Rule-violating behaviour in white-collar offenders: A control group comparison

This study aims at enhancing our understanding of criminogenic individual-level factors in white-collar crime, that is, fraudulent acts carried out in an occupational capacity or setting. We do so by examining consistency of rule-violating behaviour across different settings outside the occupational...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of criminology Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 332 - 351
Main Authors van Onna, Joost HR, van der Geest, Victor R, Denkers, Adriaan JM
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2020
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Behavior
Demography
Income taxes
Individual differences
Offenders
Sociodemographics
Taxation
Violations
White collar crime
rule violation
high-trust position
control group
white-collar offenders
individual differences
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Summary:This study aims at enhancing our understanding of criminogenic individual-level factors in white-collar crime, that is, fraudulent acts carried out in an occupational capacity or setting. We do so by examining consistency of rule-violating behaviour across different settings outside the occupational context in a sample of white-collar offenders (n = 637) and comparing it with a matched control group (n = 1809), controlling for socio-demographic, crime and organizational characteristics. Results show that white-collar offenders, including those holding high-trust organizational positions, engaged in regulatory income tax violations and regulatory traffic violations at significantly higher levels than did controls. This study concludes that individual characteristics are likely to underlie the identified cross-contextual consistency in rule-violating behaviour and debates the relevance of the findings for white-collar crime in organizations.
ISSN:1477-3708
1741-2609
DOI:10.1177/1477370818794114