Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
2020-21

Subject-: White Collar Crime

Topic- Privileged Class Deviance

Submitted to Submitted by
Dr. Malay Pandey 1st Group
Assistant Professor LLM 2nd Sem
(Vikesh Kumar,
Lokesh Nigam,
Shalini Dwivedi,
Sahil Singh,
Ankur Kumar)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Any accomplishment requires effort of many people and this work is no different. I take this
opportunity to thank Mr. Malay Pandey (Assistant Professor, Law) for giving me such a
wonderful topic for research and providing me valuable training and guidance at the various
stages of my project.

I will also remain highly indebted to the librarian for providing the requisite research
material.

Lastly I am thankful to all my colleagues who have given time to help me during the
completion of the project.

-Lokesh Nigam,
Vikesh Kumar,
Shalini Dwivedi,
Sahil Singh,
Ankur Kumar
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. THEORIES OF PRIVILEGED CLASS DEVIANCE

3. TYPES/FORMS OF PRIVILEGED CLASS DEVIANCE

4. PRIVILEGED CLASS DEVIANCE IN ELECTORAL PROCESS

5. CONCLUSION
 INTRODUCTION

The class system is not new, nor is it the one inculcated in children since time immemorial, as
even ancient India had its own class structure. With modernity, the category has taken on an
increased scope and presence. One of these types of classes includes wealthy or high-status
people. Those who have the benefits or the facilities are those who enjoy them. We find a lot
of these kinds of folks in India. Either because of their name, renown, or excellence in a
certain area, these rights are being bestowed on them. They were previously an entire group
of people, as it is found that they are distributed across numerous groups.

Conventionally, they are very prevalent, but there are no hard and fast rules for the common
man. Also, pay attention to deviations. To put it bluntly, we consider it to be nothing but a
"distraction from the correct path". Once someone is granted the facilities, they must assume
their obligations as well. Ethics and obligations can also be referred to as these
responsibilities. In general, when they are not being followed by the respective person, people
who might be characterised as Deviances will be referred to as such. And here in India, we
have a huge population to sustain, but we also have challenges like unemployment and
hunger. As a result, the irregularities start to be indistinguishable from one another. Privilege
may be found in politics, athletics, education, glamour, administration, and many other
sectors. All the characteristics are said to be present in each one of them now. The situation in
society is controlled by the people in power who have been given a privileged position.

Deviance implies any unlawful act that is not legally enforced, such as behaviours, acts, and
conduct that go against formal or informal standards. According to Merriam-Dictionary,
Webster's deviation from society's standards by those who have or have been granted
advantages to improve the society. If unique rights, advantages, or immunities are given to a
person, and that person has the right to speak or write whatever without fear of retribution or
damage, then that person's actions are of a privileged class deviance. In some instances,
privileged class deviance is referred to as "privileged class deviance." Privileged Class
Deviance is a term used to describe a deviant in a high-status class. Privileged class deviance
has been with us from the beginning of time. It is a crime perpetrated by the wealthy and
prominent members of the community who control many aspects of society. An easy way to
understand the concept of Privileged Class Deviance is to compare it to the concept of Power,
Privilege and Deviant behaviour.

THEORIES OF PRIVILEGED CLASS DEVIANCE

1. Durkheim’s Normative theory of Suicide
2. Merton’s Strain Theory
3. Labelling theory
4. Differential Association theory
5. Conflict theory

DURKHEIM’S NORMATIVE THEORY

Durkheim states that the principal reason for suicide is neither an individual act nor a specific
or personal act, but mostly because of the power above and beyond the individual or the
superior person. Durkheim's suicide hypothesis is based on social and not psychological
aspects. What causes a person to take such a move is not his psychological but his social
component, and finally he argues that social disorder or social changes are the motivators of
the individuals to commit suicide.

Durkheim endorsed 4 suicide kinds and distinguished them from the character in society and
its society1. These are-

1. Egoistic Suicide- The person is alienated and believes that there is no place for him to
stay in society, gets self-centred and kills himself. This Suicide is viewed as the result
of the lack of social inclusion. It is done by those who are socially excluded and
consider themselves alone or an outsider. They received little and no social attention.
Suicide is regarded as a method to liberate yourself from solitude or excessive
individualization.
2. Altruistic suicide- The word altruistic signifies selflessness.. It happens when the
engagement of social groups is too high. Individuals are so deeply integrated into the
group that they are ready to sacrifice their own lives to fulfil their collective duties.
3. Anomic Suicide- This is a distinct form of suicide and the reason for it may be due
to any damage to his/her economic or monetary base. This a spontaneous act which

1
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF SUICIDE GIVEN BY DURKHEIM?
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY, [Link]
the-types-of-suicide-given-by-durkheim/ (last visited July 28,2021)
 leads to committing suicide. The lack of social regulation causes anomalous suicide
and happens amid stress and dissatisfaction.
4. Fatalistic Suicide- This form of suicide is because the sentiments of one person which
are governed by norms, values and ethics which makes the individual go into despair
and creates an emotion to leave these external pressures.

MERTON’S STRAIN THEORY

The strain idea speaks mostly about the social structure of society and the same social
structure of society is what causes people to commit crimes. According to Merton, it is
society that pressures people into committing the crime, in order to accomplish the shared or
socially acceptable aims of society, that focusses only on the goals and not on the ways or
means to get them. This force means that the society has placed strain on an individual who
affects them, is harmful to the person and commits crimes because of this unseen force or
pressure, and is later referred to as criminals.2

LABELLING THEORY

Beker made this theory by thinking that the social groups creates the norms and those person
who violates these norms are held to be as criminal and they account for deviance. Labelling
is a social response process by individuals who are living in a community and these
person judges others and attempts to label them and make inferences that the behaviour of the
labelled individual is deviant. The labelling process stigmatises that a certain set of educated
and cultured individuals identify a person as criminal due to their behaviour, actions and
psychological status. According to this idea, persons who are classified by society as
criminals are not born as criminals just because the groups labelled them as criminals make
them commit crimes. Not all persons labelled as criminals and not all criminals are labelled.
Because of their stigma or a name tag, they conduct more crimes as criminals.3

DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY

Edwin H. Sutherland outlined this theory, He Says that Criminals learn from other criminal
and deviant behaviours. To make a crime is not just individual part but it is because the
2
STRAIN THEORY- HOW SOCIAL VALUES PRODUCE DEVIANCE SOCIAL SCI LIBRETEXTS,
[Link]
07:_Deviance,_Social_Control,_and_Crime/7.04:_The_Functionalist_Perspective_on_Deviance/
7.4B:_Strain_Theory-_How_Social_Values_Produce_Deviance (last visited July 28, 2021)
3
Labelling Theory and Symbolic Interaction Theory (Criminology Theories) IResearch Net Criminal Justice,
[Link]
theory/4 (last visited July 28, 2021)
criminals around you inspire you to repeatedly carry out the crimes. The vulnerability to
crimes also grows when offenders undertake illegal actions. He also argues that the regular
behaviour does not vary much from the criminal or deviant one, the method and idea of
learning are the same but the only variation is the connection of conduct (the good and the
bad).4

CONFLICT THEORIES

The idea of social conflict is based on inequalities and is based on the notion that social and
economic forces acting in society are the underlying cause of crime. The idea of conflict says
that individual behaviour changes due to social institutions, political developments and social
revolutions. The institution's ability to alter standards, values and rules is why this behaviour
(deviant), as for example when a political party governs a society, it makes its own rules and
regulations and everyone else must follow them and after a few years some other party comes
and declares its own regulations. The idea is that the laws and regulations change, which
directly or indirectly causes a conflict in people's thoughts, leading to deviation, crimes and
criminality.5

4
SUTHERLAND'S DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY EXPLAINED THOUGHTCO,
[Link] (last visited July 28, 2021)
5
BOUNDLESS SOCIOLOGY LUMEN, [Link]
conflict-perspective-on-deviance/ (last visited July 28, 2020)
 Forms of Privileged Class Deviance
There are three forms of Privileged Class Deviance-:

1. Professional Deviance

2. Police Deviance

3. Official Deviance

1. Professional deviance-: Professional deviance occurs when a profession's principles,

norms, ethics, rules, and regulations are ignored, resulting in violations of the code of
conduct, rules, and regulations. In basic words, professional deviance occurs when an
individual violates the rights of others while working in a respectable profession. Profession
encompasses a wide range of jobs, including legal, medical, teaching, education, and
engineering, among others. The primary reason for this divergent behaviour is the lack of
education, information and illiteracy of the poor, because the poor are unknown, trust the
experts and are easily deceived by them.

Legal profession-: The deviating conduct of lawyers and other members of the legal
profession leads to deviation. Legal profession is a renowned, respectable and proud career.
Lawyers' profession was regarded one of the finest occupations in India, however recently
this profession's reputation and renown has progressively declined. The primary cause for this
is the deviant conduct of few advocates, which led to numerous inequalities.

There are 3 main provisions or acts which deals with legal profession which are:

i. The Legal Practitioners Act, 1879.

ii. The Indian Bar Council Act, 1926.

iii. The Advocates Act, 1961.

These are acts dealing with a legal profession and all practising advocates must abide by the
rules and regulations mentioned under those acts, but it is only a piece of paper or a document
for some lawyers and they feel that it is not useful to follow, as a consequence of this the
advocates practise an illegal act and execute deviation.
Examples of deviant behaviour of legal profession are:
a. Fabrication of evidence
b. Getting into terms and agreements between the opposition parties
c. Asking all irrelevant and uncomfortable questions to the victims while cross-examination
and etc.

Doctor (medical profession)-: Doctors are regarded worldwide as life-saving doctors. They
are regarded like gods, since many individuals are born of death. And it is true that many
physicians have an abnormal conduct, and the primary cause for this abnormality of doctors
is that they are obsessed with money or even destroyed by acting in their shoes.

2 major provision or acts which deals with medical profession are:

i) Indian Medical Degree Act, 1916.
ii) Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.

Examples of Medical profession deviance are:

a. False post-mortem reports

b. Illegal abortion

c. Overdose medicines for normal disease

d. Illicit trafficking of organs

e. Avoiding treatment for the patient who met with an accident and waiting for police orders.
And etc.6

2. Police deviance-: Deviance when carried out by the police department or by a person who
is the police is a Police Deviance. Police agencies are powerful and play a key role in every
particular society, defend the law and respond if someone breaks any legislation. The police
department has the lead in protecting people from unlawful actions, but if they simply violate
the laws and regulations, the people may also do the same by default. Indian Police Act of

6
FORMS OF PRIVILEGED CLASS DEVIANCES,
[Link] (last visited July
28, 2021)
1861 has been established to reorganise and ensure that the police force operates effectively,
without any unlawful activity.

The police department have many duties such as:

a. Maintenance of law-and-order situation.

b. Patrolling and surveillance

c. Implement Preventing function

d. Investigation of crimes

e. Arrest criminals

If one of these responsibilities and few others are broken, such deviant police behaviour is
termed Police Deviance. Police deviance is a far broader concept than corruption. Police
deviance covers all kinds of actions that do not comply with standards, values and so forth.

There are many types of Police deviance such as:

1. Police brutality
2. Third Degree methods – famous case: Kishore J. Chawla vs Union of India7- The police
being the protector of law should not fear the minds of the people.
3. Encounter killings
4. Fake encounters
5. Intoxication while in duty and etc

3. Official deviance-: When these official, such as bureaucrats, judges and legislators are
done deviance then it is called as official deviance. These are the ones who are responsible
for the wellbeing of society since society is in a controlled condition.

a) Bureaucrats are the officials in charge of a nation's administrative duties. The primary task
of this department is to collect taxes and revenue.
The following are the deviance which the Bureaucrats do:
i) Red-Tapism
ii) Corruption

7
1999 (66) ECC 594, 2000 (117) ELT 4 Mad
iii) Misappropriation of money

b) Judges are those who provide justice to victims and punish the wrongdoer, if the judge
gives the judgment to the parties (victims) in an incorrect and partial manner, then the people
living around them will lose their trust and belief in the (judicial) system.
Examples of deviance done by Judges are:

i) Taking bribe and giving a wrong judgement

ii) Taking political influence and joining the wrong ones

iii) Personal contract with the Advocates

iv) Personal interest in giving justice and thus removing the legal spirit of the system.

c) Legislators are the ones who are chosen by the people and there lays a responsibility or
obligation on them that they should serve the people who trusted them and voted in the
elections, they should serve the interests of the public and not against it.

Examples of deviance done by Legislators are-:

i) Having a close relationship with the criminals

ii) Corruption: A huge amount of sum is collected for the party’s benefit but nothing is done
in reality

iii) Favouritism is done by them whenever there is tender for petrol pump or diesel pump or
any other industry etc.
 DEVIANCE IN THE ELCTORAL PROCESS IN INDIA
When roots of Deviant behaviour or Deviance done in politics by the politicians or legislators
and are visible in all fields during the elections or after the elections or before the elections
then that is called as Deviance in the Electoral process, it is also called as Electoral Fraud. In
India there has always been the role of 3MPs and 4Cs which are:

1. Muscle Power

2. Money Power

3. Mafia Power

4. Corruption

5. Criminalization

6. Casteism

7. Communalism.8

There are different types of deviant behaviour or electoral fraud few of them are:

1. Election Rigging

2. Booth Capturing

3. Voter Impersonation

4. False registration

5. Buying votes and Duplicate voting

Election Rigging: Election rigging is an act of dishonestly organizing or conducting the

election to get a particular result. It is an electoral fraud or electoral crime and an interference

8
FORMS & EXTENT OF ELECTORAL DEVIANCE IN INDIA LINKEDIN SLIDESHARE,
[Link] (last visited July
25, 2021)
with the election process. In India it is called Ballot Rigging. Ballot rigging is increasing the
votes in favour of the selected candidates or decreasing the votes of the rival candidates. 9

Booth Capturing: Booth capturing is a type of electoral fraud in which one political party
captures a polling booth and violates the right of the voters by making them to vote for their
candidate so that they can win the elections. This is clearly the suppression of votes and
unlike rigging this fraud or deviance is commonly practiced in India. This mainly happens in
villages. Booth capturing can be understood as a process in which the political parties take
control of the booth and use their power to get votes. And interestingly in many areas the
voters are threatened or beaten to vote for someone else other than the candidate whom they
want to vote. Many political parties have relationships with the local goons and they take
their help to win the elections. In 1957 General Elections the first case of booth capturing was
recorded. The government after many such cases introduced a new style of voting which is
called as Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the year 1989.10

Voter Impersonation: Voting in the name of other legitimate voters and voters who have
died or lost their right to vote because they are criminals, but remain registered and the
person who votes with help of these voter Id’s is called as Voter Impersonation. In simple
terms it means that anyone who impersonates himself or portrays himself as some other
person and votes during elections is known as Voter Impersonation. This is a common
practice across the globe and is very cunningly acted by the wrongdoer. Case law: R.
Natarajan .... Revision vs The State Chief Election Officer on 15 March, 2011.11

9
VOTE RIGGING AND FRAUD UNDER ELECTION LAW: PAJHWOK ELECTION SITE VOTE RIGGING AND FRAUD
UNDER ELECTION LAW | PAJHWOK ELECTION SITE, [Link]
rigging-and-fraudunder-election-law (last visited July 25, 2021)
10
Booth Capturing, [Link] [Link] (last
visited July 25, 2021)
11
[Link] ..... REVISION VS THE STATE CHIEF ELECTION OFFICER ON 15 MARCH, 2011,
[Link] (last visited July 25, 2021)
False Registration or Voter Id Fraud: Voting under a fraudulent identity that either uses a
false name or real name with false address and votes in a particular area in which he/she is
not entitled to vote. Example: 2018 Karnataka’s case.12

Buying Votes and Duplicate Voting: Paying the voters or giving them alcohol (mostly
happens in villages) and asking them to cast their vote to a particular candidate is called
Buying votes. Case Law: Ghasi Ram vs Dal Singh & Others on 7 February, 1968. Duplicate
voting means when one person who has registered in many areas and voting in the same
election is called Duplicate voting.13

The above mentioned are the types of frauds or deviance done by the political parties during
elections. Due to these acts which are done by the legislators it creates a negative impact on
the electoral process. These acts done by the legislators directly affects the mindset of the
people and the citizens who trust them, due to this the citizens lose their trust on the political
parties and lastly no one will come forward to vote in the elections. As legislators are directly
involved in this deviant behaviour, this clearly amounts to Official Deviance.

CONCLUSION
12
KARNATAKA POLLS: BJP SAYS EC ORDER ON R R NAGAR 'CLEAR INDICTMENT' OF CONG BUSINESS
STANDARD, [Link]
tomorrow-top10-developments-118051100117_1.html (last visited July 25, 2021)
13
VOTER FRAUD THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION,
[Link] (last visited July 25, 2021)
If one examines the trend in Indian society closely, one would see that one or more higher
ranking officials or political leaders are implicated in the deviances. The pinnacle is when we
discover that even the officials are involved. All of this is a terrible thing for society, since
the most harm is done to its structure. As a result of these misdeeds, India has had difficulty
managing funds and allocating resources to the general population. The amenities are not
used by the general public, and it has created a sense of distrust for the government.

Some measures that can be adopted to prevent the commission of such deviant act are:

The top investigating agencies of the country like the Central Bureau of Investigation, the
Enforcement Directorate, the Income-tax Department, The Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence and the Customs Department, needs strengthening, by way of implementing
strong regulating policies. The Central Vigilance Commission should monitor the working of
the officials sitting at top positions and also cross-check their works, so as to ensure
transparency in the system.

To uproot the existence of such acts, it is very important to include strict laws into the
system. Less amount of fine and shorter period of imprisonment makes it very casual for the
offenders to commit such acts.

Fast track courts and tribunals should be set in all the parts of the country for the early
disposal of these cases. The tribunal should be provided with the power to fine or imprison
someone who has been held guilty.

Stringent laws and hefty fine and long-term imprisonment should be given to the offenders
for committing such crimes. And for this to happen, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 should be
amended and include provisions for the white-collar crimes. For example, the IPC could have
a separate chapter dealing with white collar crimes.

It may be argued that a state like India should be devoid of all forms of deviances, and that
there should be no privilege class to guarantee that the spirit of the Indian Constitution is
preserved. Even if the aim appears to be far-fetched, it is not insurmountable. The knowledge
and desire to change will undoubtedly result in a change in the current system.