“Heads I Win, Tails You Lose”: Deregulation, Crime, and Crisis in the Savings and Loan Industry

Calavita, Kitty; Pontell, Henry N.

doi:10.1177/0011128790036003002

Cited by 69 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In a similar vein, corporate crime has been defined as "illegal acts committed by individuals (agents) in pursuit of either corporate interests or the joint interests of the firm and the agents" (Cloninger 1995, p. 51). Tombs (1993, p. 334) quotes Box (1983) to similarly define corporate crime as "illegal acts of omission or commission of an individual or group of individuals in a legitimate formal organization, in accordance with the goals of that organization" (also see Calavita and Pontell 1990, Glasberg and Skidmore 1998, Schrager and Short 1978. In addition, Umphress et al (2010) conceptualize unethical prosocial behaviors as actions that are intended to promote the effective functioning of the organization or its members but that violate core societal values, mores, laws, or standards of proper conduct.…”

Section: Pro-organizational Workplace Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification

Vadera

Pratt

2013

Organization Science

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A lthough research has shown that there may be very different types of workplace crimes, scholarly work in this area (a) is currently fragmented with very little communication between very similar streams of research and (b) tends to be incomplete and can lead to conflicting findings. We address both of these shortcomings. First, we propose a typology of different types of workplace crimes (consisting of pro-organizational, nonaligned-organizational, and anti-organizational crimes) based on the intentions of the perpetrators. Second, we link these intentions to various identification "pathologies"-such as over-identification and over-disidentification, under-identification and ambivalent identification-and argue that these pathologies are linked to propensities to commit certain types of workplace crimes. Specifically, we contend that over-identification and over-disidentification have direct effects on workplace crimes, whereas under-identification and ambivalent identification indirectly influence the propensity to engage in workplace crimes. We suggest that this research aids us in clarifying the inconsistent conclusions in previous work in the domain of workplace crimes and that it emphasizes the importance of including organizational identification as a key factor in the extant models of workplace crimes. This research also highlights policy implications regarding workplace crimes in that it suggests that different agencies may be more effective in enforcing the law and disciplining those engaged in the different types of workplace crimes. IntroductionIn the wake of several corporate scandals, there has been a renewed interest in better understanding workplace crimes. In addition to reputation-based costs, U.S. corporations estimate that they lose 5% of their revenues because of workplace crimes (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners 2010). In dollar terms, this figure translates to approximately $2.9 trillion in losses, with more than one quarter of companies losing at least $1 million. Even after Enron and similarly salient instances of misconduct, episodes of workplace crime remain high (Ethics Resource Center 2009). In fact, a 2008-2009 study on ethics in the workplace revealed that "nearly three out of four employees (74%) report that they have personally observed or have firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing within their organizations during the previous 12 months" (KPMG 2009, p. iii).Such significant losses provide renewed motivation to better understand the underpinnings of workplace crimes so that episodes of such activity can be minimized. However, attempts to explore the antecedents of workplace crimes have been hindered in at least two ways. 1996). Further, research in this area is fragmented and is conducted in silos with very little communication between similar streams of scholarly work. Thus, broad-brush approaches to understanding all workplace crimes are often limited in scope . Second, although the investigation of the precursors of workplace crimes has informed our knowledge of the cond...

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Section: Pro-organizational Workplace Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification

Vadera

Pratt

2013

Organization Science

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“…From this historical context, and coupled with the increasing difficulty of enforcing consumer protection laws in the quickly expanding markets, a legal shift from consumer protection to laissez faire occurred, which advocated self regulation of the marketplace (Gardner and Kuehl, 1999;Lyon, 1998;Mayer, 1989). Interestingly, criminologists would identify self-regulation as a driving force in the failed American Savings and Loans several centuries later (Calavita and Pontell, 1990).…”

Section: 2laissez Fairementioning

confidence: 99%

Sociolegal change in consumer fraud: From victim-offender interactions to global networks

Holtfreter

Slyke

Blomberg

2005

Crime Law Soc Change

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Advances in technology have transformed fraud against consumers from face-toface, victim-offender interactions to a crime that now transcends international boundaries. Although consumer protection issues have been of interest to investigative journalists and literary scholars for centuries, the topic has only recently been subject to serious criminological inquiry. Employing the American consumer protection movement as an historical framework, we examine the evolution of consumer fraud. Our review documents that progressive social and legal changes in consumer protection and corporate regulation, as well as developments in criminological research, correspond to prominent literary exposés of the time. In today's technological age, such a reactive response to consumer fraud is neither efficient nor effective. Contemporary criminologists need to simultaneously address the questions of 'how' fraud is perpetrated and 'why' it occurs. Toward this end, we identify methodological strategies and data sources to promote empirical and theoretical understanding of consumer fraud, and to ultimately contribute to multi-national crime control policy.

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“…Until the late 1980s, most of what was known about white-collar offenders was based on qualitative accounts of highly publicized and egregious offenders and offenses (Benson, 2002). Following Sutherland's lead, investigators conducted detailed case studies of the offenses of powerful upper-class business executives from the privileged sectors of society (e.g., Braithwaite, 1984;Calavita & Pontell, 1990;Geis, 1977;Simpson & Piquero, 2000).…”

Section: White-collar Crime and Criminal Careers: What Do We Know?mentioning

confidence: 99%

White-Collar Crime and Criminal Careers

Piquero

Benson

2004

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

102

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The life course approach to the study of criminal careers has achieved a prominent place in criminology. Life course researchers have identified several distinct patterns in criminal offending and provided several provocative explanations to account for them. Noticeably lacking in the study of life course criminology, however, is any recognition of white-collar offenders. The typical whitecollar offender greatly differs from the typical street offender and does not appear to fit into the proposed explanations of life course offending patterns. Recently, some scholars have applied the techniques and terminology of the criminal career perspective to white-collar offending. This article reviews the current state of developmental theories as they apply to life course offending patterns, summarizes what is known about the intersection of white-collar crime and criminal careers, and suggests ways in which the current theoretical understandings of crime over the life course can be modified to account for white-collar crime patterns.

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“Heads I Win, Tails You Lose”: Deregulation, Crime, and Crisis in the Savings and Loan Industry

Cited by 69 publications

References 6 publications

Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification

Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification

Sociolegal change in consumer fraud: From victim-offender interactions to global networks

White-Collar Crime and Criminal Careers

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