White-collar Offenders Research Articles

Revisiting the Special Sensitivity Hypothesis: The Prison Experience of White-Collar Inmates

Despite recent increases in the use of incarceration for white-collar offenders, little is known about the prison experiences of these individuals or how they adjust to imprisonment. Although empirical evidence is lacking, a widespread view has prevailed that white-collar offenders have a “special sensitivity” to imprisonment—that they experience more pains and cope less well within the society of captives. Based on a sample of 366 federal prison inmates, we assessed the special sensitivity hypothesis. The analyses revealed that white-collar inmates are not more likely to experience negative prison adjustment. In some regards, white-collar inmates had fewer institutional problems and were more likely to cope with prison life successfully. Results thus call into question the merits of the special sensitivity hypothesis and are consistent with the view expressed earlier by Michael Benson and Francis Cullen that white-collar offenders may possess attributes and resources sufficient for their successful adaptation to life in prison.

Patterns in Account-Giving among White Collar Criminals

Using Swedish entrepreneurs' own explanations, this article searches for the possible regularities in the accounts offered by white collar offenders and for the underlying factors that produce these regularities, tracing in particular the impact of these offenders' attitudes toward regulation and taxation as well as their perceptions of the functioning of the market in which they operate. The results show that justifications are more common among offenders who have a clearly negative view on both factors. Excuses, on the other hand, are more frequently used by those who hold a positive attitude toward taxation and regulation. The results also show that offenders who offer excuses tend to share the same negative perception of the market as the “justifiers.” This unanticipated finding suggests that the “excusers” commit their offenses because they believe that the unlawful behaviors of the relevant others disturb the functioning of the market mechanism and thereby push them toward criminality.

Gender and “Other People's Money”: An Analysis of White-Collar Offender Sentencing

Although the female share of white-collar crime arrests (e.g., fraud, forgery, and embezzlement) continues to increase, little is known about the nature of women's involvement in these offenses, or the extent to which the legal treatment of white-collar offenders differs by gender. Using national survey data on employee crime, the present research addresses these voids in the literature. Consistent with prior research, women's roles in fraud offending are restricted by their positions in the organizational hierarchy. In support of the focal concerns perspective, results show that the decision to incarcerate and length of sentence are primarily shaped by indicators of offender blameworthiness. Findings reported here contribute to the literature on gender and white-collar crime, and also extend the growing body of focal concerns research to a previously unexplored sentencing context.

Visionaries or False Prophets

Theory and research on the psychology of white-collar offenders has historically been underdeveloped, and our understanding of the prototypical high-socioeconomic-status offenders, such as today’s chief executive officers and chief financial officers, first identified by Edwin Sutherland, has not benefited from the application of psychological trait theory. In this article, the author examines the negative synergy that develops when criminal thinking traits combine with the psychological traits of narcissism and psychopathy to create risk factors for white-collar offending. Psychological trait theory may be especially applicable to those who hold some of the highest positions in corporate organizations, who influence corporate culture, and who, at times, are considered visionaries in their respective industries.

White-Collar Crime: A Review of Recent Developments and Promising Directions for Future Research

White-collar crime is one of the least understood and arguably most consequential of all crime types. This review highlights and assesses recent (primarily during the past decade) contributions to white-collar crime theory (with special emphasis on critical, choice, and organizational theories of offending), new evidence regarding the sentencing and punishment of white-collar offenders, and controversies surrounding crime prevention and control policies. Several promising new directions for white-collar crime research are identified, as are methodological and data deficiencies that limit progress.

Accounting for Identity Theft

White-collar offenders are thought to be particularly adept at excusing and justifying their crimes. Whether this is due to their personal backgrounds or the characteristics of their crimes is, as of yet, unknown. To shed light on this issue we explore the various justifications and excuses given by identity thieves. Using data from semistructured interviews with 49 federally convicted identity thieves we show that they all provided numerous accounts for their crimes, with denial of injury being the most common. We also find that the use of accounts varies by the lifestyles these offenders live. That is, those seeking to live as conventional citizens call forth different accounts than those who have a criminal lifestyle.

Looking Back at Other People’s Money: A Qualitative Test of Cressey’s Classic Hypothesis of Trust Violating Behavior

Cressey’s study of trust violators has had a tremendous impact on how criminologists understand white collar offenders. Despite this, few have sought to replicate or validate his findings. The aim of this study is to replicate Cressey’s classic work to determine if it still has practical theoretical value today. To do this, we relied on data collected from 25 male federally incarcerated occupational offenders using semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that there is moderate empirical support for Cressey’s hypothesis when collectively examining all three components of his hypothesis. We found only minimal support for the importance of “non-shareable problems” because about half of the participants did not mention such issues. We did find strong evidence supporting the importance of verbalizations (i.e., neutralizations) in allowing for these crimes to occur. Overall, these findings suggest that more research needs to be conducted in order to determine why non-shareable problems do not seem to be as important now as they once were for the commission of occupational crimes such as embezzlement.

“Learning the Good With the Bad”

Occupational white-collar offenders are individuals who commit their offenses while in a position of trust and fiduciary responsibility within the respective company. Much has been written about their motivations and actual offenses; however, minimal empirical progress has been made determining whether the presence of an actual learning process exists that may inspire, encourage, or entice an individual to commit such crimes. Moreover, the research narrows further when attempting to determine whether a set of linguistic phrases that allows individuals to justify their crimes prior to commission may also be learned. Thus, the aim of this project was to understand the learning process behind occupational offenses, more specifically, do those we associate with provide neutralizations that may allow us to commit an occupational crime? To answer this question, 40 federally incarcerated occupational white-collar offenders were queried using semistructured one-on-one interviews. The results indicate that there is some empirical support for the notion that neutralizing language may in fact be learned from certain groups that we interact with both on and off the job. These findings suggest that further empirical investigation is warranted.

Do Women and Men Differ in Their Neutralizations of Corporate Crime?

Neutralization theory has commonly been used to understand the motivations of street offending, and recent studies have examined the use of neutralization techniques by corporate and white-collar offenders to account for their crimes. However, few researchers have explored whether this process is gendered. Using data from master of business administration (MBA) students, this study examines how gender influences intentions to inhibit or promote the sale of Panalba, a hypothetical pharmaceutical drug known to harm people, as well as how gender moderates the relationship between techniques of neutralization and corporate offending decisions. Results show that while there are bivariate gender differences in corporate offending decisions and in some of the techniques of neutralization, there are few gender differences in the effect of techniques of neutralization on corporate offending decisions. Directions for future research are highlighted.

Revisiting the Guilty Mind

Since Sutherland first addressed the topic, it has been well known that white-collar offenders do not regard themselves or their actions as criminal. Almost without exception white-collar offenders deny that they had a guilty mind when committing their offenses. Indeed, a distinguishing feature of the psychological makeup of white-collar offenders is thought to be their ability to neutralize the moral bind of the law and rationalize their criminal behavior. Although white-collar offenders are assumed to be different than other types of offenders in how they think about their crimes, no research has compared white-collar to other offenders on this matter. The current study fills this gap in the literature by comparing a sample of federal prison inmates convicted of white-collar offenses with a sample convicted of other types of offenses. Findings indicate that white-collar offenders may not have different thinking patterns as previously thought.

Gender dynamics in the sentencing of white-collar offenders

Theory and empirical research often have agreed that female and white-collar offenders benefit from leniency at the sentencing stage of criminal justice system processing. An untested research question emerging from these distinct bodies of literature is whether the greatest leniency is afforded to female white-collar offenders. We investigate the individual and interactive influences of gender and white-collar conviction on judicial leniency by analyzing Florida sentencing guidelines data from 1994 to 2004 using multinomial logistic regression to model the decision to incarcerate nonviolent economic offenders in jail or prison rather than sentence them to community control. Results indicate that female street offenders sentenced by male judges receive the most lenient sentences, while male offenders are punished the harshest regardless of the gender of the sentencing judge or type of crime. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed in terms of focal concerns, familial paternalism, and attributional perspectives on judicial decision-making.

Living in the Gray: Lessons on Ethics from Prison

Often overlooked once they are remanded to custody, incarcerated former business executives can provide valuable insight into the inner workings of organizations while also contributing to the dialogue on of business ethics within the undergraduate business curricula. This paper summarizes experiences of white collar offenders obtained through a questionnaire-based research method to elicit lessons on ethics from prisoners and to provide a unique learning experience for undergraduate business students. Data was collected from 12 questionnaire responses (n = 12) which resulted in four major themes involving business ethics: core values, ethical responsibility, ethics training, and ethical culture. Narrative responses, integration of ethical decision-making research and student discoveries are included for each theme.

The Psychological Profile of White-collar Offenders

The authors replicated Walters and Geyer (2004) by examining how white-collar offenders differ from non-white-collar offenders on criminal thinking and lifestyle criminality. To extend Walters and Geyer’s work, they explored psychopathic characteristics and psychopathology of white-collar offenders compared with non-white-collar offenders. The study sample included 39 white-collar only offenders (offenders who had committed only white-collar crime), 88 white-collar versatile offenders (offenders who previously had committed non-white-collar crime), and 86 non-white-collar offenders incarcerated in a federal prison. Groups were matched on age and ethnicity. Offenders completed self-report measures of criminal thinking, psychopathic traits, and psychopathology. Lifestyle criminality was gathered via file review. Results demonstrated white-collar offenders had lower scores on lifestyle criminality but scored higher on some measures of psychopathology and psychopathic traits compared with non-white-collar offenders. White-collar versatile offenders were highest in criminal thinking. Logistic regression findings demonstrated that white-collar offenders could be distinguished from non-white-collar offenders by substance use.

Federal White Collar Sentencing in the United States – A Work in Progress

Between 1980 and today, the US federal system has struggled to deal with the challenges of sentencing the relatively small number of defendants I shall loosely call “high-end” white collar offenders. After briefly sketching out this story, I explore the lessons, with particular attention to the interaction between institutional and procedural structures and theoretical white collar sanctioning goals. While the precise nature of these institutional and procedural structures is jurisdiction specific, I hope to highlight the need to consider such structures when devising an optimal (or, even second-best) sentencing regime.

Why Enough Is Not Enough: Toward a General Theory of Crime in the High Suites by Integration of Sociological and Catholic Social Perspectives

At the onset of the twenty-first century, egregious criminality by elite status offenders in the corporate milieu has emerged, with significant social and victim impact. Due to the lack of pertinent empirical data, the study of white-collar crime has been relatively more focused on the type of offense rather than the offender. This paper develops a theoretical model, founded on sociological and criminological literature and critically complemented by the principles of Catholic social thought, to understand elite white-collar criminality. We establish that the incentive structure is very different at the elite level than in lower social-economic levels of society. Specifically, we address the significance of socio-cultural influences on the corporate economic environment, assessed with interpretative insight supplied by Catholic social principles, to provide a distinctive view of elite white-collar offenders, with further research and policy implications.

Sentencing Disparity Among Upper and Lower Class Health Care Professionals Convicted of Misconduct

A longstanding debate in criminology and criminal justice has focused on whether white-collar offenders are sentenced more leniently than other types of offenders. This study uses a sample of approximately 1,200 adjudicated offenders who were employed in various types of health care professions at the time of their offenses—including both high-status and low-status positions—to explore whether the formal response to these types of occupational offenders are based on the status of the offender. The results show that certain types of high-status white-collar offenders appear to be punished more severely than lower status offenders from the health care field. Implications for policy, theory, and future research are provided.

White Collar Crime and Informal Social Control: The Case of “Crisis Responders” in the Swedish Banking and Finance Sector

Drawing upon case studies on the type of white-collar offenders frequently called “crisis responders”, this article critically examines Sampson and Laubs general theory on informal social control. In the article, this theory is for the first time confronted with data not used in its development and prior testing. Based on the evidence, the theory retains its validity for the white-collar offenders considered, insofar as their crime was closely connected to a perceived threat of identity loss, distrust in social support obtainable from others, and lack of supervision and monitoring at workplace. At the same time, the argument is made that the notion of interdependence relied upon in this theory needs to be developed more fully if it is to take into account the kind of dependency relations tying these particular offenders to their environment.

Sympathy for the Devil: An Exploration of Federal Judicial Discretion in the Processing of White-Collar Offenders

Since the late 1990s, the United States has experienced a series of major corporate malfeasance events leading to the collapse of corporations such as Worldcom and Enron, predatory lending practices which devastated the nation’s real estate market and the Bernie Madoff scandal serving as prime examples. While the leading culprits in such well-publicized cases have met stiff sanctions, the common notion is that white-collar offenders are treated more leniently than street offenders by the criminal justice system. Given the scope and severity of victimization attributable to the contemporary white collar crime epidemic, the matter of sanctioning fairness and severity is of timely importance. This paper examines judicial discretion in the form of the decision to incarcerate and the length of sentences imposed for federal white collar and street level offenders. Findings inform discussion oriented around the related issues of deterrence and public safety.

A Critical Examination of Research on the Psychological Profiles of White-Collar Criminals

This article critically reviewed 16 studies on the demographic and psychological characteristics of white-collar criminals. Some of the more-supported findings imply white-collar offenders are older, Caucasian, employed, and have a high school diploma or higher education. They also tended to be low in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and self-control. The most prominent limitations of the reviewed studies were the lack of a uniform definition of white-collar crime, not controlling for extraneous variables, and failing to control for type I error. Future research needs to explore how female white-collar offenders may be unique from male white‐collar offenders. Several psychological variables (e.g., criminal thinking, psychopathy, motivations) could be investigated to further treatment practices.

Os Modelos de Controle para o Crime de Colarinho Branco

O estudo do crime de colarinho branco (white-collar crime) constitui, sem duvida, um dos mais interessantes e conflituais capitulos da criminologia contemporânea. A crescente criminalidade economica no Brasil e no mundo e a sensivel impotencia dos orgaos, meios e instrumentos estatais, da administracao publica encarregados de sua prevencao e repressao, fizeram-nos propor o tema dos modelos de controle para o crime de colarinho branco. Considerando a importância do tema para o Direito Penal Economico, bem como a preocupacao dos legisladores hodiernos para com este tipo de criminalidade, o presente estudo pretende analisar as formas de controle. Salientando, desde ja, que tais modelos de controle devem funcionar de maneira transparente e adequada, evitando-se, assim, abusos de poder. Com base nesses tambem nos e possivel estabelecer um posicionamento a respeito da pena cabivel, adequada e eficaz ao criminoso de “colarinho branco”. Sera que a pena privativa de liberdade pode ser dotada de eficacia no delito economico?