Sex, Drugs, and Deception: Deviance in the Hair Salon Industry

• In Event: White-Collar Crime at 75: Perspectives on Workplace Deviance

Abstract

The unique organizational structure of the hair salon industry fosters an environment in which multiple factors, including varying levels of status, opportunity, and motivation, can create or constrain possibilities for deviant behavior. Using data from participant observation, personal interviews, and systematic introspection, four categories of deviance emerge: theft, hyper-sexualized interactions, drug/alcohol use, and questionable/illegal business practices. This study uses Friedrich’s (2002) classifications of workplace crime, occupational deviance, and occupational crime to illustrate how the typology applies to salon deviance and how the structural location within the industry predicts the specific types of deviance that occur in each salon organizational structure.

Authors

• Angela Barlow, Keene State College

• James Hawdon, Virginia Tech