Choosing White Collar Crime Neal Shover

Summary: White-collar crime and those that commit it have very little attention. In Choosing White-Collar Crime, Neal Shover and Andy Hochstetler (2006) discuss the participation in white-collar crime is chosen. Shover and Hochstetler use rational-choice theory to explain the decisions made by white-collar criminals. The authors look at a few areas of white-collar crime: the lure, the predisposed and tempted, self-restraint, oversight, and the threat and choice.

Lure

The article defines lure as an arrangement or situation that turns heads. An example of lure could be an unchained bike at a heavily populated park. Lure is not a criminal opportunity, but in the absence of credible oversight it is. In other words it is a criminal opportunity when there is a lack of a capable guardianship. Lure makes the tempted and criminally predisposed sensitive to whether or not their actions are being monitored and how oversight might be defeated.

The predisposed and tempted

Organizations that are predisposed to exploit lure are distinguished by structural, cultural, or procedural characteristics that increase the odds that their personnel will recognize and exploit lure. Tempted individuals possess qualities or experiences that make them more likely than peers who lack these distinctions to weigh exploitation of lure. Shover and Hochstetler explore the backgrounds of white-collar criminals and lean toward the middle and upper classes. They suggest middle-class may have qualities that are functional equivalents of family conflict and hardship. Those that are raised in middle-class families may be taught to exert social power in relationships, to take risks, and to be