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Rational choice theory
The strengths and weaknesses of rational choice theory
Theories about white collar crimes
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Rational Choice Theory and its Place in White Collar Crime White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be …show more content…
An experiment by Gerhard Blickle, and Alexander Schlegel attempted to recreate results of Collins and Schmidt’s study about psychological influences on white-collar crime. The experiment involved personality tests on 150 managers currently working in German corporations and 76 white-collar criminals. They compared the personality results of the criminals to the non-criminals, much like Collins and Schmidt’s experiment in the United States of America. Blickle and Schlegel found that white-collar crime offenders were more hedonistic (Blickle et al., 2006). Hedonistic individuals are those who engage in the pursuit of pleasure. According to the Rational Choice Theory, individuals commit crimes when they perceive the reward is greater than the punishment. For those who tend to pleasure seek, crime would seem the most rational choice. The crime’s reward is worth the possible punishment to these individuals. Blickle and Schlegal also found that narcissistic tendencies were more common in white-collar criminals (Blickle, et al., 2006). Narcissism is described as having overindulgent self interest and care for one’s appearance. These traits can add to the temptations of criminal activity. Caring for only oneself would allow illegally soliciting money from …show more content…
The nature and damage of white-collar crime can result in a variety of punishments for the offender. Some sanctions being time in prison, some being fines, and others being a combination of both. For example, Chalana McFarland who was a real estate attorney and was accused of fraud, money laundering and other crimes costing investors $20 million. She was charged with $12 million in restitution and thirty years in prison (Haury, 2012). Another example would be Bernie Madoff, who owned Madoff Securities, was involved in a Ponzi scheme. It is believed that investors lost $50 billion dollars. Curently Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a prison in Butner, N.C (Haury, 2012). As these white-collar crime cases show, the costs of these crimes can be quite serve and earn life sentences as well as very hefty fines. Moreover, white-collar crimes have huge economic effects on victims, often causing life altering losses. Under consideration white-collar crimes are quite high-cost actions that hold large possible punishments and large ethical issues. In a research experiment done by Christian Seipel and Stefanie Eifler, a theory branching from rational choice theory was tested in relation to crime. The theory they explored was referred to as high- and low- cost theory. This theory discusses the factors that influence low cost crime and high cost crime. Low cost being defined as crimes that have low
Though many ‘people are aware of what corporate crimes are there are still many who do not know’. A corporate or white-collar crime can be described as “a crime committed by any person through the venue of his or her employment that benefits the business”, ‘this can mean that a corporation does an illegal act of indifference to better the corporation’. It is argued that corporate crimes are more harmful to the general public than acts of intention. When it comes to these ‘crimes it can be said that many of the victims that it affects do not realize, that they are being affected and if and when they do know it is argued that they are told that it is due to a misfortunate accident and that there is no one to blame for the Act’. Many criminologists such as Sutherland argued that corporate crime is something
Look around and you’re guarenteed to see some type of crime. Whether it’s as simple as someone speeding or as severe as a shooting its happeneing and its nonstop. However the question that might never be solved is why does it happen and what drives people to do what we have been told our whole lives is wrong. During this semster we have learned the different types of theories as to why crime occurs. Growing up I always felt strongly that people chose to do bad and too this day I stand by this belief. Because of this I see no other theory to write about than the Rational Choice Theory. The idea of rational choice theory is that before the crime takes place the criminal thinks through what they 're going to do and that they are fully aware they 're committing the crime. And more than just thinking about doing the crime theres also a mix of emotions
E.). There are various costs of white-collar crime, although an accurate measurement is not easy, they are hard to asses as well as very complex. There are enormous financial losses, sometimes physical damage as a result of negligence, as well as social costs: weakened trust in a free economy, confidence loss in political organizations, and destruction of public morality. “White collar crime could also set an example of disobedience for the general public, with citizens who rarely see white-collar offenders prosecuted and sent to prison becoming cynical about the criminal justice system” (Conklin, J. E.). White-collar crime is undeniably a crime and often encompasses elaborate
Why does white collar and corporate crime tend to go undetected, or if detected not prosecuted? White collar and corporate crimes are crimes that many people do not associate with criminal activity. Yet the cost to the country due to corporate and white collar crime far exceeds that of “street” crime and benefit fraud. White collar and corporate crimes refer to crimes that take place within a business or institution and include everything from tax fraud to health and safety breaches. Corporate crime is extremely difficult to detect for many reasons.
It is customary to divide the categories of crimes, according to their violence ratio. For example, there are violent crimes, typically thought of as street crime, such as first degree, second degree, manslaughter and non-violent crimes such as blackmail, bribery, embezzlement, and forgery. However, the term “violent” can be applied to both street crimes and white collar crimes. Although street crimes are usually thought of as taking something by force, white collar crimes are typically perpetrated by a “respectable person”. The Department of Justice defines white collar crimes as “those classes of non-violent illegal activities which principally involve traditional ideas of deceit, deception, concealment, manipulation, breach of trust,
Edwin H. Sutherland is credited for introducing the term in 1939 (Friedrichs, 2010), and his definition is "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Cornell University Law School, n.d.). A principle attribute of white collar
Imagine working over thirty-five years with a successful company; faithfully contributing to your own retirement. Only to find out those two weeks prior to your first retirement vacation your account has been depleted. This crime is known as white-collar crime. White collar crime was coined in 1939, by a man named Edwin Sutherland. Sutherland defines white collar crime to be a crime committed by the perpetrator during the course of his or her occupation( S. Rosoff, H. Pontell, R. Tillman). White collar crime is happening every day. In general terms, non-violent crimes for financial gain were stated in this subject as well. White collar crime is what many in society fail to express as other would if it was street crime. If society as whole were to become more knowledgeable and understanding of the magnitude behind white collar crime, then they too would realize and immediate affect behind a violent act is not more harmful than one such as white collar. White collar crime which often time take affect years
In such manner, the article supports the feasibility of utilizing the rational choice theory in wrongdoing repugnance, especially when it was mentioned that, "criminals are driven as rational decision makers who base their decisions to commit crimes on an analysis of the risks of the venture compared with the expected profits. That is, the criminal does a cost-benefit analysis" (Wilson & Geason, 2016).
This case illustrated that there were real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. (He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.) His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere.
“Money, the pure motivation and reasoning behinds the acts of committing white collar crimes” (Coenen). Tracy Coenen states that white-collar crimes are always financially motivated and the motivation for the person or persons committing the crime is almost always the end goal of a big payout. The Federal Bureau of Investigation official website places insurance fraud, identity theft, health care fraud, counterfeiting, bank fraud, and ponzi schemes as the most frequent and dangerous on its list of white-collar crimes. Day by day white-collar crimes become more sophisticated than imaginable and are starting to occur on a regular basis all over the world. Although white-collar crimes are nonviolent, it’s now become just as dangerous where even a
It is noticed that rational choice theory is a neo-classical economic plan that gives a hypothetical clarification for how people make choices when confronted with decisions. Moreover, this theory contends that an individual decides how an individual will act by adjusting the expenses and advantages of their choices. Due to its elegant clarification, the RCT has been broadly connected to the investigation of individual, social, and monetary practices in numerous settings. Knapp and Ferrante (2012) stated that adopted a rational choice viewpoint in his financial way to deal with wrongdoing and contended that a criminal augments their expected benefit from an illegal movement in excess of the anticipated expense of discipline.
Since social problems related to negative affect to certain people, therefore white collar crimes also type of social problem. The term white collar crimes widely known today. As mention by Friedrichs (2010), the term white collar crime was introduced by Edwin H. Sutherland in 1993 although the crimes has been detected well back in history (pp. 2-3). Some prefer to define white-collar crime as violations of criminal law. In Adam’s (2011) view, this type of crime refer to non-violent crime usually done by a respectable and higher status individuals and institutions such as embezzlement, fraud and corruption which are motivated by financial gain (p. 1). According to cases took place in Malaysia, it had recorded losses of RM 6 billion once regarding to this crime (Adam, 2011).
Imagine losing your retirement funds or being a victim of a mortgage fraud because money from your bank account disappeared overnight! The 1996 report of the National Criminal Justice Commission estimated that the annual cost of white-collar crime is between $130 billion and $472 billion, seven to twenty-five times greater than the cost of conventional or street crime (Conklin, 2010, P. 71). White-collar crime in America is considered larceny committed by the wealthy, respected, and legitimate enterprise which is not set up or intended to go out of business like an ordinary fraud or con game. White-collar crime offenses may involve forgery, embezzlement, or fraud involving massive amounts of money. Offender’s commit fraudulent acts in the course of normal business practice, but is considered unethical and violates accepted accounting principles and mainly public trust. To help better understand the issue the essay will explain several incidents which are involved with white collar crime and how it hurts many individuals from families to businesses. Even though white-collar crime offender’s gain an increase in salary and may go unnoticed, the criminal justice system should continue to take a stance on white collar crime. Because mainly white collar crime is a serious invincible crime, laws that regulate white collar crimes are necessary, and impacts society's way of life. Additionally, a proposed suggestion will be presented to counter the identified problems and conclude final thoughts on white-collar crime. At the end of the day the goal to continue law regulations against white collar crime while maintaining public protection will be the driving emphasis behind this essay.
Holtfreter, K., Van Slyke, S., Bratton, J., & Gertz, M. (2008). Public perceptions of white-collar crime and punishment. Journal Of Criminal Justice, 36(1), 50-60. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.12.006