CRIMINAL THEORY AND
CURRENT BEHAVIORAL TRENDS
Kate Chadwick Johnson
October 5, 2011
PACFE Annual Fraud Conference
This Presentation Will….
• Provide an overview of the history of modern-day
criminology theory.
• Identify the three most robust criminological theories.
• Review common theories associated with White Collar &
Corporate Crime.
What is Crime?
• Crime is a social
construct.
• Defined by the state and
the ruling elite to control
the masses.
• Many criminal behaviors
are similar to legal
behaviors.
The Classical School of Criminology
• “The Demonic Perspective”
• God would determine guilt.
• Cesare Beccaria
• An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1794)
• Hedonistic Calculus
• People are generally rational, motivated by their interests to
maximize pleasure and minimize pain
• Crime (by force or fraud) is the result of unchecked desire and
ineffective systems of consequence
• Social contract, give up some freedom to the state
• Punishment must be swift, severe, and certain
Biological/Gene-based Theories
• Cesare Lombroso, Criminal Man
•
•
•
•
(1876)
Criminals differ from non-criminals
biologically and psychologically.
Criminals are evolutionary
throwbacks, “savages in the midst of
modern society”.
Crime occurs as a result of interaction
with the social environment.
Enormous jaw, strong canines,
prominent zygomae, strongly
developed orbital arches common to
carnivores and savages, long arms,
prognathism like apes.
The Chicago School of Criminology
• Shaw, McKay, Park and Burgess: 1940s
• Farming towns  industrial cities
• Population constantly in flux
Cause of crime found not in
individual traits but in traits of
a neighborhood.
Persistent poverty, rapid
population growth, ethnic
heterogeneity, and high rate of
transiency in the inner city
combine to interrupt core
social institutions, causing
social disorganization
The Chicago School
Three Robust Modern Theories of
Criminal Offending/Crime
• Social Control
• Criminal behavior caused by lack of self control
• Gottfredson & Hirschi’s
A General Theory of Crime
• Differential Association
• Learning of criminal values
• Strain
• “Anomie” produces crime
Social Control
• Assumes people will naturally break the law if not
for controls.
• Not “why do they do it?” but “why don’t they do
it?”
• Delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond
to society is weak or broken.
• Based on social bonds, delinquency would be low
among those who are attached to and care about
the opinions of others.
Social Control
• Social bond theory
(Hirschi, 1969)
• Attachment
• Commitment
• Involvement
• Belief
• Self-control Theory /
A General Theory of Crime
(Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990)
• A lack of self-control is the main source
of criminal behavior
• Control inside the individual, versus a
person’s relationship to society
Differential Association
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Criminal behavior is learned
…in interaction with other persons in a process of
communication.
…within intimate personal groups.
Learning of criminal behavior includes (1) techniques, (2)
motives, drives and rationalizations.
Drives and motives are dependent on definitions of legal
codes as favorable or unfavorable.
A person becomes delinquent due to an excess of
definitions in favor of law violation over definitions
unfavorable to violation of law.
Criminal behavior is learned like any other behavior.
Criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and
values but is not explained by those needs and values.
Strain Theory
• Modern culture defines certain goals as worth striving for.
• American culture encourages these goals beyond any intrinsic
awards the goal may have = severe strain on cultural values.
• The culture places disproportionate emphasis on the achievement of
the goal of wealth and maintains the goal as applicable to all.
• Social structure limits individuals in certain groups from achieving
this goal through institutionalized means.
• Strain is most pronounced among persons of the lower class.
• Anomie is the contradiction between the culture and the social
structure of society.
• Respond to anomie with conformity, innovation, ritualism,
retreatism, and rebellion.
• White collar crime often attributed to “innovating” in response to
anomie.
Strain Theory
• Crime and the American Dream
(Messner & Rosenfeld)
• American culture exerts significant
pressure on monetary success.
• The AD does not strongly prohibit the
use of efficient but illegal means.
• There will always be “losers” pressured
toward crime, regardless of distribution
of opportunity.
• Influence of economic systems is
overwhelming, out-shadowing other
institutions (family, politics, schools,
etc.)
White Collar Crime & Criminology
• Can theories explaining “Crime in the Streets” be applied to
“Crime in the Suites?”
• All criminals seek some level of personal benefit.
• Crime in the Street, Church, Corporate Office are all “crime” but
are the causal factors the same?
• Crime is not confined to just the lower class, as some theories
would suggest.
White Collar Crime v. Corporate Crime
• White Collar Crime
• A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social
status in the course of their occupation. (Sutherland)
• Corporate Crime
• Conduct of a corporation, or of employees acting on behalf of a
corporation, which is proscribed and punishable by law.
(Braithwaite)
• White Collar and Corporate Criminals:
• Seek to maintain a “non-criminal” self-concept
• Use impression management, self-persuasion and creative
language constructs to “save face” and avoid labeling as a
“common” criminal.
Current Research: Control Balance
• Control Balance Theory
• Control surpluses v. control deficits.
• Individuals with Surpluses will seek to
expand their control, individuals with
deficits seek to gain more control toward
a control balance.
• Control imbalances predispose a person
to be motivated toward deviance.
• Control surpluses have been linked to
corporate exploitation.
• Acts of “plunder” and “decadence”
Current Research: Control Balance
• Control surplus results in autonomous forms of deviance,
usually exploitative in nature, indirect predation.
• “Using their controlling positions to arrange things so that other
persons or organizational units accomplish acts that enhance their
control.”
• Corporate crime often conflicts with personal values:
• What is right at work may not be right at home, in the church.
Workplace structure and informal “Code” often more influential than
personal values and morals.
• Research area of new inquiry, few studies at this time.
Combatting White Collar Crime
• Make social structures more
important than “the American
Dream”:
• Family, church, school, bonds
• Replace the capitalist system
with socialism.
• Reduce gaps between the “haves”
and “have-nots”
• Will eliminate the need for cogs in the
“capitalist machine” to break the law
to maintain power.
Questions?
Thank you for your time.
Katherinechadwick@gmail.com