Social Bonds and White-collar Crime: A Two-study Analysis of Weakened Bonds in White-collar Offenders

• In Event: Etiology and Correlates of White-Collar Crime

Abstract

The significance of social control theories for understanding white-collar crime involvement is a highly debated but little researched matter in white-collar criminology. The presentation first operationalizes and examines social bonds within a sample of white-collar offenders (N = 634) and compares them to a sample of matched controls. The presentation distinguishes between white-collar offenders who occupy executive positions in organizations (offender-based approach) and those who do not (offence-based approach), and between those with an early-crime onset (before 18) and those with an adult-crime onset. The results show that white-collar offenders, including those who occupy executive positions and those with an adult-crime onset, were characterized by weakened bonds and that early-onset offenders had weaker bonds than adult-onset offenders. Drawing on interviews with white-collar offenders (N = 26), the presentation then illustrates how bonds can become attenuated as a result of socialization processes and life-events, and how this weakening process contributes to engagement in white-collar offending. The presentation concludes that weakened bonds are likely to significantly contribute to the criminal development of white-collar offenders. Implications for white-collar and life-course criminology are discussed.

Authors

• Joost van Onna, VU University Amsterdam

• Adriaan Denkers, Independent social scientist