NCJ Number
84238
Date Published
1981
Length
13 pages
Annotation
Developments in white-collar-crime theory and research are traced from Sutherland's focus on the occupational status and context of the offender to more recent attention to organizational and environmental factors influencing corporate as well as individual occupational crime.
Abstract
The initial period of sociological interest in white-collar crime, from 1940 to the early 1960's, has been called the classic core of white-collar investigation. This classic period of inquiry was initiated by Sutherland's introduction of the concept of white-collar crime in 1939. Sutherland's definition of white-collar crime was inherently ambiguous, and by emphasizing the characteristics of the individual offender, attention was diverted from the organization as violator. Although attempts to refine Sutherland's concept of white-collar crime were many and varied, no single solution to the problem gained consensus within the discipline. The dominant theoretical perspective of the classical period was Sutherland's differential association, which argued that white-collar criminal behavior is learned within a social system of deviant values that violate norms of the larger society. The classical period was followed by 10 years during which inquiry was virtually abandoned. In the 1970's, however, interest revived as scholars not only reassessed the classical work but made research advances, primarily through the development of a macroanalytic framework which emphasized the relation between white-collar crime and the social structure. Although no formal theory has achieved consensus, a number of theoretical frameworks have been laid for empirical study. The scattered and sometimes contradictory empirical findings may indicate that the study of organizational crime and deviance is still in its theoretical and methodological infancy. A total of 64 notes are listed.