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$a INVESTIGATION OF CRIME AND CRIMINALS In the annals of literature on crime, `White Collar Criminality is the coinage of renowned American Sociologist Edwin Sutherland who defined it as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status, in the course of his occupation. Thus, crimes committed by the convicts employed in white collar jobs are termed as White Collar Crimes. White Collar Crime is an illegal act or series of illegal acts or doing of legal act for achieving an illegal objective committed by any person by non-physical and/or non-violent means and by guile, to gain money or property wrongfully or to avoid payment of legal dues or retain money. White collar crimes which are mostly economic offences are broadly categorised in certain classes likebanking and allied fields, tax and duty evasion and smuggling, foreign exchange and export-import violation, violation of industrial labour and environmental regulations, hoarding and black marketing, adulteration of foods and drugs, Hawala and other benami transactions, bribery and other corrupt practices, coordinated drug trafficking and money laundering etc. Recent crimes of sort are cyber crimes, i.e. crimes related to internet, website etc. In most of developing countries, where corruption in public life is at zeniththe degree of white collar crime has also reached the menacing dimensions. Government officials from bottom to top, are frequently reported to be engaged in many such crimes. Bank scams, Hawala, fraud and computer generated crimes, crime in electronic banking, corporate frauds, counterfeiting coins and currency, doctors and drug companies cheats, corruption in business, black money, misappropriation of govt. funds, match fixing etc. are among the cases most frequently reported in media in India. I have tried to bring together the material keeping in mind the analytical view of the genesis and growth of such crimes, difficulties in their detection and prosecution. Every effort is made to explain the issues in pros and cons. While preparing the manuscript, I have consulted a number of articles/news reports, books, monographs, case studies. I am thankful to all those scholars whose writings are partially cited or substantially made use of in the present work. I also thank all those who have assisted me while preparing the manuscript. iwn.
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