Theories of the White Collar Offender

Theories of the White Collar Offender

White Collar Crime

Robert Walker

March 9, 2012

ABSTRACT

Various theories such as differential association, anomie, control, rational choice, and integrated theories have been proposed by Sutherland to explain white collar crime. Theoretical Criminology attempts to explain theories of why and how crime occurs by examining the various facts related to criminal behavior and crime. These theories offer the sociological, psychological, and psychiatric views of the causes of crime and other forms of deviant behavior. In my opinion, the strongest and most prominent of these theories is Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association theory. In this essay, I am going to justify and describe why I feel differential association is the best theory to describe a white collar offender.

Differential association theory was Sutherland's major sociological contribution to criminology. The theory of differential association postulates that “criminal behavior is learned in association with those who define such criminal behavior favorably and in isolation from those who define it unfavorably, and that a person in an appropriate situation engages in white collar crime if, and only if, the weight of definitions favorable exceeds the weight of the unfavorable definitions.”

Sutherland thought that attitudes and cultural orientations that define illegal business behavior in favorable terms are pervasive throughout the business world. Newcomers to the world of business are socialized to accept these attitudes and orientations. They learn how to commit certain types of offenses and how to rationalize these offenses so that, in the offender’s mind, they are seen as acceptable, ordinary, and necessary business...