Analysis Of More Than 20 Fraudulent State Id's Found During White Collar Crime

INTRODUCTION: The case will be drawn from the news article “More Than 20 Fraudulent State ID’s Found During White Collar Crime,” by Poya Salamat (2016). This case took place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the early part of January 2016. The situation involves two suspects who were detained by the Oklahoma City Police Department (OCPD), for being in possession of 20 fraudulent state ID’s (Salamat 2016). The word fraudulent itself is a representation of criminal activity, which ties in with the topic of this paper – white collar crime. Furthermore, this paper will answer the question how scholars explain white collar crime and its criminals. The first offender is a 31-year-old female, and identified as Melissa Diaz. The second offender is a 22-year-old male, identified as Edgar Fuentes. To continue, the OCPD arrived at a cell phone store with both the offenders present. This is important because it shows how white collar crime can occur out in the public, and not just ‘behind the scenes in a corporate building’ as commonly misperceived. Moreover, Melissa Diaz was conducting the white collar crime by attempting to use an invalid ID for purchasing a number of phones, valued at $2,500 (2016). Salamat adds that Edgar Fuentes had escaped the crime scene after the police arrived, leaving the

interviews, assessments, and questionnaires), to gain insight of their 369 Terra Haute, Indiana prison inmates sample. Based on their findings, it is argued that white collar criminals do make rational decisions such as weighing the risks-and-rewards, but it is done so differently than criminals who commit other crimes (Stadler and Benson 2012). This is significant because it provides a criminal-type comparison to answer the research question. To elaborate, scholars would explain white collar criminals to possess a different type of rational thinking when compared to offenders of other