Criminal opportunities

1
Criminal opportunities

• Criminal opportunities are arrangements or
  situations that offer potential for criminal
  reward with little apparent risk of detection or
  penalty (Coleman 1987)

2
White collar crime the criminally predisposed

• Tempted individuals possess qualities or
  experiences that make them more likely than peers
  who lack these distinctions to weigh the
  exploitation of lure.
• The supply of predisposed organizations and
  tempted individuals varies temporally and
  spatially

3

• The most striking revolution of the twentieth
  century was the rapid expansion of the population
  of organizations. In the United States the number
  grew fivefold between 1917 and 1969, and in the
  past three decades alone it tripled. As a result
  the population of profit, non-profit and
  governmental organizations in the United States
  rival in number the population of individuals

4
Characteristics of individuals sentenced for
federal street crimes and white collar crimes,
United States, 1995-2002

• Characteristics Street offenders white collar
  offenders
• Race (percent African
• American and Hispanic) 48.5 32.3
• Gender (percent male) 92.8 72.7
• Education
• Less than high school 38.6 17.1
• High school graduate 39.7 28.7
• Some college 18.4 30.2
• College graduate 2.8 19.5
• Age
• Under 21 10.4 1.6
• 21-30 41.8 24.6
• 31-40 29.1 29.4
• 41-50 15.7 25.0
• 50 31.8 44.2
• Average age 31.8 44.2
• Average number of cases
• Annually 2.600 8.205

5
Working class criminals

• White collar crime generally is not committed by
  working class criminals.
• The work performed by the working classes is
  unlike worked performed by those situated higher
  in the class structure

6
Work

• Much of the work done by working class citizens
  is physically hazardous or mind numbing. Normally
  they work under the direct supervision of and on
  schedules constructed by others.
• Subordination is one of the most important
  distinguishing characteristics of working-class
  employment.
• Most workers share a common status, and prospects
  for upward mobility are limited in any case.

7

• Not surprisingly also, in their work worlds those
  who work too rapidly or maintain distance from
  co-workers in hopes of being noticed by superiors
  are derided as rate busters or company men.
• One does not want to give the impression of being
  too eager or of trying too hard. (Dunk, 1991)

8

• In the factories Ive worked in, if you talk
  down to another worker you can expect to be
  punched out. The basic operating procedure of
  academia and graduate school ..are based on
  competitive game playing, which in working class
  setting would make you an outcast. In my
  previous work environments this type of behaviour
  had specific names brown nosing and so on ..
  The modus operandi among middle-class careerists
  is based on competition. (Langston 1993)

9
Competition

• In competitive cultures, people generally
  evaluate personal success in terms of wealth and
  material possessions. Competition need not be
  economic, however. Establishing or maintaining
  respect by peers for exceptional achievement is
  priority for many, but humans compete for
  attention from superiors, assignments, and career
  advancement.

10

• At each new level of my career, I had pushed my
  goals higher. When I was an associate, I wanted
  to be a vice president. When I became a vice
  president, I wanted to be a senior vice president
  . When I was earning 20.000 a year, I thought,
  I can make 100.000 .. When I was making a 1
  million, I thought I can make 3 million. There
  was always somebody one rung higher on the
  ladder, and I could never stop wondering is he
  really twice as good as I am? Ambition eclipsed
  rationally. I was unable to find fulfilment in
  realistic limits The hours grew longer, the
  numbers grew bigger, the stakes grew more
  critical, the fire grew even hotter

11

• I think I was arrogant enough at the time to
  believe that I could cut corners. Not care about
  details that were going on and not think about
  consequences. One of my great faults is I
  refused to deal with everyday details that people
  have to deal with to make sure that mistakes
  arent made. And I think, in that way, there may
  have been arrogance where I didnt have to deal
  with details that these details were meant for
  other people, not for me (Waksal, 2003)

12
Enron

• At Enron corporation management policies required
  each year that employees be evaluated on a forced
  curve so that 15 percent would receive
  performance ratings of unacceptable (Cruver,
  2002). The pervasive insecurity generated in
  competitive environments like this provides
  powerful motivational pushes towards misconduct.
• Desire to be the former is fuelled in part by
  fear of becoming the latter

13

• Suffice it to say any annual ranking that
  plummeted you lower than your previous assessment
  gave many people a reason to start a course of
  antidepressants or switch from beer to Bourbon. A
  reduction in your ranking status would affect
  your salary, your self-esteem, your standing
  among your peers, and, worse of all, your bonus.
  Once wounded with an issues ranking, like a
  stricken animal in a herd, other employees would
  begin to shun you as you might draw lions
  (Brewer, 2002)