The conflict theory only helps to explain a small variance of all the white-collar crimes and is more applicable for the super-rich individuals. Hence there must be other reasons why other people (e.g those that are of lower status) are still committing white-collar crimes. The general strain theory thus helps to provide another viewpoint on this issue.
In brief, the general strain theory claims that strain happens because of the loss of positive stimuli and presence of salient negative emotions in a person’s life. In addition, one is also unable to achieve social norms, values or entities through legalized mean(s). This results in the person experiencing strain which could potentially trigger him/her to commit crime. The strain theory may come off as being incompatible with the notion of white-collar crimes because the strain theory centered itself on criminogenic activity from the lower social class. However, Agnew (1992) in Langton and Piquero (2007) reintroduced the strain theory to explain that all individuals are equally capable of committing crimes as long he/she perceived a discrepancy between an ideal state …show more content…
However we need to consider that the situation must present itself such that there is an opportunity to do so. Drawing ideas from the theory of routine activity (Simpson and Weisburd, 2009), we see that 3 different variables must be present for a white-collar crime to occur. Firstly the offender must be motivated to do so. Next there must be a potential target for the offender. Lastly, the offender needs to be able to have the opportunity to do so. Hence, in certain job sector whereby there is an easy access to funds, we would expect a higher rate of white-collar crimes. Comparing a banking industry to the sports industry, it is much easier for employee of a bank to embezzle money compared to athletes who are not granted access to usage of company’s
In brief, the general strain theory claims that strain happens because of the loss of positive stimuli and presence of salient negative emotions in a person’s life. In addition, one is also unable to achieve social norms, values or entities through legalized mean(s). This results in the person experiencing strain which could potentially trigger him/her to commit crime. The strain theory may come off as being incompatible with the notion of white-collar crimes because the strain theory centered itself on criminogenic activity from the lower social class. However, Agnew (1992) in Langton and Piquero (2007) reintroduced the strain theory to explain that all individuals are equally capable of committing crimes as long he/she perceived a discrepancy between an ideal state …show more content…
However we need to consider that the situation must present itself such that there is an opportunity to do so. Drawing ideas from the theory of routine activity (Simpson and Weisburd, 2009), we see that 3 different variables must be present for a white-collar crime to occur. Firstly the offender must be motivated to do so. Next there must be a potential target for the offender. Lastly, the offender needs to be able to have the opportunity to do so. Hence, in certain job sector whereby there is an easy access to funds, we would expect a higher rate of white-collar crimes. Comparing a banking industry to the sports industry, it is much easier for employee of a bank to embezzle money compared to athletes who are not granted access to usage of company’s