White-Collar Crime

This document discusses the concept of white-collar crime, focusing on the case study of Joel Barlow (The Tahitian Prince) who committed occupational fraud. It explores the theories of general strain theory and routine activity theory to understand the motivations behind white-collar crimes. The document also suggests prevention measures to deter such crimes in organizations.

Running Head: WHITE-COLLAR CRIME
White-Collar Crime
Name
Institution

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White-Collar Crime
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Case.......................................................................................................................4
Theory Description and Review......................................................................................................5
General Strain Theory..................................................................................................................5
Routine Activity Theory..............................................................................................................6
Application of Theory......................................................................................................................7
The Implication of Theory in Prevention........................................................................................9
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The concept white-collar crime was developed by Edwin Sutherland in the year 1939.
These crimes are illegal and unethical actions, which breach fiduciary role of public trust
executed by an individual or organization, normally in the legitimate occupational act, by
individuals of high or respectable social rank for individual or organizational benefit.
Nonetheless, not all white-collar crimes are easily defined under the Australian criminal law
(Akers, 2011). Thus, the topologies of white-collar crimes comprise governmental crime,
corporate crime, financial crime, and cybercrime. Many scholars have attempted to describe the
premises behind the nature of criminal behaviour plus the causes of white-collar crimes. The
primary reason, which motivates criminal behaviour, may be caused by diverse economic,
psychological, social and political factors (Shawyer, Milne & Bull, 2009). This demonstrates
that there is no single theory that will explain the cause of white-collar crimes. The ensuing
debates have featured standard theories, which focus around enlightening the link between the
legitimately acknowledged crimes and the social environments that they belong and too the
considerable theories related to these criminology theories. The case study will investigate the
occupational crime of Joel Barlow (The Tahitian Prince). This fake Tahitian was convicted for
14 years for fraudulently acquiring $16.6 million from Queensland taxpayers via Queensland
Health.
The investigation of this particular case will discuss and link two major theoretical
perspectives: routine activity theory and the general strain theory. The two theoretical

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perspectives will be applied to clarify the reasons behind white-collar crimes and present future
prevention recommendations.
Overview of the Case
Many media articles are accessible that describe the crimes and the accounts that Joel
Barlow committed. Barlow swindled Queensland Health of not less than $16.6 million. The
fraud denoted the largest extortion in the public sector in the history of Queensland. The
fraudulent act or fraud on Queensland Health, executed by Hohepa Morehu-Barlow (also called
Joel Barlow) was considered as the single biggest fraud ever committed in the Queensland
Health segment. On December 8, 2011, 6 months after the Queensland Health was audited by the
Queensland Audit Office, $11 million fraud was uncovered by the audit report (Mars, 2018). The
transaction comprised a fraudulent manipulation of public funds into Healthy Initiatives and
Choices (HIC) transacted via the name of one of the Queensland Health’s own workers, Joel
Barlow. During the proceedings, the defendant admitted that Barlow’s father was a drunkard
who often left his children to look for food for themselves that caused them to wander in the
streets hungry. It also discovered that Barlow committed other crimes way prior to moving to
Australia; specifically, he had taken advantage of his position in the company stealing over
$32,000 and was given a non-residential sentence for 8 months. The post discovery of this fraud
was the latest in the series of 65 fraudulent activities that amounted to $16.6 million and
committed over a period of 4 years starting in 2007. Further investigation into the occupational
crime established Barlow worked as an A07 in Queensland Health, a Principal Finance Officer
(Porter, 2011).

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In addition, twelve days after admitting this promotion, the original fraud was recorded
as a company called, The Muse. Unbeknown to Queensland Health, this company was registered
to Barlow’s neighbours. Through linking Queensland Health to this company, Joel Barlow was
in a position to approve a sum of $11,003.02 in fraudulent transactions. The large disbursement
resulted in a mid-level Queensland Health worker becoming suspicious, in which an ensuing
investigation indicated that the company being paid was under Joel Barlow. The Public
Prosecutions Director office sentenced Joel Barlow in 2012. Barlow was charged with two fraud
accounts as an employee, two forgery accounts and one account of being in possession of drugs
and considerable abuse (Ferri, 2019).
Theory Description and Review
General Strain Theory
Agnew’s General Strain Theory (1992, 1995, and 2001) strays from pat, less effective,
macro-level strain theories by concentrating on the social-psychological elements of strain other
than investigating it as a social structural variable. The classical strain theories asserted that
lower class persons were strained by a lack of capability to gain material wealth and success,
which societal norms pushed them to covet (Ganem, 2010). General strain theory (GST) was
developed by Robert Agnew in 1992 by revitalizing and extending the classic strain theories.
The GST postulates that strain need not be particularly linked to economic status because it
really operates via negative emotions other than simply by the rejection of legitimate means or
definitions of achievement. GST maintains that individual-level stressors along with the
reactions (negative emotions) to these adverse challenges are at the centre of criminal deeds.

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Therefore, individuals from all social classes may engage in criminal behaviour since they may
all experience negative emotions emanating from strain and this change assisted to restore strain
theory to a point of theoretical prominence in criminology (Baird & Zelin, 2009).
Furthermore, it has been claimed that GST allows individuals to experience strain when
they aspire to attain monetary but do not expect to achieve it since they may perceive the goal of
achievement to be out of reach. GST acknowledges that the experience of goal blockage may to
result from the failure to attain along with just outcomes (for example, the failure to get an
expected income) and the goal-blockage, in turn, are anticipated to have a stronger relationship
with the experience of dissatisfaction and disappointment (Slocum, 2010). It must be
acknowledged that in GST, goals plus outcomes that are crucial to individuals are no longer
restricted to income along with the middle-class status. Goal blockage can comprise the inability
to attain other valued goals, like respects plus masculine status (the anticipation to be treated like
a man), autonomy, and the desire for excitement (Agnew, 2012).
Routine Activity Theory
Routine activity theory (RAT) was originally developed by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus
Felson in 1979. During this time, the theory did not explain the paradox o social and economic
progress paired with a rise of predatory crime. Cohen and Felson suggested that by examining
recent changes in environments, one will comprehend the root cause of crime. They believed that
the structure of routine activities impacts criminal opportunity, and thus impacts trends in a class
of crimes refer to direct contact predatory violations. Felson has continued to expand the theory
and extending it to white-collar crime (Robert, 2018). The theory maintains that criminal acts
should meet three elements: a likely offender; a suitable target; and the absence of a capable

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guardian against the offense. The theory is an environmental criminological theory that has been
rigorously used to the analysis of predatory street crimes, as well as more lately organized crime.
The theory stresses the significance of diversity of criminal collaboration in the absence of
efficient guardianship and further emphasizes the contextual importance of favourable conditions
that exist for licit business participation (Zafirovski, 2018).
Application of Theory
The problem of occupational fraud and its negative effect on the economy is vital to the
fields of criminology in addition to accounting. From a general viewpoint, occupational fraud
entails wrongful acts, which ultimately make the victims losing some or all, access to financial
resources, which rightfully belong to them. Occupation fraud and all kinds of organizations are
vulnerable (Ngo & Paternoster, 2013). GST relates to strain to crime and occupational fraud is a
kind of crime. Fraud is a sub-element of white-collar crime, which often entails
misrepresentation and deception and occupational fraud is a sub-element of fraud, which entails
the use of one’s occupation to commit fraud. This is what happened in the case of Joel Barlow
(The Tahitian Prince) where Barlow committed fraud because of his position in the organization
(Lou & Wang, 2011). The GST explains that individuals are motivated by strains that exist to
perpetuate a crime, wherein the case; the strain at play was financial gain. It is evident that in the
case of Joel Barlow (The Tahitian Prince) that Barlow was motivated by personal and financial
gains as it is believed that these were the strains that made Barlow commit the occupational
crime by using his position in the company as Principal Finance Officer. GST posits that strain
results in negative emotion, which may, in turn, lead to delinquent behaviour (Agnew, 2012).
The motivation that drove Barlow to commit the crime was personal because this strained his

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emotions so that he becomes wealthy and lives a better life by committing the crime by
swindling funds using his position in the organization as the Principal Finance Officer. Barlow
experience negative emotions that made him forge many documents to embezzle around $16.6
million from Queensland Health over a period of 4 years by giving funds to a fake charity
organization he formed whilst remaining trusted by his employers (Eitle, 2010).
The routine activity theory (RAT) is founded on three primary elements that involve
potential offender, a suitable target, and the absence of capable guardians. In the case of Joel
Barlow (The Tahitian Prince), the potential offender was Joel Barlow, the suitable target was
money, and the absence of guardians was the absence of internal control systems. The routine
activity theory explains how white-collar crimes including occupation fraud like the one
committed by Joel Barlow at Queensland Health. The theory holds that for a crime to occur there
is the need for the existence of a motivated offender. The offender should be motivated by the
target so that the routine activity theory is applicable. In the case of Joel Barlow (The Tahitian
Prince), Joel Barlow was a motivated offender that made him execute the crime by swindling
around $16.6 million from Queensland Health. The motivation of the fraud committed by
Barlow was further motivated by the lack of the internal control systems at Queensland Health
that were weak and made it easy for Barlow to commit the fraud that spanned for four years
without being detected by the organization (Willison & Siponen, 2009).
The organization that Joel Barlow lacked internal controls that permitted the crime to be
committed. Thus, at the centre of the routine activity theory is the thought that in the lack of
efficient controls, the offender will prey upon attractive targets. The finances at the company
made Barlow to commit the crime because the target (money) was an attractive target for Barlow

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(Furnell & Thomson, 2009). The large amounts of money in the company with no internal
controls attracted the offender to target the money and he became successful in transferring the
money to an organization with his name.
The Implication of Theory in Prevention
Based on the theories, there is the need to develop effective control systems in the
organization that will help to detect and uncover frauds committed by employees.
Internal controls systems are effective in ensuring that each activity of the employee is
monitored every time (ACFE, 2012). In addition, the internal control systems should
include effective reporting of the company’s financial statements to the shareholders.
This will potentially minimize cases of fraud in the organizations since it promotes good
governance and ethics.
The culture of an organization has been found t promotes fraud and there is the need to
create a culture that promotes corporate governance. A good culture is a significant
approach in assisting in preventing fraud in an organization. There is a need to establish
an ethical culture that promotes sound governance and plays a leading function in
detecting and preventing fraud (Stogner & Gibson, 2010a).
Employers should understand their liability to eliminate the chances that the employees
will commit a crime. Develop strict plus explicit liability is what counts in the modern
business environment that encourages frauds. Thus, if Barlow’s employers were aware of
their liability, the fraud could not have been committed. Strict, as well as vicarious
liability is where an employer is liable for the dishonesty and fraud of its workers is that

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dishonesty or fraud has happened in the course of their employment. Managers need to be
aware of their liability and all actions of their workers (Tillman, 2009).
Conclusions
Joel Barlow (The Tahitian Prince) occupational crime shows the need to develop
effective governance structures including control systems to discourage these white-collar crimes
from occurring in organizations. The position of Barlow in the organization as finance officer
created a motivation to commit the fraud. In addition, Barlow was a motivated offender and was
attracted by finances in the company and the lack of internal control systems at Queensland
Health. The case is a wake-up call for organizations to develop structures and governance
systems to detect and discourage white-collar crimes (Stogner & Gibson, 2010b).

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