NCJ Number
201625
Date Published
August 2002
Length
201 pages
Annotation
This report contains the results of a Dutch study on organizational crime.
Abstract
This report defines organizational crime as “the criminal behavior within a lawful organization of which the offender is not the initial victim and in the course of which the offender makes use of the features or the resources of the organization.” The Dutch Government has recently come to the conclusion that there is a need for more empirical knowledge of organizational crime. This research project was started to construct a basis for tailor-made enforcement strategies. The first chapter of this report examines the research questions and methods used. Data were collected on 41 cases organizational crime and the authors interviewed lawyers as well as representatives of the criminal justice system. A study of the literature on the subject of corporate, governmental, organizational, and other forms of white-collar crime completed this research. The second chapter of the report details more closely the problem of organizational crime and presents a theoretical model on the basis of which the authors collected and analyzed the data. The model explains organizational crime by means of three closely related factors: drives, neutralizations, and opportunities to commit criminal behavior. The first research question is dealt with in chapter 3: what is the nature of organizational crime? Analysis of the data indicates that offenders rarely resemble the typical image of a calculated person. Also, the authors discovered that contrary to the image of organizational crime as a non-violent crime, organizational crime and violence are not always incompatible. Chapter 4 deals with the second research question: what are the causes of organizational crime? The chapter describes the drives (thoughts and feelings) of the offenders, their use of typical neutralizations, and the opportunities they seize to commit their crimes. The authors noted the differences between private and public organizations when is comes to the causes of organizational crime. Chapter 5 discusses the ways to handle organizational crime and the implications for public policy. The first part of the chapter gives an overview of enforcement strategies suggested by authors/researchers, lawyers, and representatives of the criminal justice system. The second part of the chapter abstracts the research findings and highlights eight partly connected typical aspects of organizational crime. Based on these aspects, the authors formulate eight characteristics of a tailor-made enforcement strategy. They recommend a selective, flexible, hybrid, and consequent enforcement that differentiates between target groups and focuses on the prevention and minimalization of criminal opportunities. Chapter 6 summarizes the most import findings of the study and deals in-depth with some of the recommendations. Among the items discussed are the pros and cons of publicity as an instrument to promote compliance with the law by organizations. The authors also emphasize the importance of criminal enforcement strategies (deterrence) in the case of public organizations in breach of the law. This last chapter stresses the impact of international aspects of organizational crime, and as a result, the importance of an internationally oriented public policy to prevent and combat organizational crime. References, figures, tables, and case studies