ing their position to save time and effort to reach their greedy ends (Gottschalk, 2016). Theoretical contributions to white collar crime conceptualization have been drawn from sociology and psychology, starting with Freud and his discussions of conflict of desires and needs that cause people to commit crime (Friedrichs, 2010). According to this framework, white collar criminals desire conventional success, and they need to achieve this success by any means necessary. With this, Sutherland discusses personality traits of white collar criminals, claiming that they have normal personality types with more tendency toward risk- taking, ambition, and egocentrism, which would explain their “subtle” criminality that doesn’t follow typical norm infractions (Friedrichs, 2010). White collar crimes are often not included in official statistics, and most victims are unaware of their victimhood, as these “subtle” crimes occur in private and are typically covered up (Maguire et al., 1994). Next, Gottfredson and Hirschi offer sociogenic explanations, that criminals have lower self-control and therefore make conscious choices to commit crimes (Friedrichs, 2010). White collar crimes are not crimes of passion; they are calculated, conscious decisions people make as a means to an end.
Sutherland, Clinard, and Yeager finally make the important distinction between crimes of corporations and crimes of individuals within the corporations (Olejarz, 2016). It is important to distinguish between these points when considering theory, causes, and consequences. In fact, there has been a recent push in theory to focus on offense criteria instead of individual offenders of white collar crime (Maguire et al., 1994). Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralization come into play here. The five techniques – deny responsibility, deny injury through rationalization, deny the existence of a victim, condemn the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties – are contributed to the structural problems with white collar crime (Friedrichs, 2010, p. 237; Ruggiero, 2015). Powerful white collar offenders use these techniques to distance themselves from the corporation and to shirk themselves of any blame.
Criminal justice.
A core assumption of white collar crimes is that law promotes these crimes, favoring the privileged and failing to criminalize these activities: the powerful will protect their own, and capitalis
