White‐Collar and Corporate Crime

Benson, Michael L.; Kennedy, Jay P.; Logan, Matthew W.

doi:10.1002/9781118868799.ch5

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Regulatory agencies or professional associations may initiate probes into (in)formal criminal allegations (Braithwaite & Drahos, 2000). But, seldom are they reported to law enforcement agencies, particularly in cases of corporate malfeasance due to private policing (Anderson & Waggoner, 2014; Benson et al., 2016; Clinard & Yeager, 2006; Gottschalk & Tcherni‐Buzzeo, 2017; Simpson, 2013). According to the Association of Fraud Examiners' (ACFE, 2022) most recent report, 3 fraud reports have declined by 16% over the past decade, with 58%–69% of cases not reported in 2021.…”

Section: Measuring White Collar Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

The donation method: A new behavioral measure for white collar crime?

Constantin,

Reese,

Boyett

2024

Sociology Compass

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To comprehensively grasp, predict, and address the complexity of white collar crime, robust measurement tools are imperative. The burgeoning interdisciplinary interest in this domain has spurred the development of diverse assessment tools aimed at capturing offending behavior and its proxies. In the present paper, we provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of several commonly employed measures, including official statistics, victimization surveys, self‐report surveys, and (quasi)experimental measures. Drawing insights from this review, we then introduce a novel behavioral measure: the donation method. Although the task was originally designed to examine behaviors of interest to behavioral economists, we carefully outline strategies to refine and implement the donation method to assess white collar crime, addressing challenges such as task suitability and controlling for respondent behavior. Additionally, we provide a sample task to illustrate how such a tool could be used within this field. We conclude by underlining the appeal of adopting innovative measurement tools like the donation method to advance our collective understanding of white collar crime. By advocating for its widespread adoption and providing guidance for its use, we endeavor to catalyze progress in the field, facilitating unique insights and, potentially, more efficacious strategies for confronting and surmounting the methodological obstacles inherent in studying this elusive form of criminal activity.

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Section: Measuring White Collar Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

The donation method: A new behavioral measure for white collar crime?

Constantin,

Reese,

Boyett

2024

Sociology Compass

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“…Unlike many other forms of crime, white-collar crime is a sociological construct, not an officially recognised legal category and, as such, does not easily lend itself to measurement (Benson et al 2016). Its operationalisation poses a substantial challenge to researchers, who have to choose between offender-based (status-based, populist) and offense-based (patrician) definitions (Shover & Cullen 2008).…”

Section: Defining White-collar Crime Defining White-collar Offendersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Yale studies (Weisburd et al 1991), for instance, the adopted operationalisation, focusing on violators of specified laws, led the researchers to the conclusion that white-collar offences are mostly committed by the middle class rather than the socioeconomic elite. While including bank embezzlement and petty fraud in one category can perhaps be justified in terms of criminal phenomenology, they are usually perpetrated by individuals who differ in terms of social standing and criminal career (Benson & Kerley 2000;Benson et al 2016). Most white-collar offenders thus defined (i.e.…”

Section: Defining White-collar Crime Defining White-collar Offendersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carceral Experiences of White-Collar Offenders: Qualitative Research Design Utilising the Offender-Based Definition and Pierre Bourdieu’s Capital Theory

Uhl

2022

Crime Law Soc Change

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As the awareness and extent of white-collar crime increases, the number of prison inmates from the middle and upper classes can be expected to grow. However, existing scholarship on the imprisoned white-collar offenders has geographical and methodological limits, is of a predominantly explorative nature and often employs definitions focused on the offence rather than the perpetrator. This study attempts to advance the current state of research by utilising Bourdieu’s capital theory in the description and explanation of the prison experience of a sample of 13 politicians, businesspersons, and lawyers serving prison terms for corruption and embezzlement in Poland. Deductive analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals how participants used social, cultural, and symbolic capital to secure an advantageous position whilst in prison. Due to varied assets such as their non-criminal identity, interpersonal skills and legal knowledge, the incarcerated elites studied were able to curry favour with guards, win recognition from fellow inmates and, unlike most prisoners, maintain supportive connections with the outside world. When considered within Bourdieu’s framework, these results provide an insight into the workings of capital in carceral settings, support the special resiliency hypothesis and explain it through differences in the social situation of inmates.

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“…Unlike studies of most any other crime type, white-collar crime research almost invariably begins with a (generally lengthy) discussion defining the concept of interest. This definitional preoccupation is likely owed to the sociological, rather than legal, nature of the term (Benson, Kennedy, and Logan 2016) and was fueled by inconsistencies in the label’s early usage. Since Sutherland’s first definition of white-collar crime, dozens of scholars have introduced their own clarifications on the concept, including Sutherland himself.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has led many to suppose that definitional differences across study are to blame for the lack of clear trends in findings (Geis 1991; see also Benson et al 2016). Yet few attempts have been made to empirically explore the consequences of definitional ambiguity within the same analytic sample.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Substance or Semantics? The Consequences of Definitional Ambiguity for White-collar Research

Galvin

2019

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

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Objectives: To determine whether different conceptions (Populist, Patrician) and operationalizations of “white-collar crime” produce different substantive conclusions, using the applied case of sentencing in federal criminal court. Method: Federal Justice Statistics Program data are used to identify white-collar and comparable crimes referred for prosecution in 2009 to 2011 that were also sentenced through 2013. Five different operational strategies are used to identify “white-collar crime” and are employed in separate hurdle regressions jointly capturing incarceration and sentence length. Differences in model coefficients and case composition are discussed across definitions. Results: There are differences in the relationship between “white-collar crime” and incarceration both between and within Populist and Patrician conceptions. These differences are most pronounced at the in/out decision but are also present for sentence length. Conclusions: Contradictory findings from past research are largely able to be replicated within a single sample simply by changing the conception and operationalization of white-collar crime used. This demonstrates that debating what is “truly” white-collar crime is not just an exercise in semantics—it is a conceptual and methodological choice that can have dramatic consequences on what (we think) we know about the treatment of white-collar crime in the criminal justice system.

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White‐Collar and Corporate Crime

Cited by 12 publications

References 23 publications

The donation method: A new behavioral measure for white collar crime?

The donation method: A new behavioral measure for white collar crime?

Carceral Experiences of White-Collar Offenders: Qualitative Research Design Utilising the Offender-Based Definition and Pierre Bourdieu’s Capital Theory

Substance or Semantics? The Consequences of Definitional Ambiguity for White-collar Research

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