General theory, gender-specific theory, and white-collar crime
| Published date | 05 October 2015 |
| Date | 05 October 2015 |
| Pages | 422-431 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-12-2014-0062 |
| Author | Kristy Holtfreter |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
General theory, gender-specic
theory, and white-collar crime
Kristy Holtfreter
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University,
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of gender in white-collar crime. Directions
for future research testing general and gender-specic theories are provided.
Design/methodology/approach – Prior research is reviewed and critiques of general and
gender-specic explanations for offending in the workplace context are advanced.
Findings – Gender-specic explanations in other offending contexts (e.g. violent crime) appear to be
less applicable to the understanding of white-collar crime, a nding that lends support to general theory.
Practical implications – This paper provides an outline for future research testing criminological
theory in organizational settings.
Originality/value – This paper represents a unique attempt to apply general and gender-specic
theories to a variety of nancial crimes in the context of organizations.
Keywords Gender, White-collar crime, Fraud, General theory, Organizations
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
It is estimated that fraud costs the typical organization approximately 5 per cent
each year; when applied to the 2013 Gross World Product, this translates to a
projected global fraud loss of $3.7 trillion (Association For Certied Fraud
Examiners, 2014). There is a long history of theoretical and empirical interest in
asset misappropriation, nancial misstatements, corruption and other forms of
workplace offending that are often collectively referred to as “white-collar crime”. In
the 2000s, a series of high prole scandals in corporate America renewed public
interest in the topic and also contributed to increased research attention (Holtfreter
et al., 2008a,2008b). Understanding the factors that contribute to white-collar
offending remains important for researchers as well as policy-makers and the
organizational actors on the front lines of fraud prevention. The gender gap in
crime – the overrepresentation of males in virtually all ofcial arrest statistics – has
narrowed in recent decades and is considerably smaller for white-collar crimes.
Attention to gender in research on white-collar crime has been a relatively recent
and welcomed development in the literature. Whether the same theories originally
designed to explain criminal behavior of males also explain female white-collar
offending remains an empirical question that has gone largely unanswered. In sum,
a gender gap in theories of white-collar crime still persists.
Sutherland (1949, p. 9) originally dened white-collar crime as “crime by a person
of high social status and respectability in the course of his occupation” (emphasis
added). This gender-specic denition was articulated in an historical period in
which males made up the majority of the workforce, so it is not altogether surprising
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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JFC
22,4
422
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.22 No. 4, 2015
pp.422-431
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-12-2014-0062
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