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

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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.