Profiling White-Collar Crime: Evidence from German-Speaking Countries

White-collar crime is a notable phenomenon attending economic activity. But although both prominent individual cases and more systematic statistics on claims indicate a considerable and pressing problem, rather little is known about particular types of offenses, patterns of response, situational contexts, or offender profiles. Nor is much known about which instruments effectively prevent and fight white-collar crime. Utilizing an extensive dataset of 329 organizations and over 400 case descriptions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, this analysis offers a first detailed inquiry into the relevance and characteristics as well as prevention and redress of five basic kinds of white-collar crime: corruption, fraud, theft, anti-competition, and money laundering. In addition to an explication of overarching commonalities and specific differences, we strive to show that these five types can furthermore be reorganized into two differing classes that are each internally rather homogenous. This finding is of great relevance and importance to effective strategies for preventing and countering white-collar crime.