Moving on to public opinion of white-collar an article tittle Public Perceptions of White-Collar Crime and Punishment written by Kristy Holtfreter et al showcases statistical findings about the public perception of white-collar crime and the punishment that white-collar offenders receive when convicted. They do not utilize any criminology theory in their research, they just focus on what is the general opinion of white-collar crime in America and to what extend should the government punish offenders. However, the purpose of this article was to find statistical evidence of what is the general opinion on white-collar crime in America ranging from categories such as gender to political ideology and how does this effect the government attitude
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In his article, Bensman’s primarily focused on past methods that have been utilized to explain white-collar crimes and gage what have been their results, their contribution to the field, and their shortcomings in the field. All of this is meant to apply a theoretical approach would best explain white-collar crime. The theories that Bensman focuses on have been strain theory, structural functionalism-consensus, deviance, and labeling …show more content…
This lead to Sutherland’s insight into white-collar criminals believing that with the criminalization of white-collar crimes “liberalism ha[d] been violated by the regulatory principles of New Deal bureaucracy, creating an entirely new class of criminals whose routine business activities marked them as criminals in the face of governmental rules and regulations” (Bensman, 6). However, Bensman later notes that with the end of World War II the economic boom produced “a more favorable attitude towards corporations” which lead to the allowed oversight of government investigators (6). Conversely, sociological perspective on white-collar crime also shifted, especially with Merton and his version of Strain Theory, opportunity theory. He states that Merton identified individuals in the white-collar industry have high goal expectations, but when their expectations are not meet by the legitimate means they see no other choice than to partake in illegitimate means to reach those goals. Bensman does, however, note that Merton could not explain why people with the means of achieving financial goals in the legitimate manner still partook in illegal activities. He later argues that structural functionalism-consensus, deviance, and labeling theories have all limited the study of white-collar crime because they
In his article, Bensman’s primarily focused on past methods that have been utilized to explain white-collar crimes and gage what have been their results, their contribution to the field, and their shortcomings in the field. All of this is meant to apply a theoretical approach would best explain white-collar crime. The theories that Bensman focuses on have been strain theory, structural functionalism-consensus, deviance, and labeling …show more content…
This lead to Sutherland’s insight into white-collar criminals believing that with the criminalization of white-collar crimes “liberalism ha[d] been violated by the regulatory principles of New Deal bureaucracy, creating an entirely new class of criminals whose routine business activities marked them as criminals in the face of governmental rules and regulations” (Bensman, 6). However, Bensman later notes that with the end of World War II the economic boom produced “a more favorable attitude towards corporations” which lead to the allowed oversight of government investigators (6). Conversely, sociological perspective on white-collar crime also shifted, especially with Merton and his version of Strain Theory, opportunity theory. He states that Merton identified individuals in the white-collar industry have high goal expectations, but when their expectations are not meet by the legitimate means they see no other choice than to partake in illegitimate means to reach those goals. Bensman does, however, note that Merton could not explain why people with the means of achieving financial goals in the legitimate manner still partook in illegal activities. He later argues that structural functionalism-consensus, deviance, and labeling theories have all limited the study of white-collar crime because they