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Viewing Bankruptcy As White Collar Crime Household debt and bankruptcy are at record levels and appear to be on the rise. In calendar year 1999, approximately 1.3 million individuals sought the relief from debts and claims of creditors by filing for bankruptcy, down slightly from the 1.4 million in calendar 1998. So what is bankruptcy all about? And can bankruptcy be considered as white-collar crime? For most, bankruptcy is nothing more than a fresh financial start. It is designed to help those who are in debt beyond a reasonable means to repay. The law states that a person is entitled to start over financially so long as they have not been dishonest in getting into debt. Bankruptcy will wipe out all of your unsecured debts and let you keep most, if not all, of your property. Bankruptcy is written right into the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 4) and therefore, United States Bankruptcy Law has been around for more that 200+ years. Virtually every industrialized country in the world has the option of filing bankruptcy as a method of relief. Bankruptcy is the necessary safety valve in the free market system. Without bankruptcy, people that are over their heads financially would give up or become part o