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Toward an Integrated Theory of White-Collar Crime

NCJ Number
106944
Journal
American Journal of Sociology Volume: 93 Issue: 2 Dated: (September 1987) Pages: 406-439
Author(s)
J W Coleman
Date Published
1987
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This paper attempts to integrate etiological research on white-collar crime under the hypothesis that criminal behavior results from the confluence of appropriate motivation and opportunity.
Abstract
It is argued that the origins of symbolic motivational patterns are to be found in the social structure of industrial capitalism and the 'culture of competition' to which it gives rise. But no theory of motivation, however sophisticated, is sufficient to explain the causes of white-collar crime. The paper therefore concludes with an analysis of the patterns of opportunities presented to social actors in different structural positions in advanced capitalist nations. 5 footnotes and about 60 references.(Author abstract modified)

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