DENYING THE GUILTY MIND: ACCOUNTING FOR

INVOLVEMENT IN A WHITE-COLLAR CRIME*

MICHAEL L. BENSON 1
1
Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne

*The author would like to thank Gilbert Geis and three anonymous
reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Michael Benson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public

and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University
at Fort Wayne. He is interested in societal reactions to white-collar
crimes and is working on a study of the sentencing of white-collar
offenders.

ABSTRACT

This study of convicted white-collar offenders treats their

explanations for involvement in criminal activities. It focuses
specifically on the techniques that are used to deny criminality. The
strategies used to accomplish this end are detailed. It is suggested
that the accounts developed by white-collar offenders to explain
involvement in criminal activities are structured by the mechanics,
histories, and organizational formats of offenses and by the
requirement that they defeat the conditions of successful
 degradation ceremonies. In conclusion, some preliminary
observations concerning the causes of white-collar crime are made.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00365.x About DOI

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White-collar crime
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been

defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of
respectability and high social status in the course of his
occupation" (1949). Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic
Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was learned
from interpersonal interaction with others. White-collar crime
therefore overlaps with corporate crime because the opportunity
for fraud, bribery, insider trading, embezzlement, computer crime,
and forgery is more available to white-collar employees.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Definitional issues
• 2 Relationship to other types of crime
o 2.1 Blue-collar crime
o 2.2 State-corporate crime
• 3 Differential treatment for white-collar offenders
• 4 References
 o 4.1 Further Reading and References

5 External links

[edit] Definitional issues

Modern criminology generally rejects a limitation of the term by

reference to type of crime and the topic is now divided:

• By the type of offense, e.g. property crime, economic crime,

and other corporate crimes like environmental and health and
safety law violations. Some crime is only possible because of
the identity of the offender, e.g. transnational money
laundering requires the participation of senior officers
employed in banks. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation
has adopted the narrow approach, defining white-collar crime
as "those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit,
concealment, or violation of trust and which are not
dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or
violence" (1989, 3). Because this approach is relatively
pervasive in the United States, the record-keeping does not
adequately collect data on the socioeconomic status of
offenders which, in turn, makes research and policy
evaluation problematic. While the true extent and cost of
white-collar crime are unknown, it is estimated to cost the
 United States more than $300 billion annually, according to
the FBI.
• By the type of offender, e.g. by social class or high
socioeconomic status, the occupation of positions of trust or
profession, or academic qualification, researching the
motivations for criminal behavior, e.g. greed or fear of loss of
face if economic difficulties become obvious. Shover and
Wright (2000) point to the essential neutrality of a crime as
enacted in a statute. It almost inevitably describes conduct in
the abstract, not by reference to the character of the persons
performing it. Thus, the only way that one crime differs from
another is in the backgrounds and characteristics of its
perpetrators. Most if not all white-collar offenders are
distinguished by lives of privilege, much of it with origins in
class inequality.
• By organizational culture rather than the offender or offense
which overlaps with organized crime. Appelbaum and
Chambliss (1997, 117) offer a twofold definition:

Occupational crime which occurs when crimes are committed

to promote personal interests, say, by altering records and
overcharging, or by the cheating of clients by professionals.
Organizational or corporate crime which occurs when
corporate executives commit criminal acts to benefit their
 company by overcharging or price fixing, false advertising,
etc.

[edit] Relationship to other types of crime

[edit] Blue-collar crime

The types of crime committed are a function of the opportunities

available to the potential offender. Thus, those employed in
relatively unskilled environments and living in inner-city areas
have fewer "situations" to exploit (see Clarke: 1997) than those
who work in "situations" where large financial transactions occur
and live in areas where there is relative prosperity. Note that
Newman (2003) applies the Situational Crime Prevention strategy
to e-crime where the opportunities can be more evenly distributed
between the classes. Blue-collar crime tends to be more obvious
and attract more active police attention (e.g. for crimes such as
vandalism or shoplifting which protect property interests), whereas
white-collar employees can intermingle legitimate and criminal
behavior and be less obvious when committing the crime. Thus,
blue-collar crime will more often use physical force whereas in the
corporate world, the identification of a victim is less obvious and
the issue of reporting is complicated by a culture of commercial
confidentiality to protect shareholder value. It is estimated that a
great deal of white collar crime is undetected or, if detected, it is
not reported. In the truest sense, the terms white and blue collar
crime refers to police slang for an arrest of a suspect, or collar.
Blue collar crimes are those that involve local police (known for
wearing blue, or, "Men in Blue") and white collar crimes are those
involving Federal agents, such as FBI (who typically wear suits
and ties with white shirts.)

[edit] State-corporate crime

Because the negotiation of agreements between a state and a

corporation will be at a relatively senior level on both sides, this is
almost exclusive a white-collar "situation" which offers the
opportunity for crime.

[edit] Differential treatment for white-collar offenders

This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

The empirical data clearly demonstrate a double standard between

white-collar crimes and so-called street crimes. There are a number
of reasons to explain why white-collar criminals are not more
rigorously pursued. By virtue of their relative affluence, those
accused as white-collar offenders are able to afford the fees of the
best lawyers, and may have friends among senior ranks of the
political elite (see Cronyism), the judiciary and the law
enforcement agencies. These connections often not only ensure
favorable treatment on an individual basis, but also enable laws to
be drafted or resource allocations to be shifted to ensure that such
crimes are not defined or enforced too strictly. It is a fact that
virtually no police effort goes into fighting white-collar crime, and
the enforcement of many corporate crimes is put into the hands of
government agencies like the United States Environmental
Protection Agency which can act only as watchdogs and point the
finger when an abuse is discovered. This more benign treatment is
possible because the true cost of white-collar crime, while high in
nationally consolidated accounts, is diffused through the bank
balances of millions either by way of share value reductions, or
nominal increases in taxation, or increases in the cost of insurance.
And because it can be difficult to assign blame, e.g. environmental
damage may be serious but corporations cannot be sent to jail and,
if those senior officers are removed from their positions, it may be
more damaging to the organization itself which employs many
ordinary and innocent people, and to the shareholders who had no
role to play in taking criminal decision. Different public policies
are at work and there are differences in the level of public interest,
case complexity, and a lack of white-collar related literature, all of
which has a significant effect on the way white-collar offenders are
sentenced, punished, and perceived by the public.

Another reason for differential treatment might be the fact that

criminal penalties tend to be more reflected to the degree of
physical force or violence involved than to the amount of monetary
loss, all other things being equal. Because white-collar crimes are
committed by those with opportunities that do not require violence,
they are far less likely to garner more severe criminal penalties.
For example, someone who mugs a victim on the street by
threatening to knife them, and steals their wallet, might very likely
be punished with a more severe sentence than an inside trader who
cheats shareholders out of a million dollars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-
collar_crime#Definitional_issues