If we sample any random group of citizens we will find a certain number engaged in criminal activities. This is true for "nice" neighborhoods, financial districts, centers of governments and religious institutions as well as areas where poor people live. However, according to our constitution, as citizens we have some protection against unwarranted search and seizure. Broken headlights, standing on the corner with friends, lack of wealth and employment are not crimes. But Mr. Colson suggests these activities are the activities of criminals and should therefore be disallowed by the law. According to him being poor, unemployed, homeless or a less than perfect driver are crimes. These are the "smaller crimes" that need to be "repressed".

There's a prevalence in this country to equate crime and criminals with poverty. When the wealthy, the educated, the connected commit crimes we consider it an anomaly. The two east coast students, of prime New England stock, that placed their newborn baby's body in a dumpster prompted the press to ask, "What went wrong?" President Reagan, commenting on the Watergate defendants claimed, "I think the tragedy of this is that men who are not criminals at heart and certainly not engaged in criminal activities committed a criminal or illegal act and must bear the consequences . . . These are men whose lives are very much changed by this."(2) When betraying the public trust is not considered a crime we have to conclude that activities are judged as crimes, not by an unwavering moral standard but, on the basis of class.

Searching for drugs and guns at the scene of traffic infractions would not be as questionable a police activity if, when they stopped my boss or my landlord, they also searched for falsified financial records and fraudulent tax statements. Yet somehow I don't think they could justify that, "Your left tail light is burnt out, do you have a building permit for that fire escape?"

The truth is that INDIVIDUALS, usually poor, commit what we term "crimes". They are investigated by POLICE and are tried by COMMUNITIES. The criminal records of individuals are open to the public. Corporations, on the other hand, disperse both the responsibility and motive for their crimes. They are investigated by REGULATORS (whose power has been greatly diminished) and are tried in CIVIL COURT. Though they regularly pay fines the terms of settlement agreements are rarely disclosed to the public and hence corporations and those that run them do not bear the stigma of criminal activities that we, as individuals, do.

While street crime touches us directly the damages caused by white color and corporate crime trickle down to us over time. It is harder to place the blame. It's easier to point fingers at the drug addicted shop lifter than it is the store that disposes of unsalable goods that it later claims as stolen to the insurance company. The suffering caused by the Savings and Loans scandal will be felt by all of us for decades.

By its nature the cost of white collar and corporate crime is hard to estimate. The Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly puts the annual cost somewhere between $174 and $231 BILLION.(3) That's hundreds of billions a year! Street crime weighs in at $2 billion, considerably less than big brother.

As well as the high cost of corporate and white collar crime, as well as the loss of life, we must bear in mind the very significant erosion of public confidence in the institutions in which we place our trust, our very lives and the lives of those we love. When we see public officials and heads of corporations receive a slap on the hand for their crimes, we cease subjecting crime to moral values and instead subject it to a kind of cost/benefit analysis. What are my chances of getting caught and how much will I gain if I pull off this crime? Can I afford the risks? More and more one hears that the only true crime is getting caught. When wealth is the measure of a person's worth wealthy criminals undermine our moral standards and often get their own radio talk shows.

Improving neighborhoods in disrepair is an activity to be honored. Everyone benefits and it may be true that people are less likely to be destructive in a place for which they feel pride. But we must remember that poverty itself is NOT a crime. Poor people are not criminals and their rights must be respected.

While we generally support neighborhood beautification projects it's doubtful that white collar and corporate crime will be deterred by remodeling the office and trimming the ficus.

2. CORPORATE CRIME and VIOLENCE, Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust, by Russell Mokhiber, p. 21. Sierra Club Books, 1988.

3. Ibid., p. 15.

4. Speak Out - Contractor Safety Screening, Department of Occupational Safety and Health Act.

5. CORPORATE CRIME and VIOLENCE, Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust, by Russell Mokhiber, op. cit., p. 3,4.

GRAPHIC NOTES:
"Bad Desk, Good Desk" Note that the trash can has disappeared in the second example and unsightly trash is kept in the bottom, left-hand drawer.

"kill, killing, kill", is taken from a 1919 textbook on "Business Writing". The adjacent to this small snippet of the copy reads, "To Relieve Muscular Tension."

Our "staple puller" is really a medical instrument, circa 1650.