Threat Communication and the White Collar Offender: The Potential for Direct Deterrence Messaging in the Workplace

• In Event: Regulation and Prevention of White-Collar Crime

Abstract

Direct deterrence programs (e.g., Boston’s Ceasefire, Hawaii’s HOPE probation) focus on reducing crime by increasing the certainty of sanctions. This is achieved in part by explicitly communicating the likelihood and severity of sanctions to potential offenders. Program evaluations support these programs’ value. We believe a similar strategy may be useful for white-collar offenders. In this study, we experimentally examine the ability of direct sanction messaging to deter white-collar crime.

Ethics codes are the most commonly applied aspect of corporate internal compliance programs, yet evidence supporting their effectiveness is mixed. It’s likely that inconsistent support for codes’ effectiveness comes from the blunt operationalizations used in prior research. Most studies simply examine whether malfeasance is higher in businesses that have an ethics code compared to those without one, without looking at the content of the code or how the code is communicated. The few studies that do examine code content and communication fail to look specifically at how potential/actual sanctions are portrayed in the ethics code or communicated through other avenues (e.g., company memos publicizing employee punishments). Here, we present hypothetical ethics materials to business professionals to determine how variations in sanction messaging impact offending decisions.

Authors

• Melissa L Rorie, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Greg Pogarsky, State University of New York, University at Albany

• Matthew P West, University of Nevada, Las Vegas