The difference (not so clear) between crime and business. A reading between Edwin Sutherland and Raymond Chanlder

Abstract

This paperstartswith a pair of quotes (one of Ricardo Piglia quoting Bertolt Brecht,the other of Raymond Chandler), whichsets a conceptual blurring between crime and business. From this, we intend to work in two directions. In the first instance, we recover Edwin Sutherland’sideas related to the delinquency of large companies and the whitecollar crime (which is functional to disrupt operations of thought usually naturalized, as the relationship between crime and poverty). Second, wereturto Foucault's distinction between permitted illegalities and criminal acts punished.In this context, Daniel Link’s belief in the overwhelmed police genre is useful for thinkingabout crime, law and truth. Although this second direction is based on a primarily discursive level, it allows us to return to the starting point of thispaper and keep in check the difference (not so clear) between crime and business.