Few white-collar criminals are sentenced to more than a year in jail

Less than one in five convicted white-collar criminals is sentenced to more than a year in prison, the federal government says in a new study. Forty percent of convicted white-collar criminals were given probation or other non-prison penalties, the survey concluded. The survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics included California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia.

In contrast, violent offenders received prison terms of more than a year 39 percent of the time, the study found. Property crime offenders received prison terms of longer than 12 months in 26 percent of the cases.