Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Three men have been sent behind bars for attempting to defraud the Government over $4.6 million (Source: Getty)

Thinking of defrauding the Government? Think again.

Three men have been sentenced to jail for conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth $4,632,355 after orchestrating an elaborate phoenix operation.

The instigator and architect of the scheme, Seng Leng Heng, was sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) said.

His co-conspirators Nathan Sarinn, and Nay Chy were also sentenced to 4 and 5 years' imprisonment respectively for their roles in the scheme.

The three men have also been ordered to pay back the full amount.

Heng, Sarinn, and Chy established multiple labour hire companies to provide workers to vineyards, fruit and vegetable growers, and meat processors around South Australia and Queensland.

The companies failed to pay both Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Pay as You Go (PAYG) withholdings to the ATO, despite charging their clients GST and including figures supposedly withheld for PAYG on employee payslips, the ATO said.

Significant debts were raised following audits. However, because the men were withdrawing funds from the company accounts on a frequent basis, there were insufficient funds at the time of liquidation to recover the outstanding tax debts.

Over a 25-month period, across all six of their companies, $23,131,414 was withdrawn in cash by the three men.

In some instances, there was some overlap in the operation of the companies, but in most cases, they would close down operations for one and move on to another, beginning the cycle again.

ATO assistant commissioner Ian Read welcomed the sentence and slammed the three men for the scheme.

This type of behaviour is blatant fraud against the Commonwealth, and we will not tolerate it, he said.

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Phoenixing is an intentional act that requires planning and the alleged behaviour in this case demonstrates a deliberate attempt to defraud the tax and super system.

The trio attempted to hide their illegal activities by appointing shadow directors for the companies, exploiting their relationship with employees or acquaintances living in Australia, at least three of whom were on student visas.

Todays result demonstrates the ATOs commitment to detecting and prosecuting tax crimes. We take our responsibility to protect the tax and super systems seriously, Read said.

Phoenixing is an illegal practice where company directors transfer assets from an existing company over to a new one, leaving the old company with all the debts, according to Morrissey Law.

The old company is then placed into liquidation, but because the company no longer has any assets there is nothing to be used to cover the debts.

Chair of the Phoenix Taskforce Will Day said illegal phoenix activity is an economy-wide issue that costs the Australian community billions of dollars every year, impacting businesses, employees and government.

Tax crime is not victimless. Illegal phoenix operators gain an unfair advantage by never intending to meet their financial or tax obligations, not only disadvantaging honest businesses, but the whole Australian community who do the right thing, Day said.

The taskforce aims to disrupt the business model of phoenix operators, bring them back into the system, or remove them from the business environment and penalise them,

Just like in this case, phoenixing can be done many times over and can cost the Government billions.

Since the taskforce was established in 2014, the ATO has raised more than $1.54 billion in liabilities from audits and reviews of illegal phoenix activities. It has also returned more than $687 million to the community.

If you know or suspect illegal phoenix activity, report it to the ATO by:

completing a tip-off form on our website or in the 'Help & Support' section of the ATO app available from the app store

calling the Tax Integrity Centre on 1800 060 062

emailing PhoenixReferrals@ato.gov.au

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ATO jails 3 men for attempted $4.6 million theft - Yahoo Finance Australia

Democracy is about empowering people. Its a collective public choice, made of millions of voices. But what happens if one persons voice can be stifled, silenced or even stolen? Why should a criminal have two votes, having stolen one from someone else?

Currently, you need only say your name and address at the polling station to vote. This Victorian test can easily be faked, leaving the potential for a person to cast someone elses vote. This kind of fraud is difficult to identify but it is not a victimless crime.

It happened this year, in the Holyrood elections, where a would-be voter in Edinburgh Northern and Leith tried to vote, only to be stopped because someone had already cast a ballot in their name. This victim had their voice stolen.

To prevent these crimes and strengthen the integrity of our elections, we are bringing forward new legislation to update electoral law, making sure our democracy remains secure, fair, modern and transparent, and tomorrow, the Elections Bill will be debated in Parliament.

The Elections Bill will introduce photo identification at the polling station in General Elections, providing a reasonable and proportionate fix and bringing the rest of the UK in line with Northern Ireland where these sensible checks have existed since 2003, helping to stop voter fraud without compromising someones ability to vote.

After all, identifying ourselves is something we do in most walks of life. The UK Government recently published research showing 98% of electors already own one of the broad range of documents that will be accepted. If any elector doesnt have a form of accepted identification, their local authority will be required, by law, to provide them with a free Voter Card.

The Bill protects our democracy in other ways too. I always welcome robust political debate. But abuse and intimidation is not acceptable. An SNP MP was recently forced into a safe house after receiving death threats online, whilst a Scottish Conservative councillor had their car set alight. Intimidation is an issue which affects all parties, and hurts voters too.

The Bill will toughen sanctions for those convicted of intimidating political candidates, campaigners and representatives - either in person or online - by barring perpetrators from running for elected office for five years.

New laws will also strengthen action against intimidation of voters, by updating the offence of undue influence in electoral law, to prevent people from being coerced into giving up control over their vote.

We will also strengthen political finance rules to ensure that only those who have a genuine interest and a right to be involved in our elections can spend money campaigning in them, and that spending limits cannot be unfairly expanded.

Devolution means devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can make different arrangements.

Measures in the Bill will apply to some elections and not others. But were working together to make sure changes will be clear and practical. The pandemic has proved we are at our best when we work together.

The Elections Bill will keep our elections secure, fair and transparent and will ensure democracy across the UK continues to thrive.

Chloe Smith MP is the UK Government Minister of State for the Constitution and Devolution

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Opinion: Westminster election bill will protect democracy - HeraldScotland

A former regional journalist was attacked outside court after being spared jail over a child sex offence.

Will Green wassubjected to the alleged assaultoutside Teesside Magistrates Court after being handed a community order following a guilty plea to a single charge of making 79 Category C still indecent images of children.

According to the Teesside Gazette, Greens head and mask were grabbed before he was chased back towards the Middlesbrough court building.

Green, pictured, shouted help, help and ran back inside as a number of security guards pinned a man down near the court steps.

A 44-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of assault, while Clevelands Police and Crime Commissioner has announced he will formally object to Greens sentence.

Green worked at the Hexham Courant for a short period of time before leaving in 2008 to work in the Northumbria Police press office.

The 42-year-old was suspended from his most recent role as head of corporate communications at Cleveland Police when he was arrested on 12 January this year and later resigned.

Green, of Morpeth, was sentenced to a 24-month community order and must also complete 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days and the Maps for Change programme.

He will also be subject to notification requirements for five years and pay a court bill of 180.

However, Cleveland PCC Steve Turner described the crime as sickening and stated the sentencing in this case has let down the victims.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Turner said: I find this type of crime sickening and abhor the abuse of children in any capacity and that includes the taking of indecent images.

My thoughts are with the victims and their families at this time.

He added: In order to uphold the law, we must abide by it and let law and order take its course when an individual is found or pleads guilty.

It is possible, however, to make a formal, legal, objection.

To that end, I will be writing to the Attorney General to ask for a review of this sentence.

Cleveland Police stated that Green had let his colleagues, partner agencies and local communities down.

Superintendent Paul Waugh, of the forces directorate of standards and ethics, said: This is not a victimless crime and behind every illegal image of a child is a victim of child sexual abuse and exploitation who endures a lifetime of trauma.

These victims are often not identified and do not have the ability to speak out about their abuse in court.

As soon as Cleveland Police was made aware of these allegations, swift action was taken by specialist detectives and a warrant was executed at an address in the Cleveland area during which computers and other items were seized.

Whilst the offences are not linked to his role, he was in a trusted position in policing, communicating about the core values that he did not uphold.

He has let his colleagues, partner agencies and local communities down.

The public may be concerned that a Cleveland Police staff member has been found to have committed these offences, but I hope our actions to bring this person before the courts provides reassurance and highlights that we do everything in our power to seek justice for these crimes, without fear or favour, even when the suspect works for the same police force.

The level of sentence given is a matter for the judge.

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Ex-journalist attacked as he walked free after child sex offence - Journalism News from HoldtheFrontPage - HoldtheFrontPage

Tomorrow at 2 pm, I will join a Livermore, California mother namedJacqui Berlinnin a protest against dangerous drug dealers who may end up killing her son. They could kill him indirectly, by selling him fentanyl, or directly, as a consequence of his failing to pay them. Twice already he has beenstabbed, and nearly died.

Our first two protests were inSan FranciscoandVenice Beachand this time we will protest in Sacramento. Parents whose kids were killed by fentanyl will join her. One of them, Jaime Puerta, lost his 16 year-old son, Daniel, to fentanyl poisoning in April last year. Daniel took a pill he thought was a prescription opioid.

When the parents come together, it is powerful. OurVenice Beach protesthelped motivate the L.A. City Council voting to shut down the open drug scene and homeless encampments. Just putting homeless people in hotel rooms is only a temporary fix that wont last. But our protest proved that we can force the politicians to act.

Even so, many people distance themselves emotionally from Jacqui and Jaime when they hear their stories. They tell themselves, and sometimes say out loud, that Jacqui and Jaime have only themselves to blame. That is effectivelywhat California state legislators told Jaimeand other parents earlier this year after they asked that stronger measures be taken to stop fentanyl dealing.

In truth, young men like Daniel and Corey are victims of Californias utterly broken mental health and addiction care system, somethingprogressives say they care about, and by the unwillingness of California lawmakers to shut down open-air drug markets, as well the on-line fentanyl dealing on Snapchat.

Before our press conference, Jacqui, Jaime, and over 100 other family members and friends of victims will host a10 am press conference at the Sacrmaneto Sheraton Grandto formally launch our nonpartisanCalifornia Peace Coalition, which brings together family members of people addicted to or killed by fentanyl, recovering addicts, and neighborhood advocates, to debunk drug death myths, and explain our agenda.

Also at that event, Jacqui will announce the broadening, and renaming, of her organization, fromStop Fentanyl DeathstoMothers Against Drug Deaths, and an arresting billboard advertising campaign.

Then,at 11:30 am, we will rallyon the Sacramento Capitol steps. We have invited policymakers and gubernatorial candidates to join us. Speakers and attendees will include: three gubernatorial candidates, Democratic front-runner Kevin Paffrath, Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, and former US Representative, Doug Ose; Senator Melissa Melendez, who has championed more aggressive measures against fentanyl dealing; a representative of the Sacramento District Attorneys office; and Wonder Years actress, Alley Mills Bean.

Progressives say that the only real solution to the drug death crisis are Safe Injection Sites, where people like Daniel and Corey can inject drugs like fentanyl under medical supervision. The mayors of New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco last springasked the U.S.Attorney General for permission to operate them. Californias Senatepassedlegislation approving them. And many Sacramento insiders believe they are inevitable.

The parents arent so sure. Simply providing homeless drug addicts with heroin, fentanyl, and meth would worsen the addiction crisis, theywritein their open letter to the people of California, and may increase drug deaths.

What would have prevented the death of Daniel, who was poisoned after taking a single pill? A functioning mental health system, says Jaime; the government cracking down on Snapchats tacit acceptance of drug dealing on its platform; and proper public education campaigns like the ones that worked so well against smoking, not a Safe Injection Site.

What will save Corey? When he is charged for multiple violations of laws against public camping and public drug use, says Jacqui, and given the choice of drug treatment as an alternative to jail, not a Safe Injection Site that would serve as yet one more taxpayer-funded service enabling his debilitating and potentially deadly fentanyl addiction.

The same mix of law enforcement and services are required to shut down Californias open drug scenes, which are euphemistically called homeless encampments. Indeed, it was the combination of carrots and sticks, police and social workers, not social workers alone, that saved European cities like Amsterdam and Lisbon from increasingly violent drug markets, not Safe Injection Sites, contrary to the widespread misinformation spread by progressive drug decriminalization and harm reduction organizations.

In early 2019 I traveled to the Netherlands at the invitation of a member of parliament, Dilan Yeilgz, to give a talk at the Delft University of Technology. Afterward, Dilan and her husband, Rene Zegerius, gave me a ride back to Amsterdam.

Rene is a former second division mens professional soccer player in his late fifties who looks like the British action film actor Jason Statham. Rene had worked as a nurse, social worker, and drug policy expert for the Dutch government since the 1980s.

Whats the secret? I asked him. Amsterdam has decriminalized marijuana and many other drugs but I havent seen any homeless people. What is San Francisco doing wrong?

Rene said that in the 1980s, the Zeedijk neighborhood in Amsterdam was a lot like the Tenderloin today. There was open-air drug use, particularly of heroin, and needles strewn about, as well as crime. People started to flee the neighborhood, worsening its slum conditions. Homeless people squatted in abandoned buildings.

We had ghettos where it was not safe to go, said Rene, who started working in the neighborhood as a nurse in 1985. It was considered a no go zone. We had a lot of people from abroad who came to Amsterdam because our heroin was so good. But our heroin was so good that they died from it.

At first the city tried a helping approach exclusively, offering addicts clean needles, methadone, and other forms of help without any law enforcement, but it didnt work. In the eighties we just wanted to help people, said Rene. We started with methadone programs and medical treatment. We did a lot of work without much of a carrot and a stick. It was really a disappointment. They just used the methadone to stay addicted. They dealt drugs and committed other crimes. They lied and cheated about it. We were just supporting a different kind of market. We had to learn the hard way.

We started as very motivated caretakers, Rene said, but at some point, with drug addicts, you have to change your attitude. You cant help with just giving. I always watch Dr. Phil with my wifehere Rene did his best impersonation of Dr. PhilIts not working for you, he would have said. And it wasnt.

The police and social workers didnt work together. There were two separate worlds because doctors did not talk with police officers, said Rene, and we had a lot of people dying on the streets. It didnt work and it didnt feel good as well because our [jail] cells were bad and the street was still filled up with a lot of people who were addicted and who committed a lot of crimes.

The Amsterdam City Council asked the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service to develop a strategy to deal with unmotivated drug users. Said Rene, it took until the beginning of the nineties to work something out in collaboration with the College of Police. They thought that we were some silly nutcases who were only good for the flu or whatever. And we thought that they only saw the bad side of people. You need people to change that. I was fortunate in that I had to work with some police colleagues who I still see. They convinced me and I convinced them. At some point, we started making house calls together.

The police broke up the open-air drug scene and health workers were on hand to offer methadone, treatment, and shelter. The police broke up gatherings of more than four or five users, but did not treat personal and private use as a crime. Officers ticketed violators, and if users did not pay their fines, which was frequent, the courts ordered arrests, and sentenced individuals to follow a treatment plan or face incarceration.

For every individual homeless person, we make a plan, said Rene. We made tens of thousands of those plans. Plans are overseen by a caseworker and a team that may include a psychiatrist, shelter provider, service provider, judge, employer, parole officer, and police officer. You need people in the police and health department working together, he said.

What Amsterdam did wasthe same as other major European cities. Lisbon, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Zurich all dealt with their open-air drug markets, using a combination of law enforcement and social services.

The efforts worked. We had several thousand people who were addicted to heroin in the eighties and nineties, said Rene. Many died. Today we have four or five hundred people addicted to methadone. And we have about 120 in Amsterdam who we supply heroin to on a medical basis because methadone doesnt work for them. They have to use heroin.

The approach to breaking up open drug scenes, treating addiction, and providing psychiatric care is fundamentally the same whether in five European cities, Philadelphia, New York, or Phoenix. Miami over the last 20 years reduced its homeless population by 57 percent despite skyrocketing rents and ended open drug scenes, by providing free psychiatric care and drug treatment, along with basic shelter, to all who need it.The Department of Justice has even published a handbook for cities to use to break the markets up using both social services and law enforcement.

In truth, there islittle uniquein how the Netherlands ended its open-air drug scene. It just happened to be one of the first nations to realize that it needed to useboth law enforcement and social servicesbecause either one alone was insufficient.

Could it be that Californias progressive policymakers are simply ignorant of what worked in Europe? It could be. I have found most policymakers in California to be utterly ignorant of what European cities like Amsterdam and Lisbonactuallydid, overly reliant on what advocacy groups tell them, and provincial in their outlook. While progressive Californians may vacation in Europe, they dont understand how it deals with addiction and homelessness.

Progressive decriminalization and harm reduction advocates with groups like Harm Reduction Coalition and the Drug Policy Alliance dont have the same excuse. Their leaders have gone on delegations to European nations, and have published reports on their trips, which acknowledge but play down the role of law enforcement. They know the real situation, and have chosen to misrepresent it.

Last November, an expert from Drug Policy Alliance told San Franciscos Drug Dealing Task Force that indiscriminately removing sellers from the market results in the Interruption of interpersonal/working relationships between sellers who know each other.

The Executive Director of Drug Policy Alliance, Sheila Vakharia said on Twitter that most drug dealers are ordinary people, making little money who feel connected to their customers but bear the burden of criminalization.

Progressive policymakers say similar things. When he ran for office in 2018, San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin announced, We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted.

Enforcing the law contributes to further victimization, says Boudin. Jails do nothing to treat the root cause of crime, he said. Boudin called open-air drug use and drug sales technically victimless crimes. When Boudin announced that he was not going to prosecute street-level drug dealers he said it was because they are themselves [are] victims of human trafficking.

In fact, there is little evidence to support Boudins claim that the fentanyl dealers in San Francisco are dealing drugs against their will. These guys would show me pictures of the houses they were building back home in Honduras, said Tom Wolf, another member of San Franciscos Drug Dealing Task Force, who for several months was a homeless fentanyl addict.

Boudins position incensed many San Franciscans. It makes no sense that the district attorney will tell you that he has more fear of a Honduran dealers family having challenges than a local family whose kid ODd on fentanyl, said restaurateur Adam Mesnick. I mean, its absurd. This guy protects dealers.

Do progressives oppose breaking up street fentanyl dealing because the dealers are ethnic minorities and immigrants whoprogressive leaders view as victims? Perhaps. Vakharia tweeted that our history of racialized drug seller stereotypes helped us to justify punishment and criminalization of drug dealing.

But the victims of overdose and poisoning are people of color, too. Jaime Puerta is an immigrant to California from Colombia and his son, Daniel, was what progressives call Latinx.

The main motivation of Boudin and other progressive Democrats for not breaking up the street fentanyl markets appears to be decarceration. The challenge going forward, said Boudin in 2019, is how do we close a jail? And despite everything thats happened, Governor Gavin Newsom still champions Proposition 47, which decriminalized possession of three grams of hard drugs including fentanyl, recently affirmed his approach to criminal justice, and last Fridayhelda public event with Boudin in San Francisco.

Newsom oversaw thereductionof the number of people in California prisons by one-third, from 122,000 to 94,500, since January last year, but because the state did not have any way of helping former prisoners re-enter society, many ended up in open drug scenes, sometimes working as drug dealers, according to Wolf and Los Angeles homeless service provider, Rev. Andy Bales, who operates the largest homeless shelter in Skid Row.

The result is a populist backlash so powerful that it may end up recalling Newsom from office next month. The parents and I have repeatedly felt the publics frustration and anger with homelessness up close and in person. All these people are felons! screamed a man from his truck at us as we walked through Skid Row with Rev. Bales a few weeks ago. You have to stop feeding them.

The problem is that simply not feeding street addicts and dealers wont get people like Corey and Daniel the psychiatric and addiction care they need. The lesson from Amsterdam and Lisbon isnt that we have to stop helping addicts. Its that we have to help them in a different way.

In anopen letterit is releasing at a 10 am press conference at the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento tomorrow morning, the California Peace Coalition argues for a middle path between mass homelessness and mass incarceration.

We propose the centralization of mental health and addiction services at the state level through a new agency, Cal-Psych, given the failure of counties to solve the problem; temporary shelter for all who need it, and the requirement that it be used; the enforcement of laws against public camping, defecation, and drug use; and the restoration of mandatory addiction and psychiatric treatment as an alternative to jail and prison.

California needs a system of universal psychiatric and addiction care. Most experts agree that the current system is too fragmented between different agencies and institutions to be effective, we write. Cal-Psych could oversee a Public Service Advertising campaign to warn of the dangers of things like fentanyl, and work with student and youth organizations to make illicit drug use uncool, in the way that the anti-cigarette Truth Campaign did two decades ago.

Sticks are needed, too. Proposition 47, which decriminalized the possession of up to three grams of hard drugs, needs to be reformed to restore treatment as an alternative to jail, rather than being optional. The governor needs to coordinate law enforcement agencies so that when drug markets are closed in one neighborhood they dont simply re-emerge elsewhere, we write. Many addicts require the threat of jail or other forms of coercion to stop breaking the law and get their lives together.

But policing and jail sentences are not the same thing as mass incarceration. In fact, we note, research shows that swift and certain consequences for law-breaking are more effective than slow, uncertain, and longer sentences.

Breaking up the open drug scenes requires that California move away from a Housing First policy to a Shelter First policy. Housing should be a reward for abstinence and other behaviors, not an entitlement. Building sufficient shelter, and requiring people to use it, is a crucial step to ending the open drug scenes.

We end our letter on a positive note. While the scope of the problem is daunting, solving it holds the potential to bring us together, as liberals and conservatives, as Californians, and as Americans. Already, this practical, nonpartisan, and heterodoxical vision has brought together parents of kids at risk of being killed with parents of kids killed last year by fentanyl.

By fighting to save the lives of young addicts like Corey, parents have an opportunity to produce something beautiful, even transformative, out of the deaths of their children. Thats the way it is for Jaime. Why are you going to Jacquis protest? I asked him last week. He thought for a moment and then said, I just dont want to see any more kids die.

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The Reason They're Letting Fentanyl Kill Kids Is Because They Think Drug Dealers Are The Real Victims OpEd - Eurasia Review

People are more likely to become victims of fraud than any other crime and too many receive "poor service" from police, a watchdog has said.

The review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) also found the problem has become worse during the coronavirus pandemic.

It found the "detrimental effect of fraud is as great today as it has ever been" but it is still treated as a "low-priority or victimless crime", leaving many victims denied justice.

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Data for the year to March from the national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, Action Fraud, show it reported a 28% rise in offences from 312,035 in 2019 to 2020 to 398,022.

The official figures also showed 97,927 "online shopping and auction" fraud offences were reported in the latest year - a 57% increase.

"Financial investment fraud" increased by 44% from 14,024 to 20,260 offences.

The Office for National Statistics said fraud and hacking soared during the pandemic as criminals "took advantage of behavioural changes" amid lockdown and restrictions in England and Wales.

There were also "substantial increases" in computer crimes as restrictions led to a surge in online shopping.

Inspector of constabulary at HMICFRS, Matt Parr, said: "You are still more likely to be a victim of fraud than any other crime, but too few fraudsters are held to account.

"The scale of fraud has not diminished - in fact, it has increased during the pandemic - and it needs to become more of a priority for police forces.

"Overall, too many victims of fraud still receive a poor service from police."

Inspectors reviewed the progress made by officers in tackling the crime since 2019, when it last looked at the issue.

It found "not enough has changed" and the "fundamental problem is a disparity between the amount of work fraud creates for the police and the resources allocated to it".

It also found that 10 of 16 recommendations from the 2019 review have been implemented, with progress made on a further two and three still outstanding.

The inspectorate said one of the recommendations was no longer relevant.

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Mr Parr said more officers should be working on fraud cases and there should be more investigations so victims get the "justice they are entitled to".

However, the inspectorate did note that due to funding being confirmed to police a year at a time, and with relatively short notice, planning and investing for the long term is difficult.

Meanwhile, the number of alleged fraud cases being heard in UK courts in the first half of this year almost doubled compared to the same time in 2020, according to a Fraud Barometer conducted by audit, tax and advisory company KPMG.

The inspectorate report recommended that the National Police Chiefs' Council, National Crime Agency, National Economic Crime Centre and City of London Police work together to establish better processes to tackle fraud.

It also urged forces to adopt guidance for cases and improve the information given to victims.

Read more from the original source:

People more likely to be victim of fraud than any other crime, says Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services - Sky...

Despite the brutal Covid pandemic, film and TV production in Illinois last year spent nearly $362 million, down 35% from about $560 millionspent in 2019. Doug Miller of Davenport who heads the Quad Cities Production Coalition wants to see some of that money come to the Illinois Q-C area.

He is working with state and local officials on establishing a regional film office in Rock Island, and is bringing Illinois Film Office director Peter Hawley to the Rock Island Holiday Inn on Thursday, Aug. 19, to talk about state filming incentives and financing. Its among first events in the Quad-Cities Alternating Currents festival.

If youre interested in movies, we want to pack the place with people, Miller, a longtime film and media consultant, said recently. We have to start getting our act together.

At 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., in a first-floor conference room at Holiday Inn (226 17th St., Rock Island), Hawley (state film office head since May 2019) will speak and answer questions with Ted Reilly, an entrepreneur, film financier, and producer. As executive director ofChicago Media Angels,hes focused on organizing, educating, and accelerating savvy media investors in the

Alternating Currents feature more than 100 free events at 20-plus downtown Davenport venues. Learn more at alternatingcurrentsqc.com.

Midwest.

Reilly serves on the board ofStage18 Chicago, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education, community, office space, resources, and employment opportunities to independent filmmakers, visual artists, andentrepreneurs.He has produced dozens of independent feature films, television pilots and new media titles includingCome as You Are, Public Housing Unit, andThe Porch.

I like Western Illinois and I like the Quad-Cities, Hawley said in a recent interview. And I have been a big advocate for creating more film production in Western Illinois and around the state. And so, Ive gone out there several times since Ive been on the job for the last two years, and met with union officials and Doug, and other people in in the film industry, and he put together this panel discussion during Alternating Currents.

Hawley has a personal connection to the Q-C, since his parents live in Bettendorf (they moved there after his dad got a job in the early 80s), and Peter worked during summers after his first two years in college at what is now KWQC-TV. He said its been hard to attract film and TV

Peter Hawley, a filmmaker himself, has been director of the Illinois Film Office since May 2019.

production to Illinois outside the booming Chicago area.

Its challenging because so many places around the state outside of Chicago, do not have the infrastructure and by infrastructure I mean the studio facilities and the crew base, Hawley said. But that said, because were doing more and more production and overall in the state theres more production and theres more infrastructure. Its getting easier and easier, and Hollywood is ultimately going to chase the dollar and they like it here and youre having a really gangbuster year and theyre going to want to come to Illinois.I think the Illinois Quad-Cities has a lot to offer for film production, he said of potential locations and workforce.

Statewide, there were 7,780 production hires in 2020, not including extras, compared to 15,168 hires in 2019, according to film office data. Film officials said more than 1,775 local jobs were

Ted Reilly is an entrepreneur, film financier, producer, and executive director of Chicago Media Angels.

added in the first few months of 2021.

Data for TV, film and media production in 2020 reveals the expected decline in expenditures by the film industry. However, even accounting for the 6 months when production was paused due to Covid, Illinois maintained over 200 film projects, yielding over $360 million in estimated expenditures and 7,780 non-extra jobs hires generated by the film industry. By the end of 2020, film production had resumed for many shows including the return of award-winning FX series, Fargo; NBCs multiple Chicago series; and major studio feature The Batman.

The bounce back of filming in Illinois is a testament to effective health guidelines, the expansion of and availability of testing and vaccines, and local leadership committed to addressing the needs of the film industry, which is important to the local economy, according to the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In the film industry, Illinois was a local adopter of public health guidelines allowing industries to return after necessary public health closures. Filming returned last year with guidelines provided through the State of Illinois Restore Illinois framework which allowed permitting and many preproduction operations to resume.

The Illinois Film Office awards a 30-percent tax credit for qualified production spending and labor expenditures, up to $100,000 per worker, within the state of Illinois. Gov. Pritzker extended the credit in 2019 to Dec. 31, 2026. Applicants can receive an additional 15% tax credit on salaries paid to individuals (earning at least $1,000 in total wages) who live in economically disadvantaged areas, whose unemployment rate

A short film, Enounement, by Detroit-based 2021 college grad Chloe Heikkinen, is part of the 29-film lineup for Alternating Currents.

is at least 150% of the states annual average.

Last winter, productions in the state were doing over 5,000 Covid tests a week, and had fewer than 10 positive cases each week, Hawley said recently.

This is in the middle of it all. So they did a great job of tracking it and then as soon as they got a positive test, they would remove people for two weeks and continue on, he said. It was a coordinated effort between the state, the city, and the unions and Hollywood and it really worked out. And again I really, I have always said we owe a big thanks to Fargo because they came back and did it first and showed everyone that it was possible to do a large production safely and after they came and finished up, the floodgates opened.

The film and television industry in Illinois is very, very safe and I think we as a state can compare their safety record over with almost any other industry because of the rigor, they go through things, Hawley said of testing and safety protocols. I cant say that they are mandating vaccinations; that may come down the road, but I dont have any say in that.

At the Aug. 19 event, he will discuss the Illinois tax credits and how filmmakers and companies can take advantage of it, and Reilly as an investor, will discuss how to use the tax incentives and film financing.

Hawleyis an award-winning writer and director of feature films, TV commercials and documentaries. As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, he won a national student Emmy Award for his music videoNext to You,and several awards and festival appearances for his short filmThe Law of Inertia. The success of these projects gave him the opportunity to write and direct the feature film,Victimless Crimes.

In 1996,Hawleyjoined the faculty of Columbia College in Chicago, teaching across the entire film curriculum. In 2007 he became one of the Original Seven hires at Tribeca Flashpoint College in Chicago. He was named Academic Dean in 2014, and became Dean of Columbia College Hollywood in 2016. In 2017, he successfully merged the two schools to create one college with two campuses.

Peter Hawley of the Illinois Film Office and Chicago-based film financier Ted Reilly will speak to people interested in the film industry Thursday, Aug. 19 at the Rock Island Holiday Inn.

In his role as director of the Illinois Film Office, Peter and his team strive to make Illinois the best state in the country for film and television production. In addition, the IFO is actively trying to build the infrastructure needed, film studios and production crews, to attract projects to Illinois from around the country and around the world.

In the 2021 Illinois legislative session, state Rep. Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island) helped secure $100,000 for northwest Illinois film production, including $65,000 specifically for the Q-C, which will mainly be used for marketing, Miller said.

Dylan Parker was first elected to the Rock Island City Council in 2017, representing the Fifth Ward.

We need to tell the world where were at, he said. We know weve got the people. We need to quantify who we have, and jump-start or help people in film world.

Rock Island Ald. Dylan Parker has been working with Miller since late 2019 on ways the film office could be set up in downtown Rock Island,

My role as a city council member is to identify strategic ways the city can expand its local economy. The state of Illinois obviously targets this industry with tax incentives, he said Thursday. If the state is incentivizing this, we at the local level should piggy-back on that, secure the economic activity in Rock Island.

Parker anticipates working with the Quad Cities Chamber, Visit Quad Cities, and the city to coordinate efforts, and figure out how a Q-C Film Office would be structured and governed.

We have some funding from the state, so what do we do with that money? We need to come up with a plan, sort of who does what and when, he said, noting a Q-C film website should be a priority. They need to partner with people already working in film and media production in the area, to get their feedback and support, Parker said.

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone from Quad-Cities interested in the film industry and production world, he said of the Aug. 19 event. I see my job on city council as being a conduit, making the connections, to connect local people who are interested in the economy, with the director of the Illinois Film Office. Im looking forward to seeing where this goes. If we could get a portion of the growth of that economy, that would be fabulous for our local economy.

Michael Mehuys, Alternating Currents Film Festival programming director, is happy to hear of progress on the Q-C film front.

Hearing that theres interest in forming a QC film office is great news additional footholds for local filmmakers to get assistance and

The first Alternating Currents Film Festival in 2018 was capped off by Bettendorf natives Scott Beck, left, and Bryan Woods, showing their hit thriller A Quiet Place and doing a Q & A.

encouragement are some things that Alternating Currents Film Festival and Cinema at the Figge has hoped to enable, he said this week.

The AC film selection (the 2018 fest hosted A Quiet Place filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods) started with film submissions, and they used FilmFreeway, with 75 shorts and features sent in from around the world, Mehuys said. Twenty-nine films were selected, in the following categories Short Narrative and Student Films, and Experimental Films.

While it would be great to include all submissions each year, this year I chose roughly 1/3 of our total submissions, based on what merits I felt the films had regarding unique voices/perspectives, interesting filmmaking techniques being highlighted, and with some focus on regionally produced films, Mehuys said. All Alternating Currents activities are free, and festgoers can look forward to seeing films Friday, Aug. 20, and Saturday, Aug. 21 at the Figge Art Museums John Deere Auditorium on the 2nd floor, as well as the new venue, Mockingbird on Main, 320 Main St., Davenport.

The Figge (225 W. 2nd St., Davenport) will feature the Narrative/Documentary Shorts on Friday evening, as well as Saturdayand Sunday morning. The experimental films will screen outdoors

Moline-based Fourth Wall Films documentary, A Bridge Too Far From Hero Street, is part of the new Alternating Currents Film Festival in Davenport.

(as in 2019) at the EICC Urban Campus (on 3rd Street) on Friday and Saturday nights; stop by once the sun goes down. Mockingbird on Main will be hosting the Experimental program Friday and Saturday nights indoors.

Among films and filmmakers from the Midwest region, Mehuys said, are: 10/31/2020 by Jason Christ, Sticks and Stones by Chris Hutton, Creep by Hannah Rosalie Wright, A Bridge Too Far From Hero Street by Kelly and Tammy Rundle, Over Under by Luke and Kurt Oberhaus, and Enounement by 2021 college grad Chloe Heikkinen.

We hope to see as many of the filmmakers come by to see their films screen as are comfortable in doing so, he said. Davenport composer Bill Campbell will present the Oscar-nominated Hunger Ward at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Figge. This is after the festival shorts run from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., and after he plays in the lobby at the Figge, at 1:30 p.m.

The 2020 documentary for which he wrote music,Hunger Ward,was among five93rd-annual Academy Award nomineesfor Best Documentary, Short Subject. Campbell (a music professor at St. Ambrose University) was among the film crew thatattended the 91st-annual Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, in February 2019, when the second film in the refugee trilogy, Lifeboat (2018), was nominated in the same category.

For a complete listing of musical artists, films and other activities scheduled for Alternating Currents (Aug. 19 to 22), visit http://www.alternatingcurrentsqc.com.

Jonathan Turner has been covering the Quad-Cities arts scene for 25 years, first as a reporter with the Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, and then as a reporter with the Quad City Times. Jonathan is also an accomplished actor and musician who has been seen frequently on local theater stages, including the Bucktown Revue and Black Box Theatre.

Here is the original post:

Head of Illinois Film Office and 29 Flicks Are Coming Attractions at Alternating Currents Fest - Quad Cities

Operation Breaking Chains state totals. Courtesy photo

The Florida Sheriffs Association Task Force on July 22 released the results of Operation Breaking Chains, a strategic initiative in 16 Florida counties that focused on reducing human trafficking throughout the state and prosecuting those responsible for trafficking individuals. During this month-long operation, 29 victims were recovered, 31 traffickers were identified, and a total of 363 arrests took place during the Task Forces Operation Breaking Chains.

Amplifying the safety on our roads and waterways is crucial for all Floridians, including our children, and those who visit the Sunshine State, said FSA President and Gilchrist County Sheriff Bobby Schultz. The dedicated enforcement of state laws that deal with businesses suspected of human trafficking and online operations will help to keep us all safe.

For Flagler County, the FCSO made 13 arrests in a two-day operation, which included a variety of prostitution, narcotics and firearm-related offenses. This operation focused on individuals soliciting prostitution services online on websites specifically utilized for prostitution advertisements, suspected prostitutes transporters and handlers, as well as subjects who are attempting to procure sexual services from these individuals.

This countywide operation successfully led to the discovery and interception of a victim of Human Trafficking. SIU has turned the individual over to the care of HSI, who has initiated the process of providing the victim with a variety of services and assistance to be able to keep them away from their human trafficker. That investigation is ongoing.

We partnered with the FSA for this state-wide operation, which led to the recovery of drugs, firearms, and the rescue of a victim of human trafficking. Sheriff Rick Staly said. These are not victimless crimes and we will continue to work to end human trafficking, prostitution, and drugs in Flagler County. I want to thank our Special Investigations Unit, Homeland Security Investigations, and our PACE team for their incredible work during this operation.

Originally posted here:

'Operation Breaking Chains' helps stop human trafficking - Palm Coast Observer

Learning Objectives

Many types of crime exist. Criminologists commonly group crimes into several major categories: (1) violent crime; (2) property crime; (3) white-collar crime; (4) organized crime; and (5) consensual or victimless crime. Within each category, many more specific crimes exist. For example, violent crime includes homicide, aggravated and simple assault, rape and sexual assault, and robbery, while property crime includes burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Because a full discussion of the many types of crime would take several chapters or even an entire book or more, we highlight here the most important dimensions of the major categories of crime and the issues they raise for public safety and crime control.

Even if, as our earlier discussion indicated, the news media exaggerate the problem of violent crime, it remains true that violent crime plagues many communities around the country and is the type of crime that most concerns Americans. The news story that began this chapter reminds us that violent crime is all too real for too many people; it traps some people inside their homes and makes others afraid to let their children play outside or even to walk to school. Rape and sexual assault are a common concern for many women and leads them to be more fearful of being victimized than men: In the 2011 Gallup poll mentioned earlier, 37 percent of women said they worried about being sexually assaulted, compared to only 6 percent of men (see Figure 8.1 Gender and Worry about Being Sexually Assaulted (Percentage Saying They Worry Frequently or Occasionally)).

Figure 8.1 Gender and Worry about Being Sexually Assaulted (Percentage Saying They Worry Frequently or Occasionally)

Research on violent crime tends to focus on homicide and on rape and sexual assault. Homicide, of course, is considered the most serious crime because it involves the taking of a human life. As well, homicide data are considered more accurate than those for other crimes because most homicides come to the attention of the police and are more likely than other crimes to lead to an arrest. For its part, the focus on rape and sexual assault reflects the contemporary womens movements interest in these related crimes beginning in the 1970s and the corresponding interest of criminologists, both female and male, in the criminal victimization of women.

Certain aspects of homicide are worth noting. First, although some homicides are premeditated, most in fact are relatively spontaneous and the result of intense emotions like anger, hatred, or jealousy (Fox, Levin, & Quinet, 2012). Two people may begin arguing for any number of reasons, and things escalate. A fight may then ensue that results in a fatal injury, but one of the antagonists may also pick up a weapon and use it. About 2550 percent of all homicides are victim-precipitated, meaning that the eventual victim is the one who starts the argument or the first one to escalate it once it has begun.

Second, and related to the first aspect, most homicide offenders and victims knew each other before the homicide occurred. Indeed, about three-fourths of all homicides involve nonstrangers, and only one-fourth involve strangers. Intimate partners (spouses, ex-spouses, and current and former partners) and other relatives commit almost 30 percent of all homicides (Messner, Deane, & Beaulieu, 2002). Thus although fear of a deadly attack by a stranger dominates the American consciousness, we in fact are much more likely on average to be killed by someone we know than by someone we do not know.

About two-thirds of homicides involve firearms, and half involve a handgun.

Third, about two-thirds of homicides involve firearms. To be a bit more precise, just over half involve a handgun, and the remaining firearm-related homicides involve a shotgun, rifle, or another undetermined firearm. Combining these first three aspects, then, the most typical homicide involves nonstrangers who have an argument that escalates and then results in the use of deadly force when one of the antagonists uses a handgun.

Fourth, most homicides (as most violent crime in general) are intraracial, meaning that they occur within the same race; the offender and victim are of the same race. For single offender/single victim homicides where the race of both parties is known, about 90 percent of African American victims are killed by African American offenders, and about 83 percent of white victims are killed by white offenders (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011). Although whites fear victimization by African Americans more than by whites, whites in fact are much more likely to be killed by other whites than by African Americans. While African Americans do commit about half of all homicides, most of their victims are also African American.

Fifth, males commit about 90 percent of all homicides and females commit only 10 percent. As we discuss in Section 3.1 Racial and Ethnic Inequality: A Historical Prelude, males are much more likely than women to commit most forms of crime, and this is especially true for homicide and other violent crime.

Sixth, the homicide rate is much higher in large cities than in small towns. In 2010, the homicide rate (number of homicides per 100,000 population) in cities with a population at or over 250,000 was 10.0 percent, compared to only 2.5 percent in towns with a population between 10,000 and 24,999 (see Figure 8.2 Population Size and Homicide Rate, 2010). Thus the risk for homicide is four times greater in large cities than in small towns. While most people in large cities certainly do not die from homicide, where we live still makes a difference in our chances of being victimized by homicide and other crime.

Figure 8.2 Population Size and Homicide Rate, 2010

Source: Data from Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2011). Crime in the United States, 2010. Washington, DC: Author.

Finally, the homicide rate rose in the late 1980s and peaked during the early 1990s before declining sharply until the early 2000s and then leveling off and declining a bit further since then. Although debate continues over why the homicide rate declined during the 1990s, many criminologists attribute the decline to a strong economy, an ebbing of gang wars over drug trafficking, and a decline of people in the 1525 age group that commits a disproportionate amount of crime (Blumstein & Wallman, 2006). Some observers believe rising imprisonment rates also made a difference, and we return to this issue later in this chapter.

Rape and sexual assault were included in Chapter 4 Gender Inequalitys discussion of violence against women as a serious manifestation of gender inequality. As that chapter noted, it is estimated that one-third of women on the planet have been raped or sexually assaulted, beaten, or physically abused in some other way (Heise, Ellseberg, & Gottemoeller, 1999). While it is tempting to conclude that such violence is much more common in poor nations than in a wealthy nation like the United States, we saw in Chapter 4 Gender Inequality that violence against women is common in this nation as well. Like homicide, about three-fourths of all rapes and sexual assaults involve individuals who know each other, not strangers.

As noted earlier, the major property crimes are burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. These crimes are quite common in the United States and other nations and, as Table 8.1 Number of Crimes: Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 2010 indicated, millions occur annually in this country. Many Americans have installed burglar alarms and other security measures in their homes and similar devices in their cars and SUVs. While property crime by definition does not involve physical harm, it still makes us concerned, in part because it touches so many of us. Although property crime has in fact declined along with violent crime since the early 1990s, it still is considered a major component of the crime problem, because it is so common and produces losses of billions of dollars annually.

Much property crime can be understood in terms of the roles and social networks of property criminals. In this regard, many scholars distinguish between amateur theft and professional theft. Most property offenders are amateur offenders: They are young and unskilled in the ways of crime, and the amount they gain from any single theft is relatively small. They also do not plan their crimes and instead commit them when they see an opportunity for quick illegal gain. In contrast, professional property offenders tend to be older and quite skilled in the ways of crime, and the amount they gain from any single theft is relatively large. Not surprisingly, they often plan their crimes well in advance. The so-called cat burglar, someone who scales tall buildings to steal jewels, expensive artwork, or large sums of money, is perhaps the prototypical example of the professional property criminals. Many professional thieves learn how to do their crimes from other professional thieves, and in this sense they are mentored by the latter just as students are mentored by professors, and young workers by older workers.

If you were asked to picture a criminal in your mind, what image would you be likely to think of first: a scruffy young male with a scowl or sneer on his face, or a handsome, middle-aged man dressed in a three-piece business suit? No doubt the former image would come to mind first, if only because violent crime and property crime dominate newspaper headlines and television newscasts and because many of us have been victims of violent or property crime. Yet white-collar crime is arguably much more harmful than street crime, both in terms of economic loss and of physical injury, illness, and even death.

What exactly is white-collar crime? The most famous definition comes from Edwin Sutherland (1949, p. 9), a sociologist who coined the term in the 1940s and defined it as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. Sutherland examined the behavior of the seventy largest US corporations and found that they had violated the law hundreds of times among them. Several had engaged in crimes during either World War I or II; they provided defective weapons and spoiled food to US troops and even sold weapons to Germany and other nations the United States was fighting.

Although white-collar crime as studied today includes auto shop repair fraud and employee theft by cashiers, bookkeepers, and other employees of relatively low status, most research follows Sutherlands definition in focusing on crime committed by people of respectability and high social status. Thus much of the study of white-collar crime today focuses on fraud by physicians, attorneys, and other professionals and on illegal behavior by executives of corporations designed to protect or improve corporate profits (corporate crime).

In the study of professional fraud, health-care fraud stands out for its extent and cost (Rosoff, Pontell, & Tillman, 2010). Health-care fraud is thought to amount to more than $100 billion per year, compared to less than $20 billion for all property crime combined. For example, some physicians bill Medicare and private insurance for services that patients do not really need and may never receive. Medical supply companies sometimes furnish substandard equipment. To compensate for the economic loss it incurs, health-care fraud drives up medical expenses and insurance costs. In this sense, it steals from the public even though no one ever breaks into your house or robs you at gunpoint.

Although health-care and other professional fraud are serious, corporate crime dwarfs all other forms of white-collar crime in the economic loss it incurs and in the death, injury, and illness it causes. Corporate financial crime involves such activities as fraud, price fixing, and false advertising. The Enron scandal in 2001 involved an energy corporation whose chief executives exaggerated profits. After their fraud and Enrons more dire financial state were finally revealed, the companys stock plummeted and it finally went bankrupt. Its thousands of workers lost their jobs and pensions, and investors in its stock lost billions of dollars. Several other major corporations engaged in (or strongly suspected of doing so) accounting fraud during the late 1990s and early 2000s, but Enron was merely the most notorious example of widespread scandal that marked this period.

While corporate financial crime and corruption have cost the nation untold billions of dollars in this and earlier decades, corporate violenceactions by corporations that kill or maim people or leave them illis even more scandalous. The victims of corporate violence include corporate employees, consumers of corporate goods, and the public as a whole. Annual deaths from corporate violence exceed the number of deaths from homicide, and illness and injury from corporate violence affect an untold number of people every year.

The asbestos industry learned in the 1930s that asbestos was a major health hazard, but it kept this discovery a secret for more than three decades.

Employees of corporations suffer from unsafe workplaces in which workers are exposed to hazardous conditions and chemicals because their companies fail to take adequate measures to reduce or eliminate this exposure. Such exposure may result in illness, and exposure over many years can result in death. According to a recent estimate, more than 50,000 people die each year from workplace exposure (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations [AFL-CIO], 2010), a figure about three times greater than the number of annual homicides. About 1,500 coal miners die each year from black lung disease, which results from the breathing of coal dust; many and perhaps most of these deaths would be preventable if coal mining companies took adequate safety measures (G. Harris, 1998). In another example, the asbestos industry learned during the 1930s that exposure to asbestos could cause fatal lung disease and cancer. Despite this knowledge, asbestos companies hid evidence of this hazard for more than three decades: They allowed their workers to continue to work with asbestos and marketed asbestos as a fire retardant that was widely installed in schools and other buildings. More than 200,000 asbestos workers and members of the public either have already died or are expected to die from asbestos exposure; most or all of these deaths could have been prevented if the asbestos industry had acted responsibly when it first discovered it was manufacturing a dangerous product (Lilienfeld, 1991).

Unsafe products also kill or maim consumers. One of the most notorious examples of deaths from an unsafe product involved the Ford Pinto, a car first sold in the early 1970s that was vulnerable to fire and explosion when hit from behind in a minor rear-end collision (Cullen, Maakestad, & Cavender, 2006). Ford knew before the Pinto went on the market that its gas tank was unusually vulnerable in a rear-end collision and determined it would take about $11 per car to fix the problem. It then did a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it would cost more to fix the problem or instead to settle lawsuits after Pinto drivers and passengers died or were burned and injured in rear-end collisions. This analysis indicated that Ford would save about $87 million if it did not fix the problem and instead paid out compensation after Pinto drivers and passengers died or got burned. Because Ford made this decision, about five hundred people eventually died in Pinto rear-end collisions and many others were burned.

The toll of white-collar crime, both financial and violent, is difficult to estimate, but by all accounts it exceeds the economic loss and death and injury from all street crime combined. White-collar crime is thought to involve an annual economic loss of more than $700 billion annually from corporate fraud, professional fraud, employee theft, and tax evasion and an annual toll of at least 100,000 deaths from workplace-related illness or injury, unsafe products, and preventable environmental pollution. These figures compare to an economic loss of less than $20 billion from property crime and a death toll of about 17,000 from homicide (Barkan, 2012). By any measure, the toll of white-collar crime dwarfs the toll of street crime, even though the latter worries us much more than white-collar crime. Despite the harm that white-collar crime causes, the typical corporate criminal receives much more lenient punishment, if any, than the typical street criminal (Rosoff et al., 2010).

Organized crime refers to criminal activity by groups or organizations whose major purpose for existing is to commit such crime. When we hear the term organized crime, we almost automatically think of the so-called Mafia, vividly portrayed in the Godfather movies and other films, that comprises several highly organized and hierarchical Italian American families. Although Italian Americans have certainly been involved in organized crime in the United States, so have Irish Americans, Jews, African Americans, and other ethnicities over the years. The emphasis on Italian domination of organized crime overlooks these other involvements and diverts attention from the actual roots of organized crime.

What are these roots? Simply put, organized crime exists and even thrives because it provides goods and/or services that the public demands. Organized crime flourished during the 1920s because it was all too ready and willing to provide an illegal product, alcohol, that the pubic continued to demand even after Prohibition began. Today, organized crime earns its considerable money from products and services such as illegal drugs, prostitution, pornography, loan sharking, and gambling. It also began long ago to branch out into legal activities such as trash hauling and the vending industry.

Government efforts against organized crime since the 1920s have focused on arrest, prosecution, and other law-enforcement strategies. Organized crime has certainly continued despite these efforts. This fact leads some scholars to emphasize the need to reduce public demand for the goods and services that organized crime provides. However, other scholars say that reducing this demand is probably a futile or mostly futile task, and they instead urge consideration of legalizing at least some of the illegal products and services (e.g., drugs and prostitution) that organized crime provides. Doing so, they argue, would weaken the influence of organized crime.

Consensual crime (also called victimless crime) refers to behaviors in which people engage voluntarily and willingly even though these behaviors violate the law. Illegal drug use, discussed in Chapter 7 Alcohol and Other Drugs, is a major form of consensual crime; other forms include prostitution, gambling, and pornography. People who use illegal drugs, who hire themselves out as prostitutes or employ the services of a prostitute, who gamble illegally, and who use pornography are all doing so because they want to. These behaviors are not entirely victimless, as illegal drug users, for example, may harm themselves and others, and that is why the term consensual crime is often preferred over victimless crime. As just discussed, organized crime provides some of the illegal products and services that compose consensual crime, but these products and services certainly come from sources other than organized crime.

This issue aside, the existence of consensual crime raises two related questions that we first encountered in Chapter 7 Alcohol and Other Drugs. First, to what degree should the government ban behaviors that people willingly commit and that generally do not have unwilling victims? Second, do government attempts to ban such behaviors do more good than harm or more harm than good? Chapter 7 Alcohol and Other Drugss discussion of these questions focused on illegal drugs, and in particular on the problems caused by laws against certain drugs, but similar problems arise from laws against other types of consensual crime. For example, laws against prostitution enable pimps to control prostitutes and help ensure the transmission of sexual diseases because condoms are not regularly used.

Critics of consensual crime laws say we are now in a new prohibition and that our laws against illegal drugs, prostitution, and certain forms of gambling are causing the same problems now that the ban on alcohol did during the 1920s and, more generally, cause more harm than good. Proponents of these laws respond that the laws are still necessary as an expression of societys moral values and as a means, however imperfect, of reducing involvement in harmful behaviors.

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). (2010). Death on the job: The toll of neglect. Washington, DC: Author.

Barkan, S. E. (2012). Criminology: A sociological understanding (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Blumstein, A., & Wallman, J. (Eds.). (2006). The crime drop in America (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2011). Crime in the United States, 2010. Washington, DC: Federal Author.

Fox, J. A., Levin, J., & Quinet, K. (2012). The will to kill: Making sense of senseless murder. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Harris, G. (1998, April 19). Despite laws, hundreds are killed by black lung. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), p. A1.

Heise, L., Ellseberg, M., & Gottemoeller, M. (1999). Ending violence against women. Population Reports, 27(4), 144.

Cullen, F. T., Maakestad, W. J., & Cavender, G. (2006). Corporate crime under attack: The fight to criminalize business violence. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.

Lilienfeld, D. E. (1991). The silence: The asbestos industry and early occupational cancer researcha case study. American Journal of Public Health, 81, 791800.

Messner, S. F., Deane, G., & Beaulieu, M. (2002). A log-multiplicative association model for allocating homicides with unknown victim-offender relationships. Criminology, 40, 457479.

Rosoff, S. M., Pontell, H. N., & Tillman, R. (2010). Profit without honor: White collar crime and the looting of America (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Sutherland, E. H. (1949). White collar crime. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

The rest is here:

8.2 Types of Crime Social Problems

by: NC Department of Insurance

Angela Kaye Whidbee (Pitt County Sheriffs Office photo)

RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey on Tuesday announced the arrest of a Greenville woman and charged her with identity theft and insurance fraud, both felonies.

Angela K. Whidbee, 33, of 2804 Santonsburg Road, Greenville was arrested. Special agents with the Department of Insurances Criminal Investigations Division accuse Whidbee of telling a state trooper and Wilson Medical Center that she was another person by giving the other womans name, date of birth, address and drivers license number to avoid legal consequences of an automobile crash that occurred on March 15, 2018, in Wilson County.

According to the arrest warrant, Whidbee also gave the other womans name to Sentry Insurance Co. in support of an automobile insurance policy claim. The offenses occurred between March 15, 2018, and Sept. 10, 2020.

Special agents and Pitt County deputies arrested Whidbee on July 15.

Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime; we all pay for it through higher insurance premiums, said Commissioner Causey. Help us keep insurance premiums low by reporting suspected fraud.

If you suspect insurance fraud or other white-collar crimes, please report it. You may report fraud anonymously by calling the N.C. Department of Insurance Criminal Investigations Division at 919-807-6840. Information is also available at http://www.ncdoi.gov.

More here:

Greenville woman arrested on identity theft, insurance fraud after crash in Wilson County - WNCT

To the editor:

Frederick Douglass, one of the founders of the abolitionist Liberty Party (which joined the Conscience Whigs, Free Soilers and American Republicans at Exeter Town Hall in 1853) is finally being quoted again for his famous "Fourth of July speech."

Yet he also warned, my own hard earnings, every cent of it was demanded of me, and taken from me by Master Hugh, a Jacksonian Democrat. In the Legislature, Ive sustained Douglass adroit reasoning that "taxation of wages is slavery."

To make a contented slave, Douglass warned, you must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so.

Arent government schools doing this to children today with the bizarre Critical Race Theory?

Modern newspapers spend more time criticizing the former president than the current infamous for mass incarceration of poor and brown Americans and none on his obvious heir apparent herself infamous for incarcerating 1,900 Black and brown Americans for nonviolent gun and drug possession.

Yet isnt it also enslavement to turn Americans into prison slave labor for these modern victimless crimes? Or mandatory volunteer work required of high school students? Or the $86,220 as your share of the national debt? And the slow conversion of our health care system into corporate socialism? A total cost of government nearly $33,000 per year per person?

Another founder of the Liberty Party was fiscally conservative Sen. John Hale, who said to be silent is to be false to the great interests of liberty.

His painting still hangs in the Statehouse chamber. Today, the Liberty Party lives on as the small, yet active Republican Liberty Caucus.

As a member of that group, I've introduced the Civil Rights Act of 2019 and intend to do so again next year, as we now enjoy Republican majorities. We cut taxes by $171 million as a matter of principle and will restore New Hampshire to the lowest tax burden in the nation if given the chance.

And we intend to restore civil liberties that have been slowly eroded under the guise of every crisis.

MaxAbramson

Seabrook

The letter writer is a New Hampshire state representative.

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