Old horizons of organised-white collar crime. Critical remarks about the current definition, development and perceptions of organised and white-collar crime
| Pages | 305-317 |
| Published date | 06 July 2015 |
| Date | 06 July 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-03-2014-0013 |
| Author | Bojan Dobovšek,Boštjan Slak |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
Old horizons of organised-white
collar crime
Critical remarks about the current denition,
development and perceptions of organised
and white-collar crime
Bojan Dobovšek and Boštjan Slak
Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show the interconnectivity between the economic sphere,
governance and organised crime and to shed light on the role of white-collar crime and show that
constant redening of the term “organised crime” has certain downfalls.
Design/methodology/approach – Methods of analysis and examination of relevant domestic and
foreign primary and secondary resources and legal acts are used. The paper is theoretical in nature, as
review of literature was the main method used for our argumentation.
Findings – The term and phenomena of organised crime have now long enjoyed the attention of many
researchers, institutions, policymakers and others. And yet, in this quest for unication, proper
denition and classication, it seems that we have somewhat strayed from that original idea of what
organised crime represented in the period when this term was rst coined. Unfortunately, by doing so,
we failed to include the most dangerous forms of behaviour, i.e. (some, not all!) white-collar crime, which
falls within the scope of organised crime.
Practical implications – Despite the fact that ideas presented in this paper belong to the old masters
of criminology, they have lately been slightly forgotten. The paper is therefore useful to those who are
interested in seeing how original ideas about the nature of organised crime are applicable today.
Originality/value – The paper provides an insight into the somewhat overlooked scholarship of
those who deal with organised crime and white-collar crime.
Keywords White-collar crime, Organised crime, Crimes in business, Crimes in governance
Paper type Viewpoint
1. A necessary evil: dening organised crime
Anyone who deals with organised crime in one way or another and writes about it faces
the necessity to dene this concept. Why is this a necessary evil? Many have attempted
to dene organised crime and almost everyone thinks that they have succeeded. The
result is an overabundance of denitions, which, ironically, fuels the initiative to word a
common, universal denition of organised crime. But every new denition gives the
experts one more reason to raise their voices and demand unication. It seems that the
attempts to establish a unied denition have not even provided a general
understanding of the differences that stand in the way of a consensus about the meaning
The authors wish to thank Petrus C. van Duyne, Rebeka Lesjak and anonymous reviewers for
their insights and comments on the paper.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1359-0790.htm
Organised-
white collar
crime
305
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.22 No. 3, 2015
pp.305-317
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-03-2014-0013
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