Within the past year, the Trump administration has scaled back its offense against white-collar criminals and white-collar offenders, signaling a significant policy shift away from white-collar crime investigations. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also scaled back significant WCC investigations and has removed a significant amount of resources from the Department of Justice in pursuing white-collar criminals. In addition, the Trump administration has also rolled back Obama-era rules and regulations against reckless market behavior and has advocated for the elimination of Dodd-Frank to give financial institutions broader powers in engaging in market activity. All in all, it seems like the trump administration is actively trying to reduce the legal safeguards that prevent white-collar crime from rising.
White-Collar crime contributes to over $1 trillion in economic damages annually, which is more than all other types of crime. In addition, white-collar crimes have the potential to completely destroy an entire economy, but more practically have been attributed to significant damaging the middle and lower classes and by disrupting economic flows and incentives. White-collar crimes have started to become normalized and continue to defy rational-theory economists who say that these actions are exceptions from the normal mode of behavior. This normalization process is due in large part to the perceived costs and benefits associated with white-collar deviance and white-collar criminal behavior. More importantly, a potential white-collar criminal is more likely to commit the offense when the perceived risks of getting caught and prosecuted are low, regardless of the benefits gained by engaging in such activity.
Given the factors that play into white-collar criminal behavior, one could reasonably expect that white-collar crimes will continue to rise over the next several years. As the markets and financial institutions become deregulated then the amount of risky behaviors engaged by business executives will increase and may even create the conditions for another financial crisis. In understanding financial crises of the past, there is a positive correlation between decreased regulation and increased financial crimes and white-collar criminal behavior. As the Department of Justice and the Attorney General roll back regulations that create security within the financial sector, the likelihood of this behavior going on unabated gets stronger with every passing moment. As a result, there will be significant economic costs and losses in the future if white-collar crimes increase as a result of deregulation.
