NCJ Number
130190
Journal
Criminology Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1991) Pages: 191-220
Date Published
1991
Length
30 pages
Annotation
Interviews were conducted with 410 chief executives of Australian nursing homes to test for the explanatory power of four traditional criminological theories in accounting for organizational compliance with regulatory laws.
Abstract
Partial support was found for each theory. Certain key concepts of each theory had a significant effect on regulatory compliance, net of a variety of characteristics of the nursing home, the nursing home residents, and the inspection team. Blocked legitimate opportunity had a significant effect on regulatory compliance as did the structure of illegitimate opportunity. There also was an effect on compliance of participation in business subcultures of resistance to regulation. Belief in laws increased compliance with those laws as did differential association with or attachment to the upholders of the law. Overall, control theory and differential association lacked explanatory power, and the explanatory power of subcultural theory was modest. Only opportunity theory explained a credible proportion of variance in compliance as a stand-alone theory. The significant effect of some but not all of the measures for each theory, together with the lack of significant explanatory power by three of the four theories, suggests the need for theoretical integration. 7 tables, 53 references, and 2 appendixes (Author abstract modified)