ce 239) From these findings, men over eighteen are most likely to be charged with embezzlement, fraud or forgery. Women over the age of eighteen are a little less likely to commit one of the specified white collar crimes. People in authority positions are also more likely to commit these crimes. These people have more opportunities to commit a white collar crime than a person with little authority. Peter Michelmore, a journalist for Readers Digest describes this situation well in his article, “On the Trail of a Scam” He describes a savings and loan scam and the man behind it all. “Meyer learned that New Era was run by John G. Bennet, Jr., a 57 year old evangelical Christian.” (112) New Era was a getting money from a private university, in which he promised huge returns on their investment. New Era did show them huge profits, but only to gain their trust and invest more money. The private university was gaining trust in New Era and investing more money. Finally, when They had invested a large sum of money, New Era collapsed and John Bennet walked away with the university’s money. Mr. Bennet is a prime example of our findings. He is a man over the age of eighteen and he is in a position of power. People have entrusted him with their money. To commit his crime, he needed to be in a position where he was trusted, or in authority. After he won their trust, he took their money. White collar crimes are growing at an alarming rate and must be curbed. There are many things that the nation can do to slow the growth of these crimes. The white collar crime that affects the most people is the scam. For that reason, scam prevention will be emphasized more than embezzlement. I feel that the most effective weapon against these crimes is to inform the Phillips 4 public. If the general population knew more about these scams they could protect themselves much better. Alison Young, a Detroit Free Press journalist, has a few ti...
