Which term describes crimes by a company or its employees to benefit the corporation?

• A. Occupational Crime
• B. Fraud
• C. White-Collar Crime
• D. Corporate Crime

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is distinguishing the actor and the beneficiary in business-related crimes. Corporate crime describes offenses committed by a corporation or its employees that are intended to benefit the corporation itself. This label highlights the organizational origin and the motive tied to the company’s profits or power, such as illegal price-fixing to boost profits, falsifying records to mislead investors, or environmental violations undertaken to cut costs or gain market advantage.

Why this fits best: it zeroes in on the corporate actor and the goal of benefiting the corporation, rather than on a method or a broader category. White-collar crime is a broad umbrella that covers many nonviolent offenses by professionals, and not all of those offenses are necessarily aimed at benefiting the corporation as an entity. Fraud refers to deception used to obtain something of value and is a specific tactic rather than a description of who commits the act or who benefits. Occupational crime focuses on crimes committed through one’s occupation by individuals, often for personal gain, and doesn’t strictly require the corporate entity to be the beneficiary.

So, crimes that involve a company or its employees aimed at advancing the corporation’s interests are best described as corporate crime.