Sociology Chapter 12 terms

The belief, subscribed to by the federal government and many respected criminologists, that organized crime is a direct offshoot of a criminal society that was imported into the United States from Europe and that crime cartels have a policy of restricting their membership to people of their own ethnic background.

Skimming customer trading profits by falsifying trade information.

Using illegal means to cheat an organization, its consumers, or both, on a regular basis.

Repeated, excessive, and unnecessary buying and selling of a client's stock.

Methods of controlling white-collar crime that rely on the threat of economic sanctions or civil penalties to control potential violators, creating a marketplace incentive to obey the law.

Powerful institutions or their representatives willfully violate the laws that restrain these institutions from doing social harm or require them to do social good.

Any act of criminal enterprise that involves the use of communication, computer, and Internet networks.

Using the Internet, email, or other electronic communications devices to stalk or harass another person.

Use of computer networks for criminal profits. Examples include copyright infringement, identity theft, and using technology to commit traditional theft-based offenses such as larceny and fraud.

Extorting money from Internet service users by threatening to prevent them from accessing the service.

Methods of controlling white-color crime that rely on the punishment of individual offenders to deter other would-be violators.

Use of illegal tactics to gain profit in the marketplace. Enterprise crimes can involve either the violation of law in the course of an otherwise legitimate occupation or the sale and distribution of illegal commodities.

A standard investigative tool of the FBI that focuses on criminal enterprise and attacks the structure of the criminal enterprise rather than criminal acts viewed as isolated incidents.

Using the Internet to buy or sell merchandise illegally on the Internet.

Forcing victims to pay for services or contracts to which they have a clear right.

Placing broker's personal orders ahead of a customer's large order to profit from the market effects of the trade.

The process of creating transnational markets, politics, and legal systems and thus forming a global economy.

Using the Internet to steal someone's identity and/or impersonate the victim in order to conduct illicit transactions, such as committing fraud using the victim' name and identity.

Using one's institutional position to grant favors and sell information to which one's co-conspirators are not entitled.

A term that denotes all forms of technology used to create, store, retrieve, and exchange data in all its various forms, including electronic, voice, and still image.

Illegal buying of stock in a company on the basis of information provided by someone who has a fiduciary interest in the company, such as an employee or an attorney or accountant retained by the firm. Federal laws and the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission require that all profits from such trading be returned and provide for both fines and a prison sentence.

A national syndicate of some 25 Italian-dominated crime families who control organized crime in distinct geographic areas.

A group that originated in Italy and Sicily and now controls racketeering in major U.S. cities.

Illegal activities of people and organizations whose acknowledged purpose is profit through illegitimate business enterprise.

The practice of record companies bribing radio stations to play songs without making listeners aware of the payment.

Illegally acquiring personal information, such as bank passwords and credit card numbers, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in what appears to be an official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term phishing comes from the lures used to fish for financial information and passwords.

Systematic theft of company property.

Federal legislation that enables prosecutors to bring additional criminal or civil charges against people engaged in two or more acts prohibited by 24 existing federal and 8 state laws. RICO features monetary penalties that allow the government to confiscate all profits derived from criminal activities. Originally intended to be used against organized crime, RICO has also been used against white-collar criminals.

Federal law that subjects to criminal or civil sanctions any person who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy in restraint of interstate commerce.

Pirated software illegally obtained, stripped of its copyright protections, and posted on the Internet to be downloaded or sold in violation of its license.

Illegal activities of people and institutions whose acknowledged purpose is profit through legitimate business transactions. White-collar crimes can involve theft, embezzlement, fraud, market manipulation, restraint of trade, and false advertising.