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Fraud Examination Reports

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The Convenience of White-Collar Crime in Business
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Abstract

The theory of crime convenience suggests that white-collar offenses occur when there in a relative convenience of crime in a financial motive, an organizational opportunity, and a deviant willingness. This chapter explores dichotomous convenience in each dimension of the theory. Threats or possibilities represent financial motive, committing or concealing crime represent organizational opportunity, and neutralization techniques and lack of self-control represent deviant willingness. In a sample of 130 reports of investigations by fraud examiners in Norway, we find more convenient crime to explore and exploit possibilities than convenient crime to avoid or reduce threats. There are more cases of convenience in concealing than in committing, and there are more cases where offenders applied neutralization techniques than lacked self-control. These findings enable further development of convenience theory. The sample of 130 reports is listed at the end of this chapter.

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Gottschalk, P. (2020). Fraud Examination Reports. In: The Convenience of White-Collar Crime in Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37990-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37990-2_11

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37989-6

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