Exploring white-collar crime and the American dream: A partial test of institutional anomie theory

White Collar Criminals: The State of Knowledge

“…White collar criminals own their own homes to a similar degree as the general population and to a much greater degree than street criminals (Wheeler et al, 1988;Weisburd, 1991;Weisburd et al, 2001;Benson, 2002;Ring, 2003). Their education level ranges from the same to greater than the general population, and this depends on what type of white collar crime the offender has been convicted of (Alalehto & Larsson, 2008;Bussmann & Werle, 2006;Wheeler et al, 1988;Weisburd, 1991;Weisburd et al, 2001;Poortinga et al, 2006;Kardell & Bergqvist, 2009;Schoepfer & Piquero, 2006;Benson & Moore, 1992;Soothill et al, 2012;Walters & Geyer, 2004).…”

“…In addition, white collar criminals tend to vote less often than the general public (Schoepfer & Piquero, 2006). White collar criminal's financial assets vary significantly according to gender (Gottschalk & Glasø, 2013) and depend on what kind of crime the offender has been convicted of (Weisburd, 1991;Weisburd et al, 2001;Benson, 2002;Onna et al, 2014).…”

Scientific Method and the Crimes of the Powerful

“…27 For instance, were we to utilise a version of ''Merton's attempt to explain crime as a response to anomie -the disjuncture between cultural goals of success and legitimate opportunity structures through which success might be realized'' (Box 1983, p. 34), we would focus on the particular goals, opportunity structures and modes of social regulation (or lack thereof) featured in our unmediated empirical data, using the theory to forge an abstract causal chain between these moments, all awhile the empirical features presented remain poorly defined and the real connection between phenomena mystified (for examples of this process using the concept of anomie, see Rothe and Ross 2009;Schoepfer and Piquero 2006).…”

Integrated Theory and Crimes of Trust

“…1 Despite these costs, there is very little research specifically on this type of crime, and even less involving tests of theoretical explanations of crimes of trust using self-report data from national samples. Benson (2002:134) noted the general dearth of attempts to apply standard criminological theories to white collar crimes, and (Benson 2002(Benson , 2005 briefly reviewed theories that have been proposed to explain white collar crime, noting that these include (1) the early suggestion by Sutherland (1983) that differential association theory (and also social disorganization theory) should be applicable to white collar crime as well as other forms of crime (see also the discussion of the theory of organizational culture and white collar crime proposed by Gross 1978); (2) the suggestion by Passas (1990) that anomie theory could be extended to the explanation of white collar crime (see also Cohen 1995;Schoepfer and Piquero 2006;Waring et al 1995); (3) Lasley's (1988) adaptation of Hirschi's (1969) social control theory to explain white collar crime; (4) Hirschi and Gottfredson's (1987) suggestion that self-control theory should apply to white collar crime as to other theories of crime (see also Holtfreter et al 2010a, b;Langton et al 2006;Shover and Hochstettler 2006;and contrastingly Benson and Moore 1992;Piquero et al 2010;and Simpson and Piquero 2002); the application of Braithwaite's theory of integrated shaming to white collar crime (Braithwaite 1989); and (6) the use of rational choice theory (Paternoster and Simpson 1993) to explain white collar crime. Langton and Piquero (2007) apply Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST) to the explanation of white collar crime, but it is worth noting that this is the earlier version of Agnew's theory, and does not include (as in later versions; see Agnew 2006Agnew , 2009 control and peer association as intervening variables.…”