Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 62 | Issue 3 Article 10 1972 Role of Criminalistics in White-Collar Crimes, e Quon Y. Kwan Ponnusamy Rajeswaran Brian P. Parker Menachem Amir Follow this and additional works at: hps://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons , Criminology Commons , and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons is Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. Recommended Citation Quon Y. Kwan, Ponnusamy Rajeswaran, Brian P. Parker, Menachem Amir, Role of Criminalistics in White-Collar Crimes, e, 62 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 437 (1971)
Transcript
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
Volume 62 | Issue 3 Article 10
1972
Role of Criminalistics in White-Collar Crimes, TheQuon Y. Kwan
Ponnusamy Rajeswaran
Brian P. Parker
Menachem Amir
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc
Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice Commons
This Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.
Recommended CitationQuon Y. Kwan, Ponnusamy Rajeswaran, Brian P. Parker, Menachem Amir, Role of Criminalistics in White-Collar Crimes, The, 62 J.Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 437 (1971)
QUON Y. KWAN, PONNUSAMY RAJESWARAN, BRIAN P. PARKER, AND MENACHEM AMIR
Quon Y. Kwan, B.S. in Criminalistics, is presently pursuing graduate studies in the School of Crim-inology, University of California, Berkeley.
Ponnusamy Rajeswaran, M.Crim.; A.R.I.C., was formerly an Assistant Government Analyst,Ceylon and Instructor in Criminalistics, School of Police Administration & Public Safety, MichiganState University, East Lansing. He was until recently Acting Assistant Professor of Criminalistics,School of Criminology, University of California, Berkeley, and is now Visiting Assistant Professor,Department of Forensic Studies, Indiana University.
Brian P. Parker, J.D.; D.Crim., was formerly Lecturer, School of Law, University of Puerto Rico; aSpecial Assistant, Bureau of Regulatory Compliance, Food and Drug Administration, Washington,D.C. and until recently Assistant Professor of Criminaistics, School of Criminology, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. He is presently Senior Criminalist, Stanford Research Institute, Palo Alto, Cali-fornia.
Menachem Amir, Ph.D., is Director of Research, Ministry of Social Welfare, State of Israel; on sab-batical leave as Lecturer, Institute of Criminology, Tel Aviv University and presently Lecturer inCriminology, School of Criminology, University of California, Berkeley.
The role of criminalistics has been overlookedin the critical area of white-collar crimes. Thesecrimes receive the least publicity in the news andthe least attention from criminologists, and yet thePresident's Commission on Law Enforcement andthe Administration of Justice estimates that theeconomic liability of white-collar crime dwarfscrimes of violence and organized crime. Further-more, white-collar crimes present perils morealarming than crimes of violence because they areinvisible; they undermine the practical fabric oftrust within a free society, they portend fair com-petition and honesty in free trade, and they injurethe public welfare. This discussion will deal withthe development of criminalistics in confrontingthe challenge of white-collar crime including theassimilation of the role of other scientists who func-tion more or less as criminalists in these investiga-tions.
A definition of white-collar crime is prerequisiteto the discussion of the role of criminalistics inwhite-collar crime. White-collar crime is defined,in this study, as legal and normative deviation
I A definition of criminalistics drawn up and adoptedby the California Association of Criminalists at its 21stSemiannual Seminar on May 26, 1963 at Ventura,California, which has been accepted by most practic-ing criminalists is that, "Criminalistics is that profes-sion and scientific discipline directed to the recognition,identification, individualization, and evaluation ofphysical evidence by application of the natural sciencesto law-science matters." This definition will be furtheramplified later on in this discussion.
from the violator's occupational role. Controversystill exists as to the definition of this form of illegalbehavior, since Sutherland who introduced thisconcept (1), maintained that it involved mainlyviolators in high social standing in business occupa-tions. Cressy expanded the concept to includeviolations of financial trust such as embezzlement(2). Clinard added offenses that violate the wellbeing of the national welfare and economy asexemplified by black-market operations (3).
Quinney extended the concept to cover any oc-cupational deviation and violations of professionalethics which pervade the entire strata of socio-eco-nomic classes which are then not necessarily con-fined to the white-collar class (4). In brief, we de-fine white-collar crime as it is specifically related tocriminalistics, as any endeavor or practice involv-ing the stifling of free enterprise or the promotingof unfair competition; a breach of trust against anindividual or an institution; a violation of occupa-tional conduct, or the jeoliardizing of consumersand clientele.
White collar crime was found to be both legallyand sociologically different from conventionalcrimes. Thus, the controversies over its criminolog-ical appropriateness center around the followingissues, which will only be mentioned but not elab-orated in this paper.
1. The nature of white-collar crimes. The argu-ments around this issue were settled by definingwhite-collar crime as both deviations, not neces-
Q. Y. KWAN, P. RAJESWARAN, B. P. PARKER & H. AMIR
sarily illegal, and illegal behavior occurring duringthe violator's exercise of his occupational role, re-gardless of his social status.
2. The legal basis of white-collar crimes. Al-though the term, white-collar crime, is now a mis-nomer, it is used mainly as a synecdoche for a classof "mala prohibita," an already defunct or a doubt-ful classification of crimes. Other legal issues in-volved, which are beyond this paper, and whichdifferentiate white-collar crimes from conventionaloffenses are the origin of white-collar offenses i.e.their "mala prohibita" nature; the determinationof legal responsibility, or intent especially whencorporations or other economic organizations areinvolved.
3. The issue of the social status of the offender,or can violators of white-collar laws be consideredcriminals in the conventional sense of such a term.This due to the fact that Sutherland originally de-scribed upper-class violators who neither think ofthemselves nor are commonly thought of as crim-inals.
4. The issues involving enforcement, trial pro-cedures and sanctions used to "punish" white-col-lar violators. These issues arise since some of theviolators are only deviating from their occupationalrole which are not legal violations, and if they aredefined as legal violators, they are customarily"punished" by civil and administrative action,rather than by the conventional criminal proce-dure.
The descriptive characteristics and modus-oper-andi of white-collar crimes makes this type of crimeunusual and different from the majority of crimesstudied. Most white-collar criminals do not comefrom destitute backgrounds but are the progeny ofgood upbringing. In some white-collar crimes, of-fenders fail to see their victims; their victims areeither diffuse or impersonal, e.g. the consumer pub-lic or the government. Further, the white-collarcriminal believes that his offense involved no phys-ical harm or infliction of injury. It is because of thisparticular belief of an intangible realm of unseenharm to the victims that society and even somecriminologists categorize white-collar crimes ascompletely separate from the so-called hard coreconventional crimes such as murder, rape, or bur-glary. Contrary to this notion, white-collar crimesdo thrive in a tangible atmosphere and have cer-tain similarities to the so-called conventionalcrimes. There is, indeed, a set of white-collar crimesthat do have an element in common with conven-tional crimes. This occurs when white-collar crimes
are committed through the medium of material ob-jects. The overlapping of the set of white-collarcrimes and the set of conventional crimes is de-picted in the common intersection of the ATenn di-agram as shown in Figure 1.
The model described above is based on the settheory of mathematical logic. It is perhaps themost lucid means of precisely portraying the role ofcriminalistics in the solution of white-collar crimesproblems where the intersection or the link betweencriminalistics and white-collar crimes is the physi-cal evidence that may be present. This is in accord-ance with the definition of criminalistics. The cir-cumstances in which physical evidence arises inthe commission of a white-collar crime will be con-sidered in the discussion of contemporary investi-gations of these crimes as related to criminalistics.
Tn ETIOLOGY OF CRIMINALISTICSAND WIItTE-COL.AR CRIME
The role of criminalistics in white-collar crimeevolved from the manner in which crimes wereclassified. Historically, Anglo-American jurispru-dence had defined the law in terms of prohibitingacts that were "mala in se" or inherently evil. Forexample, behavior that was "mala in se" was theinfliction of harm or death on fellow citizens or thedamage or theft of property. Since the common lawdealt with only these types of crimes against per-sons and property, the investigation of these so-called conventional crimes has and to a great ex-tent dominates the discipline of criminalistics.This concept of crime was revolutionized in 1939by Sutherland's iconoclastic introduction of "malaprohibita" crime, which specifically referred towhat was termed white-collar crime. In this sense,the social injustice and damage of the covert crimescame to be recognized. The methods by which thesecrimes were controlled---suits for civil torts, civilliability, negligence or malpractice--were futile be-cause of the recividism and prevalence of these of-fenses. The exigency of white-collar crime inducedlaw, as a means of social control, to apply thestigma and severity of criminal sanctions to theseoffenses. This resulted in a vast expansion of thelaw, whose provisions now include the motor-ve-hicle code, health, welfare and safety codes, build-ing and fire codes and codes of business, and profes-sional ethics. The concurrent trend resulted in theextending of the functions of the natural sciencecriminologist (criminalist) to the detection of vio-lations of these newly legislated codes aimed pri-marily at white-collar crimes. Where physical evi-
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THE CRIM3INALIST IN WHITE COLLAR CRIMES
CONVENTIONAL CRIMES WHITE COLLAR CRIMAES W4ITE CDLLA R MPMESACCOMPAPIJED BY P.YSICAL EVIDENCE A.ot.OPANIED BY
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
FIGURE 1.
dence emanates from the perpetration of thesecrimes, the significance of criminalistics lies in thescientific interpretation of the circumstances andrecognition of such media in detecting violationsthat would otherwise evade justice. The fact find-ing process by the utilization of criminalistics thenbecomes the most essential part both in law en-forcement and the administration of justice.
The contention that criminalistics does have arole in the solution of white-collar crime is substan-tiated by the employment of criminalists by spe-cialized agencies outside of police departments orgeneral law enforcement bureaus.Those trained incriminalistics and scientists who function as crim-inalists are found deployed in State and FederalFood and Drug Administrations; insurance com-panies and independent testing laboratories, forexample, Underwriter's Laboratory, the U.S. PostOffice, Customs Service Agency, Internal RevenueService, State Gambling Commissions, FederalTrade Commission, City Fire Departments such asLos Angeles, and other bureaus. These agencies en-force codes regulating white-collar crime and differfrom general law enforcement agencies in that theywere created for the specific enforcement of ad hoc
codes. One such ad hoc agency-the MichiganState Public Health Department maintains a lab-oratory which it officially designates as a CrimeDetection Laboratory (5). Similarly, the NewYork State Racing Commission employs a forensicchemist whose function is to investigate unfaircompetition by the detection of doping of racinghorses. These are some of the several examples ofthe role of criminalistics in white-collar crime.
Although criminalistics originated as an applica-tion of the natural sciences in law enforcement andthe administration of criminal justice, criminalistsare no longer so confined in their functions andthe sole scientists so engaged. The assimilation ofother scientists into the area of criminalistics is nec-essary in confronting the special problems posed incombating white-collar crime. Thus there are tex-tile chemists, wood technologists, nutritional andfood scientists, biologists, pharmacologists, metal-lurgists, medical experts, and many other appliedscientists including statisticians engaged in en-hancing the role of the natural sciences in law en-forcement and the administration of justice eitherfunctioning as consultants to criminalists or in thecapacity of criminalists offering expert testimony
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in a court of law in their particular area of exper-tise. An example of the utilization of applied scien-tists and technologists in the legal enforcement ofwhite-collar criminal codes involves toxicologistsand engineers. They are encountered in the variouscounty air pollution control districts and state re-gional water quality control boards who detectand control the illegal discharge of toxic contami-nants and pollutants by "white-collar criminals"of the commercial and industrial sectors. Implicitin their role in the detection and control of theseviolations and in the procedural hearings before aquasi-judicial commission or a court is preciselythat of criminalists. The criminalist, for obviousreasons, cannot be expected to be an expert in ev-ery technical area where there is a tenable violationof the law or inquiry into the establishment of afact. Thus, an entomologist may have to be con-sulted for the identification of a part of an insectthat may have infected a stock of food resulting inthe illness of consumers or an astronomer may berequested by a court to examine the shadows in asurveillance photograph to verify the time when abribe was offered. Such novel situations resultingfrom enforcing codes against white-collar crimenecessitates the broadening of the concept of crim-inalistics. For where a criminalist may be aware ofthe evidentiary value of an item of evidence, hemay not be an expert in the evaluation of that par-ticular item of evidence. In a similar manner, thescientist trained as a chemist, bacteriologist, orwhatever the field may be, "must re-orient himselfso that he can adapt his abilities to criminalistics"(6). Furthermore, he must be responsible not to acorporation or a governmental institution but tothe entire system of the administration of justice.Hence, it must be emphasized here that criminalis-tics is not limited to the criminal justice system butextends into areas of civil litigations. Thus, crimi-nalistics may be re-defined as a "multi-disciplinarycoordination of the natural sciences engaged in theadministration of justice" (7). A result of this as-similation has been the propensity to use the termforensic sciences; however, the lack of conventionpermits the interchangeability of the terminology-- criminalistics, police science, forensic chemistry,and forensic sciences. Further, it is extremely diffi-cult to delineate hard and fast boundaries for crim-inalistics, or for that matter, any other disciplinesincluded in the term forensic science because of theconsiderable overlap among them. For example,forensic sciences include the specialized areas offorensic medicine, toxicology, and document exam-
ination in which criminalistics may share a com-mon basis as in firearms identification; chemicalanalysis; ink, typescript, and paper identification,respectively. For this reason the term criminalis-tics is maintained for purposes of discussion andwith special reference to white-collar crimes in thispaper. A further justification for this may be thatthe term originated from the German,"System derKriminalistik" of Dr. Hans Gross, one of the earli-est pioneers of scientific investigation, familiar toall scholars and practitioners of criminalistics indifferent areas.
The termination of the above preliminary dis-cussion with the assimilation of natural scientistsin other fields as criminalists leads to the contem-porary investigations of white-collar crimes incriminalistics with reference to five major areas:food and drugs, false advertising, tax evasion, in-surance frauds, and questioned documents.
FOOD AND DRUG VIOLATIONS
Food and drug violations are the most flagrant ofwhite-collar crimes because they constitute a di-rect hazard to the population. Because present dayfood is processed on a mass production basis,greater opportunities are afforded for exploitationby degradation, contamination, and even poison-ing of edibles. Inferior food substitution lends it-self to the application of criminalistics in the con-text of food and drug analysis. The dangers of poi-soned foods and unscrupulous drugs had beenknown from early times and through the leadershipof Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, chief forensic chemist forthe U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food andDrugs Act and Meat Inspection Act of 1906 wasfinally passed. This marked the approach of theend of an era of caveat emptor for the naive public.The establishment of the federal Food and DrugAdministration provided the resources for the de-tection of contamination, spoiled foods, unsafe lev-els of chemical additives and pesticides, food color-ing, toxic cosmetics, drug impurities, and drugcounterfeiting.
The more serious infractions of the white-collarcriminal in the food and drugs area is the vendingand distribution of biologically contaminated, putri-fled, or spoiled food. At one time the tomato indus-try was ignominous for processing tomatoes underunsanitary conditions including the packaging ofputrid rejected tomatoes in pastes, sauces, and cat-sup. Formidable outbreaks of food poisoning byfatal botulism and salmonella have been virtually
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eliminated because of inspections made mandatoryby public health laws.
A further recurring problem is food poisoning bychemicals. The problem consists of detecting in-tolerable levels of additives such as pesticides, foodcoloring, artificial flavoring, leavening agents, andspoilage retardants. In addition, seafoods and dif-ferent types of meat are treated with additives totenderize, freshen, and flavor them. While a 100%inspection of all meat, fish and poultry is not prac-ticable, the chemical poisoning often goes unde-tected until sickness or death results. For example,an innocent-looking compound such as sodium ni-trite, very similar in appearance to ordinary com-mon table salt was identified as the toxic agent ina spree of 152 poisoning cases, including one fatal-ity. Sodium nitrite reduces the ability of erythro-cytes to carry oxygen throughout the body therebyinternally suffocating the victim. In this instance,seafood impregnated with sodium nitrite wastraced back to a wholesaler and criminalists recon-structed the sequence of events leading to its pres-ence in the seafood by an examination of the whole-saler's establishment. While it was common prac-tice to clean fishes that were filleted with a simplesaline or brine solution, crystals of sodium nitritewere found in the dust on the concrete floors, onthe cutting tables, and under the hoops on thebrine barrels at this establishment. This was sus-pected since it was a highly common though illegalpractice to freshen spoiled fish with sodium nitritesince it removed its slime and stagnant odor. A rec-ord of a chemical warehouse selling sodium nitriteon a rush deliver with the firm's president person-ally authorizing and accompanying the 400 lb. or-der of the compound negated any accidental con-tamination of the brine, leading to conviction ofthe seafood firm (8).
In another type of white-collar crime, food maybe adulterated or mislabelled by the substitutionof some of its components without necessarily add-ing harmful ingredients. In this form of cheatingstarch may be added to cocoa, vitamins may beomitted from enriched bread or the substitution ofa water-sucrose mixture in orange juice and mak-ing up for the deficiency from the natural productby adding extra amounts of Vitamin C. The latterinvolved the crime of orange juice adulteration bythe Cal-Tex Citrus Juice, Inc. of Houston, Texasin 1958. In addition to analysis of their product,surveillance of the company's plant revealed theshipment of unmarked quantities of sugar andsyrup and a large discrepancy in the amount of
fresh oranges entering the plant and the volume offinished orange juice produced. In refuting thefirm's contention that the Food and Drug Admin-istration data was derived from analysis of Cali-fornia and Florida oranges, it was shown there wasno distinction between oranges grown betweenthese two regions and those of Texas grown in twodifferent seasons. Further, trace analysis showeda high degree of identity between the water contentof the orange juice and the Houston municipalwater supply with respect to the high fluoride levelspresent in both. The disposition of the case was theconviction of the firm's executives in May, 1960(9).
To cite a more recent violation, eclectic criminal-ists acquired a method species individualization offood products from biochemists in 1964. Thistechnique was formulated byresearchers A. C. Wil-son, G. B. Kitto, and N. 0. Kaplan of Brandeis Uni-versity (10). Contracted by the Bureau of Com-mercial Fisheries in Gloucester, Massachusetts,their studies were directed towards employing en-zymatic methods of identification to differentiatebetween closely related fish species. Cod and had-dock, both common Atlantic salt water fish belongto the same taxonomic family, Gadidae. Haddockis more expensive and tasty than cod, but whenmarketed in the form of frozen fillets they cannotbe easily differentiated by laymen, one from theother. On the basis of the application of this newtechnique of individualization and additional testson enzymes these workers were able to show thatenough samples of frozen fish fillets and breadedfish sticks were mislabelled haddock, when theywere actually the cheaper cod. On the results ofthis finding, offending commercial processors-werewarned of this intentional misbranding of theirproducts. This mode of individualization has nowbeen extended to a total of 26 fish species. Further,it has been adapted as an additional technique todifferentiate other zoological species where adul-teration of beef hamburgers and pork frankfurterscan be detected.
Another major responsibility of food and druganalysts, toxicologists or criminalists in the investi-gation of white-collar crimes concerns the testingfor control or purity of pharmaceutical prepara-tions for consumer protection. For the same ra-tionale that the consumer expects unadulteratedand properly labelled food, a medical patient ex-pects guaranteed quality in the drugs sold to him.However, some pharmaceutical companies eitherby accident, negligence, or even deliberate action,
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manipulate or contaminate the ingredients of theirdrug products. Such an accidental incident oc-curred in San Francisco recently where isonicotinicacid hydrazate tablets were administered to hospi-tal adolescents to cure them of tuberculosis. Thestrange appearance of certain feminine traits in theboys was-brought to the attention of field forensicdrug chemists. Analysis indicated that the drugwas contaminated with stilbestrol, a potent femalehormone., The contamination was traced back toNew York where it was discovered that the sameitems "of'equipment in the factory were used tomanufactuire, different drugs. Faulty dust controland insterility accounted for not only intracontam-ination but'alSo cross-contamination with botani-cals, insedticides, and penicillin. (Penicillin, itself,although bnce hailed as a miraculous antibiotic hasbeen found to be fatal to many people who are al-lergic to the drug.) Through analogous procedures,more than fifty companies were compelled to de-stroy contaminated, impure, and insterile stocks ofdrugs in August 1965 (11).
Another problem in the drug area that fallswithin the scope of criminalistics investigations ofwhite-collar- crimes is the detection of counterfeitpharmaceuticals. Encountered here is a combina-tion of* black market activity, grand larceny, mis-representation, and also the vending of dangerousdrugs. This kind of white-collar crime is viable be-cause of the willful complicity of the interstatecafe owner and especially the street corner druggistin their distribution. The pharmacists are offeredthe "high quality" counterfeit pills at bargainprices, whereas it is well known that high qualitypharmaceuticals cannot be merchandised at suchlow prices. In defying their ethical obligations tosuspect the nature of these drugs, these pharma-cists are accomplices in white-collar crime.
While the source of raw materials and sometimesthe finished drug is a diversion from the legalizedchannels of production and distribution, e.g. pil-ferage and embezzlement, some white-collar crim-inals are able to crudely manufacture their ownpreparations with the aid of unethical chemists,and withoat the required stringent controls re-quired for legitimate drugs. Patients may thereforebe purchasing a counterfeit drug whose pharmaco-logical effects little resemble the genuine drug pre-scribed with the tragic consequences that the phy-sician may be misled in his management of thecase. The commonest counterfeited drugs are imi-tations of amphetamines and barbiturates andbear a counterfeited trademark of a reputable
pharmaceutical company in order to mislead thepurchaser as to its origin. Tablets and capsulesare distinctive for different pharmaceutical com-panies for their preparations. Further, they havedistinctive stamped punch marks including regis-tered trademarks. The identification of these char-acteristics is within the realm of criminalistics,when the source of the preparations can be traced,and the question as to their authenticity resolved.
The most notorious of drug violations is quack-ery. Unorthodox drug remedies and panaceas arepromoted by charlatans who prey on those afflictedwith, terminal, incurable, or painful diseases suchas cancer and arthritis. An estimated $250 millionis taken from arthritis sufferers alone by thesequacks (12). Senior citizens are the predominanttargets of these white-collar criminals. Neverthe-less, the suffering patient is always prone to try anyremedy to save his life or alleviate his pain. Thetragedy lies not in the wasted money but in believ-ing these drugs are effective, where the victim lin-gers and does not receive adequate treatment untilit is too late. Hundreds of such preparations havebeen evaluated and some purported to induce suchimpossible feats such as longevity. The old-fash-ioned quack drugs were no more than concoctionsof simple chemical compounds and medicinal herbs.The more ill-famed tonics were Hoxsey's formulaand Mill rue (13). The latter drug falsely assertedto counteract almost all diseases including phoco-melia in newborn babies who were prescribed tha-lidomide, (which, further, was also banned by theFood and Drug Administration).
While the Food and Drug Administration docu-ments what may be a prototype service of a localcrime laboratory in the detection of white-collarcriminality, recently, the Phoenix Police Labora-tory uncovered that a variety of "mineral salt tab-lets" alleged to cure cancer was a quack. Analysisrevealed that the tablets contained almost 99%lactose with only traces of minerals stated on thelabel on the bottle. This led to the prosecution andconviction of the promotor of the quack cancercuring tablets for practicing medicine without a li-cense by the State of Arizona in April 1965 (14).
The gamut of radio therapy, neuro-linometers,microdynameters, electronic wands, Electron-O-Rays, and other devices of the "electro-magneticera" constitute another form of therapeutic quack-ery in which the criminalist engages in demonstrat-ing the spurious nature of these devices and ex-posing another area of white-collar crime. Thesefake medical devices are purported to diagnose or
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heal byproducing a weak magnetic field or emittingshort-wavd radio frequencies. A pseudo-religiouscenter or pseudo-scientific institution is often usedas a cover for practicing this kind of electronictherapeutic quackery. While such devices wereknown to have an earlier origin, in 1900 the Spec-trochrome was promoted by D.P.F. Ghadiali andclaimed over thousands of devotees. A forensic ex-amination revealed that it consisted of an ordinarylight bulb -whose rays were focused through piecesof colored glass. The colored rays were supposed tobe attuned to the body's "radioactive forces" whenrays of a particular wavelength, depending on dif-ferent -phases of the moon, were expected to curespecific ailments. A device called the "Radioscope"followed in 1924 which supposedly measured"emanations" associated with different diseases ofthe body and thrived until the 1960's. By turningseveral knobs on these worthless electrical ma-chines, the instruments "can tune into any humanbody in the world." In 1963, a criminalist for theCalifornia State Public Health Department wasinstrumental in securing evidence that a Holly-wood radio-therapy center known as Drown Lab-oratories was using such spurious devices. Operatedby a chiropracter and her assistants, the contriv-ances were used to diagnose different ailments,especially cancer, even in the absence of the pa-tient (15).
FALSE ADVERTISING
The second major area in white-collar crime inwhich criminalistics has played a key role is in thedetection of false advertising in consumer produc-tion. Through a host of clever pseudo-scientificstatements, half-truths, innuendos, hyperboles,and some scare tactics, wholesalers and retailershave been able to deceive many a customer intopurchasing their products. When purchasers areinduced into buying misidentified goods, their de-sires are effectively thwarted. The notion that thedissatisfied customer will punish the producer bynot buying his product again is no remedial or pun-itive answer. Not only has the misrepresentationachieved its unjustfiaed reward in the initial pur-chase, but many products are not based on repeatedpurchases for profitable production. In addition,by the time that product is replaced, the misde-scription is forgotten. It is the function of crimi-nalists and other investigators in the Federal TradeCommission to detect such criminal misrepresenta-tion in trade and commerce.
Firm principles of deceptiveness cannot be estab-
lished because of the lack of adequate standards. Inappellate challenges by businessmen against theFederal Trade Comission, the standard of decep-tiveness determined by the model consumer islowered by whatever variables existing in thisunwary person and also by giving the business-men the benefit of the doubt. However, when amore comprehensive audience passes along anassertion to those less knowledgeable, the stand-ards of deceptiveness are not the same. For ex-ample, a product description is understood bythe retailers but not by the consumers.
So far, scientific evidence has provided the bestcriteria for judging deceptiveness. Serious in-fractions are considered to have occurred when anadvertisement ascribes a quality, ingredient, oreffectiveness to a, product which, ipso facto, it doesnot possess (16). While an assertion may be am-biguous in meaning of which the less common isused to deceive the consumer, the same assertionmay also convey useful information to a segmentof consumers and a misleading impression to an-other. Illustrative examples of each type resolvedby scientific evidence are cited below.
The case of Federal Trade Commission vs.Algoma Lumber Co., became renowned becauseit was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, exem-plifies the ascription of a quality to a productwhich it did not have. A forestry expert for theFederal Trade Commission identified a stock ofcheap pine wood as yellow "pinus ponderosa"when it was described in the East as "white pine"and sold as such (17). Botanically, there are twogroups of the genus of pine trees-yellow pon-derosa and white ponderosa. The former grows inCalifornia and is accepted in the Western marketsas "white pine." However, the defendant sold thesame yellow pine in the East also as "white pine,"which conflicted with the native Eastern whitepine, to which it was basically inferior. The rulingof the Court was that the designation of qualitywas deceptive since it denoted a superior productin the contested region.
The age of spirits has also been the subject ofmisleading advertising. Forensic chemists of theAlcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the Treas-ury Department, which is responsible for enforcingthe Federal Alcohol Administration Act regulatingliquor ingredients, bottling, and labelling, de-veloped a partial solution with the application ofnuclear chemitry utilizing a tritium dating tech-nique. Large quantities of tritium had been dis-charged into the atmosphere following experi-
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mental detonation of hydrogen bombs beginningin 1952. Tritium combines with atmosphericozone to form an isotope of heavy water andreturns in this form through precipitation into theEarth's water cycle. An age or vintage verificationof say, bourbon whiskey manufactured after 1952could be made by characterization of its tritiumcontent.
Another classic white-collar criminal violationinvolving false advertising concerns the clothingindustry. Criminalists, like textile chemists arealso able to differentiate between natural andsynthetic fibers, and identify animal fibers. Dr.Henry Harap in his Education of the Consumermade a careful forensic scientific survey of themajor forms of mislabelling in the clothing in-dustry where inferior textiles and furs are substi-tuted or blended with the real material and adver-tised as the latter. For example, "Irish linen"handkerchiefs are often found to contain only50% linen. Similarly synthetic rayon is substitutedfor silk. The chief furs in the U.S. are limited to asmall group of skins in which the terminology ofthe retail trade is hardly ever mentioned. "This isbecause furs are clipped, dyed, and pulled in sucha way as to resemble those which are superior inwearing quality and warmth. The pelts of animalsfrom warmer zones, such as woodchuck andoppossum are sold under the names of animals inthe colder climates. Such furs are inferior in sup-pleness and durability of leather, denseness, andsilkiness of under hair, fullness of protective hair,and because dyed, are brittle and less durable ingeneral" (18). Expert testimony introduced in thethe "Truth in Fabrics" hearings in the 1920'sprompted the Federal Trade Commission to revealthat 90% of the fur sold domestically was notmarketed under its correct name (19). One causefor misleading consumers as to fiber content anddurability of wearing apparel is the attempt byindustry to sell at lower and more moderateprices and broadening the market base.
By way of variation, a more interesting exampleof false advertising may be cited in the motionpicture industry. In 1933, the Federal TradeCommission was engaged in verifying the authen-ticity of the celebrated film "Ingagi." (Ingagi wasalleged to be an African word for gorilla.) Thisfilm was produced by Congo Pictures, Ltd. ofLos Angeles and was advertised as a true record ofan African Safari expedition by a renowned scien-tist Sir Hubert Winstead and Captain Daniel
Swayne, American hunter and collector of rare mu-seum species (20). The scientific investigation ofthe film challenged the zoological existence of ananimal new to science called a "tortadillo" andstrange anthropomorphic beasts that were partlysimian. A lexicographic survey revealed that thetitle of the film, "Ingagi" was fictitious as no suchword existed in any of the African languages.Corroborative field investigations proved thatboth men were also fictitious; the "tortadillo"was fabricated by equipping a turtle with wings,scales, and a long tail; human beings suitablyattired in skins represented gorillas; the pygmiesand strange anthropomorphic beasts were enactedby costumed Negroes of various ages. Further,the background of the Griffith Park Zoo in LosAngeles was featured as the scenery for the jungleshots.
Another form of gross misrepresentation andfalse advertising in more subtle forms involvesthe ascription of a non-existent effectiveness tosundry and non-prescriptive remedies. They aredifferentiated here, from medical quackery asmentioned earlier, because of their semi-medicinalnature and their innocuous effects if consumed(as opposed to adverse drug effects). In this formof misrepresentation the seller informs the buyerthat his product is in a position to treat an illnessor malady without medical supervision. It isbroadly insinuated, rather than blatantly asserted,that the product has extensive curative powers.Misleading advertisements of this type have beenused in the "Geritol" commercials which purportedto cure people who feel tired and worn out bysupplying iron to their iron-deficient blood. Simi-larly, Caldwell, Inc. advertised and marketed alaxative to cure unmanageable children of consti-pation (21). While self-diagnosis could be hazard-ous and often misleading, submissions made beforethe Federal Trade Commission indicated thatlethargy is not necessarily a condition of iron-deficiency, nor is constipation a disease but asymptom of an ailment (22). These few illustrativeadvertisements reveal that in many instances theconsumer of such products is misled into believingthat a cause is cured when in fact, only an anxietyhas been relieved and the ailment still is present.
TAX EVASION
The government is itself a frequent victim ofwhite-collar crime in which it is cheated by taxevaders. Tax evasion is a chicane practiced by all
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segments of society, but the greatest temptationsoccur in the white-collar sector. The most danger-ous form of tax evasion is that resulting from theartful juggling of loopholes and exemptions-avoidance. Hermann Mannheim indicated, "Thereally dangerous tax offender does not evade; heavoids" (23). While a great deal of talent andimagination is directed to exploiting every tacticand device to avoid the tax burden, it is an equallyintriguing and challenging problem in criminalis-tics to expose this facet of white-collar crimeutilizing physical evidence.
Many people make sizable tax deductions bycharitable donations in large sums more as anoutlet for tax evasion rather than philanthropicreasons. This has been recently related to theboom in the purchase of extravagant paintingsand objets d'art, which are then over-evaluatedby "fee-happy" art appraisers. These are thendonated to a local art gallery and written off as atax deduction. This has lead to the spawningpractice of conniving art authentication. As aresult, the Internal Revenue Service maintains astaff of forensic chemists to investigate theseappraisals by examining the physical objects.Since the latter may be authentic and valuablecertain non-destructive techniques of analysis areemployed. Such a technique was adapted from onedeveloped by the Brookhaven National Laborator-ies in 1962 utilizing X-ray fluorescence (24). Atomsin the mineral pigments are temporarily excitedby bombardment with a fine needle beam ofelectrons (electron beam microprobe) or withneutrons and their fluorescent pattern sequentiallyphotographed on X-ray film. The fluorescent pat-terns of mineral pigments of a painting are charac-teristic of their elemental composition. By compari-son with bonafide paintings of the same artistthe authenticity of the questioned painting maybe established.
Art forgery, per se, whether committed forfraudulent sale and subsequent tax evasion, is alsowhite-collar crime. X-ray shadowgraphs were usedto expose the spurious Van Gogh works marketedby Otto Walker because Van Gogh's highly indi-vidual art proved remarkably susceptible to thistype of examination. In the noted trial of VanMeegeren for the Vermeer art forgeries, testimonywas produced that the X-rays revealed imagesbeneath a new coating of paint. Van Meegerenhad apparently purchased old and relativelyworthless paintings, carefully painted them over
with a Vermeer imitation, and induced a craquelueassisted by numerous aged cracks from the oldpainting to produce a 17th century effect.
In a similar manner, ancient Roman Arezzopottery was shown to be a forgery. Scientists atthe Brookhaven National Laboratory examiningMediterranean relics for archeologists detectedthat the pottery differed in chemical compositionfrom genuine Arezzo (25).
Another form of tax evasion is the avoidance ofpayment of tariff duties on imported articles. Asrelated to objets d'art, the U.S. Customs ServiceAgency uncovered a forgery for a museum curator.Since by law, only imported articles of artisticantiquity produced before 1830 are exempt fromduty, the Agency chemists were interested in theverification of the age of an antique tapestryimported from Europe. Although the curatorvouched for its antiquity, analysis revealed thatthe tapestry's threads were stained with coaltar dyes, and the latter were not in use before1857. As a result the museum was saved from theembarrassment of exhibiting a forged antiquity.
Similarly, criminalistics has served to detectimproper classification of imports by shippers,who attempt to pay a lower rate of duty thanthat imposed by the Tariff Acts. Precise quanti-tative and qualitative methods of analysis of thecontents of imports and some regulated exportshave thwarted deliberate tax evasion and removedsubjectivity from unintentional and often errone-ous appraisals of customs duties. For example,X-ray instrumentation analysis was employed inestablishing that material declared as "ordinaryzirconium oxide" was in fact stabilized purezirconium oxide, dutiable at 15% value. This typeof examination has been extended to the determina-tion of calcium fluoride in fluorspar, silica in glasssand, the composition of ferro-alloys, and in theidentification of teflon (26).
A more significant role of criminalistics in theU.S. Customs Service Agency is not so much taxevasion but protection of the stability of thedomestic economic market from foreign competi-tion. Where a product is imported in such a man-ner as to avoid tariff duties because of its differentphysical form is an aspect of white-collar crimeanalogous to black market operations. By way ofillustration, a product imported under the tradename of "Lioxin" in the 1960's was shown to be animpure form of vanillin which could be economi-cally purified to conform to vanillin of the U.S.
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Pharmacopeia. Since the price of "Lioxin" was solow as to upset the domestic vanillin trade it wassubjected to a tariff duty based on the retail valueof the domestic vanillin product.
One of the most important areas of white-collarcriminality and tax evasion concerns the Alcoholand Tobacco Tax Division of the U.S. Departmentof Treasury. During the Prohibition Era, itsmajor task was in tracking down illegal distilleries.Since a heavy excise tax, which produces approxi-mately 5% of all federal revenues is imposed onalcoholic beverages, the Division's laboratory hasexpanded its facilities (27). It is said that enough"moonshine whiskey" is distilled domesticallyespecially along the "moonshine belt" across theSoutheastern states to reduce the collection oftaxes by 35% (28). Detection of this liquor isimportant because when it is transported acrosssome state lines as contraband, it is sold at lessthan half the price of the regular liquor because ofnonpayment of the excise tax.
In a precedent-establishing case, both in lawenforcement and the administration of justice,criminalists identified the source of contrabandliquor leading to the conviction of several liquordealers for tax evasion. Illicit whiskey had beenseized from a low-slung rented trailer transporting2,400 gallons of the contraband from a still inAtlanta, Georgia to a distribution point in NewYork City. Samples of red clay soil clinging to thebottom and tires of the truck were scraped andcompared with sample soil specimens from tiretracks in the vicinity of the illicit still in Atlantautilizing neutrol activation analysis. Trace studiesof the elemental composition of the two soils' con-stituents established a common source of origin.This physical evidence was of substantial value inassociating the contraband seized in the Brooklynraid with the Atlanta operators and was the firstinstance where the results of neutron activationanalysis (29) was accepted in a U.S. District Court(U.S. vs. Anderson, et al.).
INSURANCE FRAUDS
Insurance frauds constitute another portion ofwhite-collar crimes whose detection and investiga-tion is dependent upon the science of criminal-listics. This is why some major insurance compan-ies contract with consulting criminalists. Practi-cally all claims for insurance coverage requireproof that the insured item or person sustainedinjury or destruction. This means that there must
be some physical verification such as the deceaseof a policy-holder, vandalism, a traffic accident,workman's injury, or the loss of funds (possiblythrough embezzlement) from a federally insuredbank. The white-collar crimes considered underthis category are generally of the type committedby a party against a corporation. The cause canbe an unshareable problem as discussed by Cresseyor some greedy purpose. The crime is enacted by aman who, for example, decides he needs a new car,and vitiates his archaic 1956 Buick, or the bene-factor-son who plants a bomb aboard an airplanewhich his $100,000 insured mother is on. Thefraud need not be limited to the feigning of the actas an accident; there is also the unscrupulousdoctor and the automobile mechanic who "pads"the bill to be paid by the insurance companywith superficial, exorbitant, and unnecessary ex-penditures.
In this category of white-collar crimes, thecriminalist's function is principally to determineif the given incident was intentional or accidentalfrom examination of the physical evidence. Forexample, a criminalist investigating the burglaryof an insured jewelry item may find no toolmarksor tampering on the safe from which it was missing;also, the window screen may be found to be cutfrom the inside of the house. The conchoidalfractures of the broken glass window may indicatethe breakage originated from the inside, too.Since the only occupant of the house and theonly person in possession of the safe's combinationis the owner, the criminalist would infer an insur-ance fraud in which the owner had "framed" aburglary.
The best illustrating example of criminalisticsinvestigation of insurance frauds is the study ofarson. Fires have been known to be set by respec-table persons and businessmen for the purpose ofdefrauding the insurance company. Arson forprofit is always the first motive to be considered.The heinous social injustice that is not realized isthe criminal responsibility for the death of citizensand firemen trapped in rescue or suppressionattempts.
An insurance agent or broker may be a firesetterusing arson as a device to awaken a communityinto purchasing fire insurance or to collect a greatermonetary commission. Secondly, a corrupt claimsadjuster may collaborate with policyholders oror potential buyers to defraud the insurance com-pany and thus create or augment the existing
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white-collar crime. The period of the depression,1930-35, was marked by the notorious era of arsontorch rings and firesetting by businessmen inconspiracies with insurance agents and publicclaims adjusters. The infamous Brooklyn arsonring included one such broker who gained thereputation of being able to guarantee a fire withevery policy he wrote. Another ring included the"brains" of an unscrupulous attorney; in hisposition, he was able to use all legal loopholesand means available to defy apprehension and tocounsel policyholders to commit arson. One otherinducement for arson is the careless writing offire insurance policies- --over insurance--when poli-cies are issued far in excess of the value of theinsured property. This may be part of the plan ofthe white-collar criminal insurance agent or anoutcome of the highly competitive nature of theinsurance business. It is interesting to note herethat insurance fraud is a white-collar crime com-mitted against the corporation or institutionwhereas before only white-collar crimes committedby the corporation with the consumer public asthe victim had been considered.
There are numerous instances whereby fire hasbeen used to dispose of unwanted property at theexpense of the insurance company: a house tooold to live in is burned down, scrapping of machin-ery, liquidation of surplus or unsaleable quantities.There is also arson committed as a white-collarcrime for making profit but not at the expense ofthe insurance company: the chance to rid a com-petitive business, the opportunity to seek a re-building contract, display of vanity for seekingemployment or promotion, a situation where sal-vage profits over storage, the liquidation of realestate before it can be inherited, etc. Whateverthe case might be, the crucial question that thecriminalist is always confronted with is is whethera fire was accidental or incendiary. There hasalways been a tendency to regard fire as an unfor-tunate accident than a po.sible arson. The eventof a fire is usually associated with "spontaneouscombustion," electrical overloads, or lightning;even a cigarette planted in a bed appears to be aninnocent cause of a fire. Thus, incendiarism isthe most suitable and unsuspecting means ofreplacing unwanted furnishings and paraphernaliaor collecting high premiums or for other personalgain. Another reason for using fire as a means ofcommitting insurance frauds is that it destroysincriminating evidence making the investigation of
arson the most difficult of all crimes. The majorobstacle to arson investigation is on the part ofsome of the detectives and criminalists spuriouslyassuming all evidence is consumed in a fire.
Fires have also been known to be used for cover-ing up other white-collar crimes such as embez-zlement and pilferage. Embezzlers have attemptedarson to disguise incomplete and unbalanced books.In some cases, books are tented with burningnewspaper stuffed into them. Experimentationwith combustible materials show that books arethe hardest to burn because of high inorganicsalt content in high quality paper and small sur-face area, and thus can be recognized as physicalevidence in arson. Managers, foremen, and inven-tory clerks are in favorable positions to concealtheir pilferage by arson. By writing off the pilferedmerchandise as fire loss, they are able to carry onthis white-collar crime. An interesting example ofsuch a case occurred in a southern textile millwhich was destroyed by a fire of unknown origin.Although incendiarism could not be implicated,insurance agents were hesitant about honoring aclaim for thousands of dollars worth of coats andsuits. The owner's description of the destroyedclothing items detailed specific textures, models,and buttons and was submitted to a forensic chem-ist. The forensic chemist indicated that a particulartype of button in the description was fireproof andarranged for tediously sifting through the ashesand debris to establish the number of coats con-sumed in the fire. The search for these pieces ofphysical evidence resulted in a finding that therewere no such buttons. The arson investigationconcluded in discovering that the plant's stock ofclothing had been hauled off, a fire was set, and afalse claim had been submitted (30).
The establishment of proof of arson in theadministration of justice is very difficult indeed.Criminalistics evidence may be labelled as "in-sufficient" to prove guilt beyond a reasonabledoubt in a criminal court since the rules of evi-dence are very exacting and whatever meagerscientific evidence is meaningless if there is somuch as one small link missing. Criminalistics,however, does not stop serving the interest ofjustice here but enters into the civil court. Theinsurance company simply refuses to honor theclaim for loss from an insured person believed tobe linked with a suspicious fire. In turn, the in-sured must commence a civil suit to recover hisloss. Since only a preponderance of evidences is
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required to fight a suit, the testimony of the crim-inalist regarding the suspicious nature of the fireand possible link of the insured may be sufficient.Where the same criminalistics evidence wouldhardly have been accepted in a criminal court, itstill serves administration of justice in cases ofcivil litigation. Such an action is a deterrent toarson because it eliminates or hinders the lucrativenature of the fraud, and this is the role criminalis-tics play in checking as well as detecting white-collar crime.
QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS
There are numerous instances where white-collarcrimes are frequently detected through the altera-tion, obliteration, or forgery of a binding legaldocument: a bookkeeper "doctors" a few numbersto embezzle some money, a counterfeiter printsup a set of credit cards, a postage franking stampis altered, an administrator adds several heirs to awill, the date of expiration of a contract is post-poned, the specifications of a building contract areare changed to substitute inferior products. Inbrief, the document is a written agreement madewith stipulations and conditions between two ormore parties and is intended to provide a per-manent record where memory is untrustworthy.Despite this intention, documents are not failsafebut are fallible to dishonest manipulation. Thesurreptitious alteration or forgery of a documentis indubitably a criminal breach of trust and aninstrument of the white-collar criminal. Somecriminalists have ventured into this area of exam-ination or specialize entirely in this area. However,for the most part they are handled by specialistsdesignated as Examiners of Questioned Docu-ments, and they function as such even thoughthey may be attached to forensic science or crimin-alistics laboratories. Consequently the role ofcriminalistics in this area of specialization andwhite-collar crime is more often supplementaryand of a routine nature, such as the identificationof inks and papers by chemical analysis, deter-mining the individuality of die stamps, and therestoration of erased or tampered writings andmarkings on different types of surfaces. A dis-cussion of the role of the Examiner of QuestionedDocuments in white-collar crimes is hence aseparate and extensive area of study.
CONCLUSION
There are many other white-collar crime areasto which criminalistics has been applied. We can
add others including various aspects of consumer-safety and quality-control, such as testing ofhazardous gas heaters and dangerous firecrackers,also the rigging of gambling machines and otherdevices, the detection of fish, game, and wildlifecode violations and numerous civil cases involvingforensic questions of liability and malpractice.These are areas in addition to the five alreadydiscussed. Unfortunately, criminalistics cannotsolve all the problems of detection and investiga-tion of white-collar crime because of an inherentlack of physical evidence. Nevertheless, it hasbeen demonstrated that criminalistics does play arole outside of the normal police crime laboratoryin the administration of justice and law enforce-ment of nonconventional crime.
REFERENCES
1. Sutherland, E. H., White Collar Criminal, 5 AMERI-CAN SocIoLoGicaL REviEw, 1-12 (Feb., 1940).
2. CRESSEY, B. R., The Criminal Violation of Finan-cial Trust, 15 A mRicAN SOCIOLOGICAL REvIEw,738-743 (Dec., 1950).
3. CLINARD, M. B., THE BLACK MARKET: A STUDyIN WITE CoLLAR CRIM (1952).
4. Quinney, R., The Study of White Collar Crime:Toward a Reorientation in Theory and Research55 JOURNAL OF CIINA. LAW, CRIMINOLOGY, &PoLicE ScIENcE, 208-214 (June, 1964).
5. Michigan (State) Department of Health, Seventy-Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioner ofMichigan Department of Health (Lansing, Michi-gan: 1949), p. 6.
6. Parker, B. P., Government Review-Science andCrime, 70 TECHNOLOGY REvIEW, 10 (1968).
7. Ibid.8. NEAl , HARR-Y E., TE PRo~cEo (1968), p. 33.9. Ibid., p. 53.
