Employee Crime, Monitoring, and the Efficiency Wage Hypothesis (original) (raw)
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Journal of Labor Economics, 1989
1989 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0734-306X/89/0703-0005$01.50 331 332 Dickens et al. 5% and 30% of business failures each year! 1 These numbers can be placed in perspective by noting that federal corporate income tax revenues in fiscal year 1987 were 104billionandthatthefinancialcostofstreetcrimeisestimatedatapproximately104 billion and that the financial cost of street crime is estimated at approximately 104billionandthatthefinancialcostofstreetcrimeisestimatedatapproximately4 billion (Arnold 1985).
9 Employee Theft and Staff Dishonesty
2006
The concept of ‘white collar crime’ was formally introduced during Edwin Sutherland’s presidential address to the American Sociological Society in Philadelphia in 1939. Sutherland (1949) used the term to help establish his new crime theory, differential association, by challenging the discipline of criminology to pay more attention to crimes ‘committed by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of his/her [legitimate] occupation.’ Today, ‘white collar crime’ has become an umbrella concept often used to describe a host of criminal behaviors, including but not limited to, illegal financial acts, deceitful or dishonest business practices, or abuses of state power. Scholars generally include employee theft, embezzlement, corporate crime, computer crimes and even political or governmental crimes as primary examples. While white collar crime continues to be used as a crime category, most scholars have developed more precise definitions that focus on specific types o...
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If you steal 50,000fromabankinarobberyusingagunyouprobablywillspendseveralyearsinprison.Whathappensifyoustealafewhundredmilliondollarsfromabankinawhite−collarfraudwithnothingmoredangerousthanaball−pointpen?Maybealmostnothing.In1975,thepresidentofalargeCaliforniabankanddirectorofarathersizableconglomeratepleadednocontesttochargesofwhathasbeendescribedasoneofthelargestsystematiclootingsofapubliccompanyeverrecordedintheUnitedStates.Becauseofthepleaofnolocontendere,adetailedaccountoftheswindlewasnotmadepublic.Thepenaltywasludicrous:afineof50,000 from a bank in a robbery using a gun you probably will spend several years in prison. What happens if you steal a few hundred million dollars from a bank in a white-collar fraud with nothing more dangerous than a ball-point pen? Maybe almost nothing. In 1975, the president of a large California bank and director of a rather sizable conglomerate pleaded no contest to charges of what has been described as one of the largest systematic lootings of a public company ever recorded in the United States. Because of the plea of nolo contendere, a detailed account of the swindle was not made public. The penalty was ludicrous: a fine of 50,000fromabankinarobberyusingagunyouprobablywillspendseveralyearsinprison.Whathappensifyoustealafewhundredmilliondollarsfromabankinawhite−collarfraudwithnothingmoredangerousthanaball−pointpen?Maybealmostnothing.In1975,thepresidentofalargeCaliforniabankanddirectorofarathersizableconglomeratepleadednocontesttochargesofwhathasbeendescribedasoneofthelargestsystematiclootingsofapubliccompanyeverrecordedintheUnitedStates.Becauseofthepleaofnolocontendere,adetailedaccountoftheswindlewasnotmadepublic.Thepenaltywasludicrous:afineof30,000 to be paid at the rate of $100 per month for the next 25 years at no interest, plus five years of probation.
Occupational crime, occupational deviance, and workplace crime
Criminal Justice, 2002
The concept of occupational crime—as one of the principal forms of white collar crime—has been quite familiar and widely invoked since the publication of Clinard and Quinney's influential Criminal Behavior Systems: A Typology. More recently, however, the term occupational crime has been applied to activities quite removed from the original meaning of white collar crime, and it has been used interchangeably with such terms as occupational deviance and workplace crime. In the interest of greater conceptual clarity within the field of white collar crime the argument is made here for restricting the term `occupational crime' to illegal and unethical activities committed for individual financial gain—or to avoid financial loss—in the context of a legitimate occupation. The term `occupational deviance' is better reserved for deviation from occupational norms (e.g. drinking on the job; sexual harassment), and the term `workplace crime' is better reserved for conventional fo...
CORRELATES OF EMPLOYEE THEFT: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE
International Journal of Conflict Management, 1995
In a field study, we build on previous research examining employee theft, which has focused on the influence of job dissatisfaction and pay inequity (distributive injustice). In a survey of employees at 18 fast food restaurants, where employee theft was a problem, we examine the relationship between employee-observed theft and justice perceptions (distributive, procedural, and interactional justice), employees' job satisfaction, and judgments regarding the deviancy of theft. As expected, perceptions of procedural justice and employees' judgments regarding the deviancy of theft explained a significant amount of variance in employee-observed theft; the other predictor variables did not. Theoretical and practical implications for managing employee theft are discussed.
2012
Corporate criminal liability legislation has been the subject of a widespread debate around the world in response to the financial scandals of the early 2000s. The existing legal regimes en- tail compliance requirements, such as internal monitoring mechanisms, with the aim of inducing firms to detect the wrongful conduct of their agents. We develop an analytical framework to address when and to what extent firms may find convenient to adopt these regulatory devices. We conclude that more productive firms and those operating in sectors where managers have more opportunities to undertake criminal activities are more likely to prevent such activities (through monitoring or the payment of e¢ ciency wages). When the potential returns of ille- gal activities are high or when the firms are large, implementing internal monitoring devices may be optimal, while smaller firms should generally prefer the payment of efficiency wages to prevent crimes by managers.
Antecedents of white collar crime in organizations: A literature review
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, 2011
This study is focused on reviewing the literature of white collar crimes to identify factors which determine them in public sector organizations. Referring to a crime committed by someone of high social status, the literature suggest that the major causes of prevalence of white collar crimes are peer support, corporate culture, lack of accountability and lack of reporting. This review helps to understand the importance of white collar crime in today's public sector organizations.