Social Roles and Standard Operating Procedures: Attributions of Responsibility and Punishment for Financial Crime

• In Event: 4244 - Engaging Social Psychology in the Pursuit of Social Justice

Abstract

Previous research on organizational and workplace crime finds that an offender’s role in the commission of an offense and an offense’s description as a typical or atypical institutional practice affects attributions of responsibility. However, this research does not examine how these facets of offending affect attributions of responsibility for white-collar criminals, and, notably, for offenders in the financial services industry. Moreover, this research uses inconsistent and single item measures that do not account for the multi-dimensional nature of responsibility. Additionally, this research does not examine how attributions of responsibility affect recommended punishment. I address these weaknesses by extending a previously proposed integrated model for the attribution of responsibility in an organizational setting to a white-collar crime perpetrated by offenders in the financial services industry. I draw on attribution theory to derive my hypotheses. I utilize a sample of college and university students and Mechanical Turk users, and I measure responsibility using five dimensions. I find support for attribution theory predictions on attributions of causality and coerciveness. However, findings on attributions of intentionality for the social role of offenders, and findings on attributions of knowledge for standard operating procedures, are opposite of predictions. Findings on attributions of moral wrongfulness are also contrary to predictions. Consistent with punishment hypotheses, participants recommended greater punishment for autonomous offenders and offenders described as offending atypical of standard operating procedures. In partial support of mediation predictions, causality and coerciveness both mediate the effect of the social role of offenders and standard operating procedures on punishment.

Author

• Marshall Schmidt, Montclair State University