Criminal Theory And Crime Theory

Abstract

The concept that "most employees will steal under the right circumstances" were of the perception of many criminologists including Mr. Donald Cressey. This idea was often mentioned when academics would talk about white collar crimes. One such academic Mr. Edwin Sutherland would further elaborate on white collar crimes during his presidential speech to the American Sociological Society in 1939. He would later formulate his new crime theory by inspiring the schools of criminology to pay more attention to crimes’ committed by people of high positions in society. That is those respected individuals or ones with high public status. Presently white collar crimes has become an universal concept used to describe an array of criminal activity

From a classical perspective, humans are considered inherently rational and self-indulgent beings who logically calculate the potential costs and benefits of a given act (Beccaria, 1974). Being hedonistic, humans will naturally make decisions that will avoid pain and provide the greatest amount of pleasure, even if it means violating the law (Bentham, 1789). Individuals who embezzle from their employers are viewed as taking advantage of opportunities that have a low risk of detection and at the same time provide the greatest potential for personal gain. Furthermore these classical theory principles, traditional rational choice theories utilized an economic model to assert that individuals were self-interested offenders primarily motivated by the pursuit of their personal gain. (Davis,

His notion of ‘differential association’ was established as common theory to help clarify the occurrence of both conventional and white collar crime. Also within these connections, criminals learn the skills needed to commit precise types of crime and rationalizations used to substantiate criminal behavior. Sutherland maintained that the longer and more regular these criminal associations, the more likely an individual would foster favorable attitudes toward crime and eventually engage in such activities. In other words, we need to comprehend how conventionally socialized individuals deny the guilt or remorse that one should be expected to feel for their criminal behaviors.

These methods allow for the traditional ethical links of society to be temporarily broken or suspended. Prior to the introduction.of.this.theory, crime.was.presumed to be a product.of.lower.class.life. Otherwise, this theory assisted to describe why middle and upper class youths, after growing up in a properly and financially sound social background also involved themselves in criminal