenses in India.
EXAMPLES
OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC OFFENCES:-
·
Wage theft
·
Fraud
·
Bribery
·
Ponzi schemes
·
Insider trading
·
Labor racketeering
·
Embezzlement, cybercrime
·
Copyright infringement
·
Money laundering
·
Identity theft
·
Forgery
·
Schemes
designed to conceal corporate fraud activities
· Actions
taken to impede the regulating bodies such as the securities and exchange
commission (sec) from completing their investigations
·
Extortion/blackmail
·
Bankruptcy
fraud
· Using
fraudulent checks, commercial loan fraud, use of counterfeit money, mortgage
fraud, and other financial misrepresentations for financial gain
·
Bribery
·
Counterfeiting
·
Racketeering
·
Drug sale
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