NCJ Number
217536
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2007 Pages: 1-15
Date Published
January 2007
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examined the major tenets of General Strain Theory across different categories of white-collar crime to assess how well the theory could explain white-collar outcomes.
Abstract
Overall findings suggest that with slight adaptations to account for possible differences in social status and emotional reactions to strain, General Strain Theory (GST) might, in fact, be equipped to predict a wider range of offending behaviors than had been tested up to this point, specifically, white-collar crimes. The results revealed that GST was useful for predicting a select group of white-collar offenses, but might not be generalizable to individuals committing corporate-type crimes. Also, the types of strain and negative emotion at work for white-collar offenders might vary from those found in other criminal populations. GST postulates that strain need not be specifically tied to economic status because it was actually a psychological reaction to any perceived negative aspect of one’s social environment. However, the ability of GST to explain white-collar offending had yet to be explored. Using data from convicted white-collar offenders, this study examined the ability of GST to explain white-collar offenses. Tables, appendix, notes, and references