Social Bonds and White-Collar Crime: A Two-Study Assessment of Informal Social Controls in White-Collar Offenders

2020

The research literature on the white-collar crime phenomenon has accumulated for several decades. This article attempts to organize important research contributions under the umbrella term of convenience, which implies savings in time and effort, as well as avoidance of pain and obstacles. The theoretical structure is first broken down into the motive of financial gain, the organizational opportunity, and the personal willingness for deviant behavior. The motive derives from possibilities or threats, which can be individual or corporate. The opportunity is the acts to commit and to conceal financial crime, where conveniently committing a crime is based on status and access, while conveniently concealing crime is based on decay, chaos, and collapse. The willingness derives from choice or innocence, where choice relates to identity, rationality, and learning, while innocence relates to justification and neutralization. This model of the theoretical structure of deviant convenience in white-collar crime serves the purpose of stimulating further research into theoretical as well as empirical aspects of the white-collar crime phenomenon.

Section: Structural Model Of Organizational Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Theoretical Structure of Deviant Convenience in White-Collar Crime

2020

“…Application of neutralization techniques (Sykes and Matza 1957), sliding on the slippery slope (Welsh et al 2014), and lack of self-control (Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi 1990) are some of the perspectives integrated in the willingness dimension of convenience theory. Narcissistic identification with the organization (Galvin, Lange, and Ashforth 2015), learning from others by differential association (Sutherland 1983), and professional deviant identity (Obodaru 2017) are other perspectives for willingness.…”

Section: Crime Conveniencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using this technique, the offender rationalizes that the action in question is beyond his or her control. The offender might present himself or herself as a billiard ball, helplessly propelled through different situations (Craig and Piquero 2017;Engdahl 2015;Pratt and Cullen 2005;Sutherland 1983;Sykes and Matza 1957).…”

Section: Crime Seriousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theory of convenience for white-collar crime is concerned with financial possibilities and threats, organizational opportunity to commit and conceal financial crime, as well as personal willingness for deviant behavior (Vasiu and Podgor 2019). White-collar offenders commit financial crime in the course of their occupations (Craig 2019;Craig and Piquero 2016;Jordanoska 2018;van Onna and Denkers 2019). Convenience theory suggests that the financial motive in white-collar crime is to explore possibilities and avoid threats; the organizational opportunity is to commit as well as conceal crime, while the willingness is deviant behavior by justification and neutralization (Gottschalk 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

From Crime Convenience to Punishment Inconvenience: The Case of Detected White-Collar Offenders

2020

The theory of convenience suggests that white-collar offenders find it convenient to use illegitimate gain to explore possibilities and avoid threats. Furthermore, there is convenient access to resources to commit and financial crime, and offenders can conveniently justify crime and neutralize guilt feelings. This article extends the concept of convenience into the concept of inconvenience when white-collar offenders face detection, investigation, conviction, and incarceration. The extent of inconvenience is dependent on a number of issues such as public opinion about seriousness of wrongdoing, fraud examinations versus police investigations, symbolic defense by attorneys, and the special sensitivity hypothesis versus the special resilience hypothesis. While facing the criminal justice system is never convenient for the offender, the extent of inconvenience might limit itself and partly find compensation by a number of circumstances on the way from crime detection to release from prison.

“…The financial motive is concerned with the desire for profit that offenders more conveniently achieve in illegal ways. The desire finds its causes in both incentives and pressures, and in possibilities and threats (Onna and Denkers 2019). Possibilities and incentives can emerge in the perspectives of profit-driven crime (Naylor 2003) and goal orientation (Dodge 2009;Jonnergård, Stafsudd, and Elg 2010), as well the American dream (Pratt and Cullen 2005;Schoepfer and Piquero 2006).…”

Section: Economical Motivementioning

confidence: 99%

Convenience Triangle in White-Collar Crime: An Empirical Study of Prison Sentences

2019

The theory of convenience suggests that the likelihood of white-collar offenses is dependent on financial motives, organizational opportunities, and personal willingness to commit and conceal financial crime in an occupational setting. The convenience triangle suggests that motives, opportunities, and willingness can reinforce each other to commit and conceal the crime. While developing research hypotheses both for the extent of criminogenity and for interactions in the triangle, this research has failed in identifying empirical sources to test suggested hypotheses. Instead, we derive and interpret data from 408 convicted white-collar offenders into intentions to commit financial crime. Given this transformation of data from court documents and media reports, we find support for all three hypotheses regarding motive, opportunity, and willingness as predictors of white-collar crime intentions.