Toward a sociological approach of white-collar crime

Sutherland's work is nowadays still essential to the study of white-collar crime. But while he conceived white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of high social status in the course of his occupation", several studies in criminology have pointed out that this notion includes a variety of crimes, offenders and victims. Having discussed those controversies, we would like to propose a sociological approach of white-collar crime, focusing on the use of the law. This article aims at analyzing all the offenses committed by those who are at the top of the social scale, pointing out how those offenses are framed by institutions devoted to their regulation.