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Why Do White Collar Criminals Do It?

Over at the Corporate Crime Reporter, they review an academic study, and conclude:

The authors interviewed 45 nationally recognized experts in white-collar crime, including prosecutors, qui tam relator trial lawyers, and white collar criminal defense counsel.

The vast majority agreed that white collar criminals can be separated into two groups - leaders and followers.

Most said that leaders are motivated by greed.

Followers on the other hand were "weak" and follow the leaders even into criminal schemes.

"Followers tend to be naïve and unaware of what is really happening, or they are simply taken in by the personal charisma of the leader and are intensely loyal to that person," the authors write.

Recent scholarship on white-collar crime described eight personality characteristics that fuel white collar criminal activity: need for control, bullying, charisma, fear of falling, company ambition, lack of integrity, narcissism, and a lack of social conscience.

But the authors conclude that "this scholarship, unlike our study participants, does not view white collar criminals as either leaders or followers."

"This omission is a missed opportunity for developing effective deterrence strategies for white collar crime."

How so?

"Followers, who, by their very nature, tend to be passive, naïve, less confident, and non-aggressive people, are more susceptible to deterrence," the authors write.

"Effective corporate governance, accepted and adopted by corporate boards and senior management, that educates, monitors, and rewards law abiding behavior is more likely to deter followers than leaders simply because of the personalities of followers."

Hmm, don't know what to make of this survey of opinions other than it doesn't seem grounded in any theory of psychological deterrence that I am aware of.

Any takers as to the reasonableness of the claim that we can effectively deter the followers who engage in white collar crime?

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Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on June 09, 2008 (boomark / email).