An Analysis of Corporate Crimes: Criminology, Psychology, and Theories

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of corporate crimes, examining them through the lenses of criminology and psychology. It explores the increasing prevalence of such crimes in modern society, driven by globalization and technological advancements. The essay defines criminology and corporate crime, differentiating between white-collar and conventional crimes, and highlights the unique challenges these crimes pose to criminological theories due to the high social status of the individuals involved. It investigates the role of organizational structures, internal controls, and abuse of power in facilitating corporate misconduct. The work evaluates the applicability of criminal theories like deterrence, labeling, and conflict theories to corporate crime, considering factors such as mens rea, the challenges of evidence gathering, and the influence of social status. The essay also discusses how the privileged position of white-collar criminals impacts the application of these theories and the administration of justice, including issues of recidivism and public perception. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and addressing corporate crime, as well as the importance of effective deterrence strategies.

CRIMINAL LAW
Criminology and psychology

Corporate crimes are stated to be prevalent in the modern society. With the increased
globalisations and technological advancements, the criminal conspiracies have also become
complicated, posing questions about the development and cause of the criminal behaviour.
The modern society is increasingly exposed to wide range of crimes such as accounting and
financial manipulations, human rights violations by the corporates, privacy violations,
software manipulation, money laundering and bribery, formation of the cartels,
environmental harms and toxic spills, insider trading, discrimination at workplace, corporate
violence, and others (Benson and Simpson, 2015). There have been a wide range of aspects
of the corporate crimes, which call for a multidisciplinary research and various perspectives.
As a result, the corporate crimes are widely studied in law, economics and other subjects.
Although the culprits behind the corporate crimes are the individuals associated with the
organisations in the one form or another, yet the roots of the crime can be traced deeply into
the organisational structures, internal controls and the abuse of power and trust. The
following work is aimed at exploring the various aspects of the professional and corporate
crimes. In addition, how the corporate crimes pose problems for the application of the
criminal theories would also be analysed. Finally the work will evaluate the involvement of
the high social status of individuals in the said crimes and the impact of the same.
Edwin Sutherland is regarded as the Father of the Corporate Crimes or the White Collar
Crimes. He led to the establishment of the notion that the crime does not only happens in the
streets, but also happens in the suites as well. In order to understand the impact of the white
collar crimes and the special problems posed by them, it is first imperative to understand the
meaning of the criminology and the corporate crimes. Criminology has been defined as the
collection of knowledge that includes the process of establishment of the laws, process of
breaking of the laws and the means to address the breaking of the laws. The corporate crime
as defined in the criminology studies denote collection of organised, harmful and illegal acts,
that are committed by the individuals of the organisations or the organisations itself
collectively (Sutherland, 2017). The key intention of the said organisational crimes is the
benefit of the organisation rather than that of the associated stakeholders (Van Erp and
Huisman, 2017). Thus, the corporate crimes get past the legal, ethical, and social defined
lines by the committing the range of illegal acts by the use of power, creative compliance,
and thus exploiting the existing loopholes in the absence of adequate controls. The white
collar crime is referred to as the crimes that are committed by the person that enjoy high

social status in an organisation or society, by the virtue of the occupation or professional
services.
The organisational structure is stated to be the prime cause of the corporate crimes, in
numerous studies. These set the base of institutional context comprising of motives, means
and opportunities for the corporate crimes. A varied range of criminologists hold the belief
that the existence of interest of profit and wealth maximization lead to the inherent risk of
bending the law by the beneficiaries (Tombs and Whyte, 2015). However, not all the
organisations have the same intensity of exposure towards the crime. Some organisations
possess more criminogenic features than others, owing to strategy, culture, hierarchy
structure and concentration of power (Huisman 2016). The studies conducted in the past have
accorded the fact that the weak organisational structure provides the means, motives and the
opportunities for the occurrence of the corporate crimes.
As a result of these assumptions, not much of studies were conducted by the researchers
earlier till the occurrence of the major scandals like that of Enron affecting a large section of
population. Over the recent years, increased publicity of the white collar crimes have led to
the changes in the perceptions. One of the main characteristic of these crimes that distinguish
them from the other crimes is that these are the complex set of the crimes and requires
knowledge of the accounting framework and the legal rules to exploit the same (Ragothaman,
2014). It is to be noted that there is a different markings for the white collar crimes and the
other conventional forms of crimes, both in the legal and the social contexts. It has been
rightly stated that in case of the white collar crimes or the organisational crimes, there arises a
problem for the criminological theories, because the individuals associated belong to the high
status. The white collar crimes are detrimental to the society however, by the nature of being
nonviolent, the same are not perceived as a threat to the society. In addition the distinguishing
characteristic of the white collar criminals and violent criminals is that the white collar
criminals are often subjected to the societal benefits, goodwill, and powerful posts in the
organisations. Further, the offenders are not always subjected to fines and deterred from the
community services. In addition, the ineffective punishment makes the intensity of recidivism
higher among such criminals. The urbanization, rapid industrialization, the corporations form
of the business structure replacing the entrepreneur have led to the conventional laws and the
concepts being challenged and inapplicable or ineffective in today’s times (Benson and
Simpson, 2015). The industrial society has led to the revision of a range of common law
principle such as the caveat emptor, the fellow-servant doctrine, and others. A numerous

administrative and regulatory laws have been designed to control the commercial dealings
and the industrial obligations and deviations from the said standards is regarded as the
offences under the white collar crimes.
The key thing to be noted about the white collar crimes is that not only these are comprised of
the deceptive behaviour, but there is a lack of the “corpus delicti” or smoking gun for the
introduction into the evidence. These crimes requires considerable investigation as the power
is already concentrated in the hands of the accused and their associates. The unravelling of
the crimes or the deception against the high status individuals requires a great deal and
application of not only legal principles but also the accounting and the corporate principles
(Carlan, Nored and Downey, 2011). The problems posed is that the authorities are not only
working to establish the case but also have to do the same at their own resources of financial
capital and human personnel. Thus, the law enforcement cost is higher in the case of the
white collar crime and the criminological theories are challenged as the area of the research is
quite widened.
One of the yet another key factors that poses the issues for the application of the
criminological theories and the serving of the justice is that the persons involved are difficult
to be prosecuted by the virtue of the use of the sophisticated means of the concealment by the
high status persons. The problems posed to the criminological theories is that there is rare
availability of the physical evidence associated with the white collar crimes, because the
prime element as listed above is the deception (Goldstraw-White, 2011). The major portion
of the evidence is documentary in nature, consisting mainly the business records and the
same are in the personal possession of the defendant. By the virtue of the high social status of
the accused, there are in addition included a range of communications between the defendant
and other members of the firm. As a result of the said status and power in the firm, these
individuals enjoy the attorney-client privilege and the right against self-incrimination. This
makes the real faces behind a corporate crime, unavailable for the hearings and they are often
come into lime light very late.
There have been prescribed a range of criminal theories to evaluate the various facets of the
crime. Out of many, the key theories that are applicable for the study of the white collar
crimes are the Deterrence Theory, Labelling Theory and the Conflict Theory. The privileged
position that I enjoyed by the white collar criminals is a result of intersection of the several
factors. One of the major issues in the discussed crime is the applicability of the theory of

individual responsibility and guilt. One of the most important concepts of the conventional
crime law is the evaluation of the “mens rea”, the guilty mind or the nature of intent of those
being prosecuted. The complexity lies in the differentiation of the individuals who were
engaged in the commission of the crime with conscious reckless intention and the ones who
were not aware of the prohibitions, leading to produce a particular consequence (Brickey and
Taub, 2017). It has been stated in the theories that the occurrence of the acts can take place
accidentally, however the mind that accompanies the acts is under the control of the
individuals. Thus, the establishment of the mens rea in the minds of the white collar criminals
is often the most crucial hurdle in the criminology practices. Thus, in this case the accused
are viewed with the presumption of the innocence, unless they are proven guilty. The above
mentioned practice of liberty together with the high social status in context of the financial
soundness and contacts, gives an edge to the accused as compared to the regular victims of
any other crime. The evidence of mens rea and its establishment is a challenge because in
context of the corporates, there is a diffusion of the decision-making responsibility and
therefore the number of the confederates can be more than one can possible imagine by the
virtue of the interconnectedness and the interdependence of the businesses.
Labelling theory denotes that behaviour of the individuals and their self-identity is impacted
by the terms by which criminals are described or classified. Thus, the theory is rightly called
the theory of stereotyping. It used to be a general theory that the crimes are generally
committed with an intention to gain the material benefits. However, the various
organisational crimes have made it clear that not always the criminal are desirous of the
rewards like money, rather some time they are desirous of sensual experience of outsmarting
the system and the abuse of the power (Tittle, 2018). In addition, one of the major problems
posed by the white collar criminals in the justice system is that these criminal are assumed to
be the one shot offenders. It has been further assumed that these criminals are unlikely to
have multiple exposure with the criminal justice system. However, the reality is that the white
collar criminals are just like the other than white collar criminals, but the same are lucky
enough to be caught by the justice system, owing to the reasons of the high social status.
The application of the deterrence theory in the white collar crime and the challenge posed to
the same by the high social status of the criminals is explained as follows. One of the most
disturbing facts of the white collar crimes is that there is still lack of public criticism of the
revelation of the corporate scandals in the wake of sentencing of individuals who do not
possess any earlier criminal records, unlike in the case of drug dealing, child pornography or

such other intense social crimes. As per the deterrence theory, the outcome desired is not the
appreciable impact on the ultimate punishment, but the sentence must cause the deterrence
effect to hint other not to dare indulge in a particular crime again. The accused in the
organisational crimes are generally sentenced in the form of the payment of the taxes or the
penalty as part of the civil settlement with the revenue departments of the nation concerned.
There cannot be seen much sentences in the history till today, where these criminals are
subjected to prison sentence for a moderate length instead of only probing them to send a
clear message and intent of the authorities to the society. The question considered while
sentencing such high status individuals is that whether the society would be better off with
these individuals in the jail or whether it would be best served by utilization of their talents
for the purpose of societal reforms. As a result, the offenders are not isolated as there is no
risk of physical violence from them. The yet another problem posed by the white collar crime
is that there is inadequacy of the measures typically used to track such category of crimes.
This is because there are a number of acts that fall in the category of the professional crimes
such as insider trading, money laundering, corruption, fraudulent objectives of the firm and
others. Thus, the traditional modes of the crime tracking such as police crime reports and
victim surveys are not robust and adequate enough. Even when the cases are tracked, most of
them come into limelight by the time, the high social status offenders have already enriched
them and their associates as evident by their very power and influence in the society.
The application of the social conflict theory on the white collar crimes, is presented as
follows. The social conflict theory is suggestive of the fact that powerful and wealthy people
in the upper class of society are suggestive of what is right and what is wrong in the society
(Siegel, 2011). In the words of (Wheelock et al., 2011), the rich and the powerful people are
in control of the law enforcement and are thus referred to as the “robber barons”. As per the
theory, it is essential to note that the power is concentrated in the hands of the rich and
powerful people who are associated with the firm and the same can take the money out of the
firm, as and when they desire. In contrast to this, the real value of the firm is the outcome of
the value creation by the employees. The interests of the top executives is clearly evident in
the salary differences of the managerial persons and their key associates; and the employees.
According to the said theory the biasness in the prosecution is not towards an individual, but
towards a whole class. The said biasness is also visible in the size of the police force being
typically forceful and superior for policing the lower classes as compared to the higher
classes. The said distinction is also visible in the sanctioning of the legal statutes and the

accounting pronouncements. The higher status individuals being one of the key stakeholders
in the standard setting processes, in policy cycles influence the said processes when the
comments are invited for the same. Thus, acts of pressurising the legislators leading to the
enactment of the repressive measures are regarded as volatile and threatening to the societal
wellbeing.
In addition to the above mentioned factors, the elite societal classes possess the ability to
recruit top defence lawyers. These lawyers not only apply symbolic defence in addition to
substance defence to the case, but also lead to the information control in their professional
work (Gottschalk, 2014). Further, these criminals often take the advantage of being the first
line offenders, having no negative track records in the past, and thus are often granted
leniency in the proceeding in spite of the social and economic losses caused (Slyke and Bales
2013). The political influence achieved by the virtue of being in the business must also not be
missed. In the words of Pontell et al., (2014)002C some organisations become so close to the
government to fail from there.
As per the discussions conducted in the previous parts, it can be fairly conclude that in the
wake of the globalisation and enhanced corporate governance practices over last few decades,
the white collar crimes have been highlighted in the society. However, these category of the
crimes are still not at par with the other forms of crimes, in context of the application of the
theories, the justice served and the period of the probation of the scandals by the virtue of the
high social status people associated with the same. The work comprehensively explained the
evolution of the white collar crimes, in terms of the first mention by Sutherland, to evolution
of the multiple causes that serves the base for such crime to generate an understanding of the
nature of the crime. Some of the key causes highlighted in the work are the complex
organisational structures, large financial capital involvement, and concentration of corporate
power, followed by the abuse of the same. The work further evaluated the various problems
or the challenges faced during the investigation of the white collar crimes, in terms of the
legal theories and the concepts. The key challenges faced as identified in the work are the
complexity in establishment of “mens rea,” failure of the deterrent effect, sophisticated
means of concealment and the delay in serving the justice because of the complex
investigations and the lack of the resources. Hence, it can be rightly concluded that the
organisational crimes, owing to their nature of being multifaceted pose special problems to
the theories.

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