Edelhertz, Herbert (1922–1999)

HERBERT EDELHERTZ WAS a criminologist and scientist who specialized in the study of white-collar crime and organized-crime business activities. He authored several books and reports on the business of organized crime, corporate fraud, and the prosecution of white-collar crime. Edelhertz defined white-collar crime as any “illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by non-physical means and by concealment or guile, to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantages.” This explanation, though it attempts to improve upon Edwin H. Sutherland's original working definition of white-collar crime, has been criticized for its overbroad approach that leaves room for the inclusion of non-occupational crimes.

Edelhertz, however, claimed that Sutherland's definition (“a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”) was too restrictive. He believed that white-collar crimes encompassed non-business activities such as filing false personal income tax returns, claiming fraudulent social security benefits, and concealing assets in a personal bankruptcy.

In his essay for the book White Collar Crime: An Agenda for Research, Edelhertz stressed the importance of distinguishing between “the different forms of behavior that fall under the rubric of white-collar crime, since they may vary so widely in terms of motivation, characteristics or modus operandi, victims, impact, and amenability to remedies.” He also recommended better data availability on the incidence and impact of white-collar crime. Edelhertz described how solving the problem of white-collar crime must include a focus on the issues of equity and sentencing. The disparity between the infrequency with which criminal charges[Page 276] are brought against white-collar offenders and the regularity with which “crimes of the poor and disadvantaged” are prosecuted is a shortcoming of corporate crime policy. When Edelhertz published his report, The Nature, Impact and Prosecution of White-Collar Crime, the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice felt that white-collar crimes were receiving scant attention from the law enforcement agencies and research communities. As the economic and social environment of a region changes, Edelhertz wrote, we become more vulnerable to white-collar crime. Although street crimes, burglaries, and drug violations seem more pressing, Edelhertz asserted that “to ignore white-collar crime is to undercut the integrity of our society.”

Edelhertz was in the private practice of law before becoming a staff scientist in the Science and Government Center of the Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers in Seattle, Washington He also directed nationwide federal prosecutions of white-collar criminal activities as chief of the Fraud Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice.