Why, according to critical criminologists, are the “crimes of the powerful” (politicians, business people, and other elites) less likely to be severely punished than those of the poor, even when those crimes have mortal consequences? Do you have examples proving your point?
Please leave at least three comments. One is your original contribution. And two comments are you replies to your classmates. Deadline: December 5, 11:59 pm
26 thoughts on “Discussion Forum 14: Crimes of the Powerful”
According to Critical Criminologists is very hard to punish people with power, money is very well known gives them power because the can buy their way out of any situation. Criminologists in order to do their research the find many obstacles along the way, most of those obstacles are related to money, its hard for them to secure funding especially when the research is about the elite or corporate crime, whoever that funds a research usually sets an agenda for them protecting private interests, it gets very difficult to gain access to information about corporate crime because the people in charge are so rich that they can easily pay people to restrict access to private information, and the last obstacle is when they get their research done is how to get that information out to the public, once again they get blocked from making that information available to the public, all this is because of all the money that gets paid to news channels and newspapers from wealthy donors in order to protect their interests.
One example of this obstacles and impunity is the case of the Sackler family, they are responsible for the opioid epidemic that struck the United States killing many people and destroying many others lives because of the addiction opioids created. The Purdue farm paid millions of dollars in form of donations to politicians, doctors, news channels in order to hide the true, they lied to the public saying that opioids were not addictive when the reality was different, politicians helped create reforms so the Sackler family could keep operating and making millions of dollars in profit from the opioids. It is hard to believe that even now they are still operating under certain permits that they have, it is clear to say that when you have money you can basically do whatever you want and still walk free on the streets without any punishment.
Hi Julio. I love your response. It is very detailed and well explained. I agree with all of your points! Great job!! You basically summed up everything that I was thinking.
Hello Julio, I agree with you because people that have money also have power and they do things that are not correct without any punishment.
I suggest students also pay attention to the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, since many powerful people are implicated in participating in sex trafficking and child sex abuse: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-epstein-coverage-updates-b1966553.html
This is very interesting how there are so many public figures involved in this and the media rarely covers it, this is another example of how with money you can get away with anything, the media gets juicy donations by all this politicians and public figures that in exchange they have to cover up their mess.
“Crimes of the powerful” (politicians, business people, and other elites) are less likely to be severely punished than those of the poor, even when those crimes have mortal consequences because that’s the type of advantage they have due to how wealthy they are. The phrase “money can buy happiness” is very true. Without money or being rich, you have more disadvantages and cons than the rich people. The world revolves around money and vice versa. Politicians, business people, and other elites are more powerful than people think. They can practically buy themselves out of any situation. This is because they probably know people or they have a lot of money. “Crimes of the powerful” can commit crimes like white-collar crimes, corporate crimes, state crimes, family violence, etc. These crimes have the same definition, but when it comes to the rich vs. the poor, the rich will always win. For example, a rich white business man is married to a low-class women and he a couple years into the marriage, he starts to abuse her. The women takes him to court, but he win’s the case for obvious reasons. He was so wealthy that he was able to get a really good lawyer unlike his wife. This is one example of how much the system is rigged and very biased.
Hi Amy, I agree with your quote “money can buy happiness”, as I’ve gotten older I realized that was so true. Many wealthy people commit big crimes but of course they get away with it because they are rich.
H Amy, yeah that’s for sure the system is rigged and biased, if you have money the system will work in your favor and if you don’t then you can get up to life in prison for a small crime.
This is a great example since the husband is consider a rich man he is view as untouchable therefore he take advantage of the woman because besides her being a woman he has money to show his powerless wife. I do agree this does show the power of a rich man how he can control everything around him and people all for the simple fact of having money.
Hello Amy, I agree with your point. People with a lot of money are able to break the system we know because they have money or a higher social status.
“crimes of the powerful” People with money are easily given the easy way out due to their money and connections, they have so many advantages over the poor where they have to pay their price and even more. Rich people are known to have the best lawyers and that’s why they always are safe by the end of the day and money cleans up their mess
Hi Abeer, I agree with you that many people get the easy way out because they are rich which is not fair at all, I think if people do a crime they should serve their time instead of paying their way out because poor people don’t get that same privilege.
Hi Abeer, yeah that’s true, when you are wealthy you can afford to pay people to clean up your mess so you don’t have to get punish for it.
Hi Abeer. I agree that the rich are able to get the best lawyers because they have a lot of money. Without money, you can’t do a lot of things in this world. It is very hard for the poor to maintain a healthy lifestyle which isn’t fair.
I agree, the privilege which the rich are consider do have the most power due to more money and connections, those who are consider poor can’t afford to to get out to jail therefore they have to actually take their punishment. While the rich just buy their way out and never serve a day in jail or prison.
According to critical criminologists, the “crimes of the powerful” (politicians, business people, and other elites) are less likely to be severely punished than those of the poor, even when those crimes have mortal consequences because they are wealthy and have lots of money, also because they have lots of connections with people who can get them out of that situation. Money can get any person out of any kind of situation, which poor people can’t do so they have to serve the time that they are given. Also people with money can afford a great lawyer who can help them out. For example, Laura Bush got away with murder when she was younger because her father was a wealthy property developer and they were able to afford a good lawyer and she never went through any kind of punishment for doing such a crime which was that she ran a stop sign that killed Mike Douglas.
Hi Boubacar, I had no idea about that incident involving Laura Bush, you are absolutely right when you have money you can basically get away with anything, even murder.
Hey Boubacar,
I agree with your statement with “Money can get any person out of any kind of situation” because in this world, all people care about is money. Easy money, any one will take that just by helping someone out.
Yes , I agree with you if Laura’s Dad had not had the money he has today the story was different those are the privileges that the rich have.
According to critical criminologists, the crimes of the powerful are less likely to be severely punished than those of the poor, even when those crimes have mortal consequences because the rich are less likely to commit violent crimes, and more likely to commit crimes that never come to light. But, for every category of crime, the poor are punished way more than the rich. This is such an obvious issue that it’s not even controversial. The wealthy tend to have powerful friends with powerful connections, they can afford teams of high-powered lawyers who can bury the prosecution in paperwork and find every possible way to use anything against them. And, when all else fails, they can resort to outright bribery and other illegal means. Poor people are tossed in jail, assigned insanely overworked public defenders, threatened with huge sentences to get them to plead guilty, and generally mistreated by the system. An example is a white-collar crime which is a crime committed by smart people. What I mean is they have figured out the system as well as how to hide their crimes before they commit them. It usually takes the victim much longer to figure out they have been victimized and evidence can be in different jurisdictions or states.
Hey Vanessa,
I agree with your statement with the “wealthy tend to have powerful friends with powerful connections” because once when your rich you could basically whatever you want. You don’t have to deal with any consequence.
Critical criminologists are hard to punish and win over them with all their money and wealthness they have. The words “crimes of the powerful” could punished those that are poor because the poor people can’t afford a good lawyer as the rich can. The rich people have all type of help because of their wealth. Poor people try their best and work really hard to get some decent help they can get. It just shows, money could clean any mess they do or can afford anything they want.
Hi Jesus, I agree with you money is something very powerful thing and you can buy many things that’s why we see that people with power and money always get away with everything.
This is a super important question and the answer is simple power and money is everything in this world in which we live and the one who has both can say that they can basically do what they want. A person with money and power can easily buy silence, can bribe, can cover up which is very easy to commit crimes and come as if nothing happened. Also those people know important people who help them get away with anything. Usually these people use money as a tool a perfect example was what happened in the Dominican Republic with some government military who used to stole money from the government and tried to cover up their misdeeds by donating the money to a church that was also part of the plan. Today they are in prison but are not treated as delinquents as they have a lot of privileges money and power eventually they will return home as if nothing happened.
According to critical criminologist, are the “crimes of the powerful” politicians, business people, and other elites less likely to be severely punished than those of the poor, even when those crimes have mortal consequences. People with power and money are more able to get themselves out of issues. They use money to get elite defendants, and they power or status to buy other people.