The upper class commits far more crime than the lower class. Street criminals stole $15.3 billion in 1993, but white collar-criminals embezzled $200 billion. Street criminals murdered 23,271 people that year, but the decisions of profit-driven corporations murdered at least 318,368 (through pollution, consumer and worker safety violations, etc.) Corporations deserve blame for these deaths because they lobby for and enact policies which drive up these death rates. Virtually all other rich countries have higher safeguards and lower death rates.
Back in 1993, corporations killed over 300,000 people in America a year, and probably 29,000 Canadians. Today, the annual death rate in Canada in 2002 is around 290,000 while in the US it is about 2,400,000.
I'm not sure how to reduce this death rate. However, the solution would not be found by enacting more laws or even by targeting white-collar crime.
As the recent HSBC scandal regarding money laundering in Mexico has shown, employment recruitment may not have had the required security checks needed to reduce corruption within the banking industry.
Indeed, there needs to be more accountability in white collar jobs along with greater transparency, despite resistance to the idea of a corporation being accountable and transparent in its management.
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