Control, Social, Disorganization, and Strain Theory in Relation to White Collar Crime

“White collar crime is the cleanest of all crimes, but nevertheless it is still considered a high priority in the legal business (FBI).” For the most part I think that the three theories we learned this week are able to categorize white collar crimes quite well. Control, Social Disorganization, and Strain theory all work well to determine the actual reason behind commit this type of felony. Control theory speaks about how inner and outer emotions can help you limit your criminal behavior. Social theory speaks about the environment of which people are raised and how you are less likely to create crimes in areas away from slums. Along with the Strain theory that explains you get frustrated when not meeting desirable goals. All of these seem to correlate with white collar crime in some way.

“White collar crime refers to those offenses that are designed to produce financial gain using some form of deception (HG).” Each theory works well in their own respective ways. For instance the control theory speaks about how social bonds can move you away from crime committing. I understand that most of these white collar criminals were excellent speakers and very friendly towards their customers, but in a way it could have all just been a gimmick. The criminal could have hidden his sorrows between a sheet of love and happiness, meaning that he actually never really did have a strong attachment towards anyone in his particular field. If he didn’t feel anything towards anyone and instead felt that they were walking piles of money, as that is what most of these criminals address their clients as, then he would have felt nothing wrong with also taking portions of those walking piles.

Social Disorganization theory teaches us that we are basically a creature of our habitat, which has actually been proven as true. Our environments play a large role in who we are as a person so to have a theory based on the environmental aspect of things isn’t strange at all. I agree when this theory says the farther you are away from the slums the less of a chance you have of committing a crime. I may be called out as this is a white collar crime report meaning that the people must be pretty well off before they committed the crime, but white collar crimes don’t happen often at all. We hear about them every once and awhile because they affect a large amount of people, but these crimes don’t happen often so the theory is still correct when addressing the slums.

The strain theory explores the frustrations of a human being. Frustrations can occur when things don’t go your way, you don’t get what you want, you work very hard to achieve very little, and etc. When referring to the strain theory most of these criminals are extremely greedy and feels as if they aren’t getting what they deserve. Hence the strain theory, they are getting frustrated that their work is not making them as much as they deserve so they will try to do anything to get it.

All of these theories correlate well with the definition of what makes a white collar crime. Control theory teaches us that without an attachment to something I’m that vicinity you may have you commit more crimes which of course these men may seem to have very good speaking skills, but may dislike everyone that they speak with. Social organization theory explains that the farther you are from a slum you are more likely to commit a crime as opposed to being in a better area. The white collar crime percentage is very minimal, showing that this theory is correct. Finally the strain theory dictates that with frustration comes crime which I agree with, if someone feels as though they are obligated to do something or are empowered with such an item they will go to any means to obtain it. So if someone works at a large corporation and isn't making the money they feel like they should be then they could get annoyed and take it.