Traditionally, corporate control is all about top-down approaches to management of employees. Executives attempt to influence employees toward achieving business goals, and they attempt to prevent and detect wrongdoing, misconduct, and crime among employees. However, top-down approaches to corporate control do not work when executives and other privileged individuals in the business themselves commit and conceal their wrongdoing, misconduct, and crime in organizational settings. Then there is a need for a bottom-up approach in corporate control as outlined in this book. Bottom-up control refers to the manner in which organizational members can use different types of control mechanisms – such as whistleblowing, transparency, resource access, or culture – to monitor, measure, and evaluate executives’ avoidance of deviant behaviors and influence them toward achieving the organization’s goals in efficient and effective ways. The newly emerging perspective of a social license to operate forms part of the bottom-up strategy where criminalization becomes social property independent of the criminal justice system. The social license is predominantly centered on social permission for business activity where the media, social movements, and citizen watchdogs exert pressure, demand change, and bring top management to account. This book presents a novel approach to corporate control of white-collar crime based on the theory of convenience. White-collar crime is financial crime committed by privileged individuals who have legitimate access to resources based on the power and trust inherent through their professional positions. Convenience theory proposes that motive, opportunity, and willingness are the three dimensions that underlie white-collar crime in an organizational context. This book contributes to the study of white-collar criminality through a blend of theoretical discussions and practical materials that illuminate and support the use of convenience theory. The book discusses how bottom-up approaches can overcome the difficulty of detecting white-collar crime and overcome the barriers of preventing executive deviance.

By examining white-collar crime scandals using the theory of convenience, Petter Gottschalk offers ways to improve the detection of crime signals and investigative skills in fraud examinations, as well as improve change management measures.

This book outlines the theory of convenience for white-collar crime to explain what motivates and enables offenders, providing a unique focus on white-collar crime in the business context. The theory of convenience suggests that the extent to which elite members commit and conceal economic crime is dependent on their extent of orientation towards convenience in problematic and attractive situations. Chapters are organized along the main theoretical dimensions of economical motive, organizational opportunity, and personal willingness. In addition, this book: Addresses a business audience by focusing on themes familiar to corporations Documents attitudes towards white-collar crime among business students and future business leaders Analyzes how convenience orientation varies among individuals Analyzes autobiographies of convicted white-collar offenders Demonstrates the various ways in which white-collar crime occurs The Convenience of White-Collar Crime in Business contributes to an increased understanding of white-collar crime, offering valuable insight in business education that supplements the traditional roles of topics like auditing and compliance in education and practice. It is a useful resource for researchers and law enforcement, and those involved in the detection, prosecution, and conviction of white-collar offenders.

An exploration of the inner workings of the individuals, corporations, and government agencies implicated in the self-interested abuse of their economic and societal privilege.

Insider trading. Savings and loan scandals. Enron. Corporate crimes were once thought of as victimless offenses, but now—with billions of dollars and an increasingly global economy at stake—this is understood to be far from the truth. The International Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime explores the complex interplay of factors involved when corporate cultures normalize lawbreaking, and when organizational behavior is pushed to unethical (and sometimes inhumane) limits. Featuring original contributions from a panel of experts representing North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, this timely volume presents multidisciplinary views on recent corporate wrongdoing affecting economic and social conditions worldwide. Criminal liability and intent Stock market and financial crime Bribery and extortion Computer and identity fraud Health care fraud Crime in the professions Industrial pollution Political corruption War crimes and genocide Contributors offer case studies, historical and sociopolitical analyses, theoretical and legal perspectives, and comparative studies, featuring examples as varied as NASA, Parmalat, the Italian government, and Watergate. Criminal justice responses to these phenomena, the role of the media in exposing or minimizing them, prevention, regulation, and self- policing strategies, and larger global issues emerging from economic crime are also featured. Richly diverse in its coverage, The International Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime is stimulating reading for students, academics, and professionals in a wide range of fields, from criminology and criminal justice to business and economics, psychology to social policy to ethics. This powerful information is certain to change many of our deeply held views on criminal behavior.

Traditionally, control in organizations is concerned with top-down approaches, where executives attempt to direct their employees’ attention, behaviors, and performance to align with the organization’s goals and objectives. This book takes a new approach by turning the problem of control upside down as it focuses on control of executives who find white-collar crime convenient. The bottom-up approach to executive compliance focuses on organizational measures to make white-collar crime less convenient for potential offenders. Rather than focusing on the regulatory formalities and staged procedures of compliance and audits, the book emphasizes the organizational challenges involved in compliance work when trusted corporate officials exhibit deviant behavior, refining, and advancing knowledge in this field by reference to contemporary international case studies and associated original evaluative research. The themes and cases covered are carefully selected to provide the reader with an insight into professional conduct and procedural practice – the organization of corporate compliance success, failure, and corruption – with the theory of convenience placed at the fore. It is the bottom-up approach by application of convenience theory that makes the proposed book unique compared to other books on corporate compliance. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and upper-level students researching and studying in the areas of business administration, organizational behavior, corporate and white-collar crime, as well as business ethics and auditing.

White-Collar Crime: An Opportunity Perspective analyzes white-collar crime using the opportunity perspective, which assumes that all crimes depend on offenders recognizing an opportunity to commit an offense. The authors explicate the processes and situational conditions that facilitate opportunities for white-collar crimes and the likelihood of being victimized by white-collar crime. In addition, they offer potential policy solutions that will mitigate this persistent and widespread social problem while being realistic and balanced in their treatment of the difficulties of control. With this fourth edition, Benson and Simpson have enlisted the aid of two young white-collar crime scholars, Jay P. Kennedy and Melissa Rorie, who bring new areas of expertise to the book that enhance its analytical depth and coverage of both white-collar crime and the opportunity perspective. New up-to-date case studies are included along with examinations of recent investigations into white-collar crime and its control. These timely updates reaffirm that this rigorous yet accessible book will remain a core resource for undergraduate and early graduate courses on white-collar crime.

`This timely collection contains contemporary case studies and critical analyses by leading writers in the study of white collar corporate crime. It makes an invaluable contribution to the ′criminology of the corporation′" - Professor Hazel Croall, Glasgow Caledonian University Corporate and White Collar Crime is an essential overview of this diverse subject area and encourages students to develop a broad understanding of the topic. Aimed primarily at undergraduate and postgraduate students in Criminology, Criminal Justice and Business and Management Studies, the book will cross-over into many other disciplines including Law and Social Policy. "This is an innovative and multidisciplinary analysis of corporate and white collar crime that is both theoretically and empirically rich. The text serves as a poignant reminder why research involving the powerful must be a central part of criminological inquiry and why this book is essential reading." Professor Reece Walters, The Open University "Again and again, pension funds are pillaged, investors fleeced, commuters killed, workers maimed, and communities poisoned. Why is it that so few of these acts are defined as crimes, and why is it that, even when they are, prosecution is so rarely effective? Corporate Crime and White Collar Crime addresses these very questions through its rigorous, well-developed analysis and its wide ranging empirical focus - on Europe, North America, Asia and beyond. The book can help all of us to re-examine our understanding of the nature of crime and of criminals, and to reassess the costs as well as the benefits of our current economic, political and social order." Professor Frank Pearce, Queen′s University, Canada

Original writings explore the issue of white-collar crime and the controversies that surround it, focusing on the vastness of state-corporate and white-collar crime, the victimization that results, and the ways these crimes affect society environmentally, politically, economically and personally. The chapters written for this volume tackle all the major controversies related to white-collar crime: issues of definition, questions of harm and cost, conflicts of interest in enforcement and control, and questions of public policy.

Original writings explore the issue of white-collar crime and the controversies that surround it, focusing on the vastness of state-corporate and white-collar crime, the victimization that results, and the ways these crimes affect society environmentally, politically, economically and personally.