[Ads-l] Antedating of "White-Collar Crime"

[Peter Reitan]

"'White collar' crimes" and "'white collar' criminals" inThe Standard Union, Brooklyn, New York, July 31, 1923. Searching on newspapers.com for "white collar criminal".  "White collar" was set off in quotation marks in both cases.
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Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 5:50:34 PM
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Subject: Antedating of "White-Collar Crime"

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There is an isolated pre-Sutherland occurrence of "white collar crime" in n=
ewspapers.com.  Although this is isolated in the citational record, it seem=
s likely that it is employing an already existing term.

white-collar crime (OED 1940)

1930 _Rochester Democrat and Chronicle_ 18 Oct. 5/1 (Newspapers.com)  Berry=
 was one of several pleading guilty to the "white collar crime" of forgery =
today.

Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Baker,=
 John <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 5:41 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Antedating of White-Collar Crime

The OED has 1940 as its first citation for "white-collar crime."  Here is a=
n example from 1934, although with a slightly different meaning, since here=
 it refers to confidence men and similar tricksters - those who purport to =
be white-collar workers, rather than those who actually are white-collar wo=
rkers but are abusing their position.  From the (Washington, D.C.) Sunday S=
tar (Nov. 4, 1934) (NewspaperArchive):

"Cites "White Collar" Crime
The existing wave of violent crime is serious, but the "white collar" crime=
 wave, which is always with us, is just as serious, Louis Rothschild, direc=
tor of the Better Business Bureau, warned in radio addresses during the pas=
t week.
Large numbers of persons are made homeless, forced into institutions or mad=
e objects of charity through the scheming of "white collar bandits," Rothsc=
hild said.
He placed in such a class fake security promoters, confidence men of variou=
s types, land schemers and the like.  These, he said, are more contemptible=
 than burglars and hold-up men."

The modern understanding of "white-collar crime" is thought to have been fo=
rmulated by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland and presented in 1939.  I beli=
eve it is Sutherland's formulation that is referenced in the 1940 cite in t=
he OED.  The New York Times has an earlier quotation from Sutherland (Dec. =
28, 1939; datelined Dec. 27):  ""The financial cost of white-collar crime,"=
 Dr. Sutherland went on, "is probably several times as great as the financi=
al cost of the crimes which are customarily regarded as the crime problem."=
"


John Baker


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