Can only businesspersons be charged with white collar crimes?
Historically, white-collar crime focused on the status of the offenders when it identified them as professionals or businesspersons. However, the current definition of white collar crime focuses on the actions committed, and not on the vocation of the offender. White collar crime is defined as using illegal acts involving deceit to obtain property or services or to gain a business or professional advantage. Examples of cases involving crimes not traditional thought to be white collar crimes include drug dealers charged with mail fraud when they delivered controlled substances through the mail, and a printer convicted of securities fraud when he used information he obtained in the course of printing corporate documents to gain an advantage in the stock market.
The RICO Act is generally thought of as a white collar crime prevention statute. It punishes anyone who engages in a pattern of racketeering to generate income to buy a business or to conduct a business. The pattern of racketeering refers to at least two criminal acts listed in the statute that have a relationship to each other and occur within ten years of each other. Originally passed to control organized crime, RICO has been applied to drug dealers, and other non-organized crime defendants.
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