![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
We extend the scarce research on corporate crime to include gender by developing and testing a gendered focal concerns and crime opportunities framework that predicts minimal and marginal female involvement in corporate criminal networks. Lacking centralized information, we developed a rich database covering 83 corporate frauds involving 436 defendants. We extracted information from indictments and secondary sources on corporate conspiracy networks (e.g., co-conspirator roles, company positions, and distribution of profit). Findings support the gendered paradigm. Typically, women were not part of conspiracy groups. When women were involved, they had more minor roles and made less profit than their male co-conspirators. Two main pathways defined female involvement: relational (close personal relationship with a main male co-conspirator) and utility (occupied a financial-gateway corporate position). Paralleling gendered labor market segmentation processes that limit and shape women’s entry into economic roles, sex segregation in corporate criminality is pervasive, suggesting only subtle shifts in gender socialization and women’s opportunities for significant white-collar crimes. Our findings do not comport with images of highly placed or powerful white-collar female criminals.
Keywords
References
|
Abelson, Reed . 2003. “HealthSouth Executives Spared Prison Terms.” New York Times, December 11. Google Scholar | |
|
Ajamie, Tom, Kelly, Bruce. 2010. Financial Serial Killers: Inside the World of Wall Street Money Hustlers, Swindlers, and Con Men. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. Google Scholar | |
|
Akerloff, George, Shiller, Robert J. 2009. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Barrionuevo, Alexei . 2006. “Executives Modified Enron Data, Jury Is Told.” New York Times, February 22. Google Scholar | |
|
Benson, Michael L., Simpson, Sally S. 2009. White-Collar Crime: An Opportunity Perspective. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Barnard, Chester I. 1938. The Functions of the Executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Beutel, Ann M., Marini, Margaret M. 1995. “Gender and Values.” American Sociological Review 60:436–48. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Brickey, Kathleen F. 2006. “In Enron’s Wake: Corporate Executives on Trial.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 96:397–412. Google Scholar | ISI | |
|
Broidy, Lisa, Agnew, Robert. 1997. “Gender and Crime: A General Strain Theory Perspective.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 34:275–306. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Byrnes, James P., Miller, David C., Schafer, William D. 1999. “Gender Differences in Risk Taking: A Meta-Analysis.” Psychological Bulletin 125:367–83. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Catalyst . 2011. “U.S. Women in Business.” October 26 (http://www.catalyst.org/media/catalyst-2012-census-fortune-500-no-change-women-top-leadership). Google Scholar | |
|
Clinard, Marshall B., Yeager, Peter C. 2006. Corporate Crime. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Google Scholar | |
|
Collins, Judith. 1999. “Personality and Value Differences among Male and Female White-Collar Executives.” Presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Meetings, Boston, MA. Google Scholar | |
|
Cressey, Donald R. 1953. Other People’s Money. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith. Google Scholar | |
|
Daly, Kathleen . 1989. “Gender and Varieties of White-Collar Crime.” Criminology 27:769–94. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Dodge, Mary . 2009. Women and White-Collar Crime. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Google Scholar | |
|
England, Paula . 2005. “Emerging Theories of Care Work.”Annual Review of Sociology 31:381–99. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Franklin, Alice . 1979. “Criminality in the Workplace: A Comparison of Male and Female Offenders.” Pp. 167–70 in The Criminology of Deviant Women, edited by Adler, F., Simon, R. J. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Google Scholar | |
|
Geis, Gilbert . 2007. White-Collar and Corporate Crime. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Google Scholar | |
|
Gilligan, Carol . 1982. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Gorman, Elizabeth H., Kmec, Julie A. 2009. “Hierarchical Rank and Women’s Organizational Mobility: Glass Ceilings in Corporate Law Firms.” American Journal of Sociology 114:1428–74. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Holtfreter, Kristy . 2005. “Is Occupational Fraud ‘Typical’ White-Collar Crime? A Comparison of Individual and Organizational Characteristics.” Journal of Criminal Justice 33:353–65. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Houston Chronicle . 2005. “Sheila Kahanek’s Successful Defense.” December 16. Google Scholar | |
|
Huffman, Matt L., Cohen, Philip N., Pearlman, Jessica. 2010. “Engendering Change: Organizational Dynamics and Workplace Desegregation, 1975–2005.” Administrative Science Quarterly 55:255–77. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Jaffee, Sara, Hyde, Janet S. 2000. “Gender Differences in Moral Orientation: A Meta-Analysis.” Psychological Bulletin 126:703–726. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Jarboe, Kathleen . 2004. “Network Technology Group Defendants.” Baltimore Daily Record, April 16. Google Scholar | |
|
Kanter, Rosabeth M. 1977. Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Klenowski, Paul M., Copes, Heith, Mullins, Christopher W. 2011. “Gender, Identity, and Accounts: How White Collar Offenders Do Gender When Making Sense of Their Crimes.” Justice Quarterly 28:46–69. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Kodinsky, Robert W., Madden, Timothy M., Zisk, Daniel S., Henkel, Eric T. 2010. “Attitudes about Corporate Social Responsibility: Business Student Predictors.” Journal of Business Ethics 91:167–81. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Lesch, William C. 2011. “Women and Older Consumers Tougher on Fraud.” Journal of Insurance Fraud 2:15–22. Google Scholar | |
|
Levi, Michael . 1994. “Masculinity and White-Collar Crime.” Pp. 234–52 in Just Boys Doing Business, edited by Newburn, T., Stanko, E. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Lewis, Michael . 2010. The Big Short. New York: W.W. Norton. Google Scholar | |
|
Loe, Terry W., Ferrell, Linda, Mansfield, Phylis. 2000. “A Review of Empirical Studies Assessing Ethical Decision Making in Business.” Journal of Business Ethics 25:185–204. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Maher, Lisa . 1997. Sexed Work: Gender, Race, and Resistance in a Brooklyn Drug Market. New York: Clarendon Press. Google Scholar | |
|
McLean, Bethany, Elkin, Peter. 2003. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. New York: Penguin. Google Scholar | |
|
Miller, Jody . 2001. One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Morselli, Carlo . 2009. Inside Criminal Networks. New York: Springer. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
O’Fallon, Michael J., Buttefield, Kenneth D. 2005. “A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 1996–2003.” Journal of Business Ethics 59:375–413. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
O’Rourke, Lindsey A. 2009. “What’s Special about Female Suicide Terrorism?” Security Studies 18:681–718. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Reskin, Barbara F., McBrier, Debra B., Kmec, Julie A. 1999. “The Determinants and Consequences of Workplace Sex and Race Composition.” Annual Review of Sociology 25:335–61. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Ross, Edward Alsworth . 1907. Sin and Society: An Analysis of Latter-Day Iniquity. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Google Scholar | |
|
Schwartz, Jennifer, Steffensmeier, Darrell J., Feldmeyer, Ben. 2009. “Assessing Trends in Women’s Violence via Data Triangulation: Arrests, Convictions, Incarcerations, and Victim Reports.” Social Problems 56:494–525. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Shover, Neal, Grabosky, Peter. 2010. “White-Collar Crime and the Great Recession.” Criminology & Public Policy 9:429–33. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Simon, Rita J., Ahn-Redding, Heather. [1976] 2005. The Crimes Women Commit: The Punishments They Receive. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Simpson, Sally S. 1986. “The Decomposition of Antitrust: Testing a Multilevel, Longitudinal Model of Profit-Squeeze.” American Sociological Review 51:859–975. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Steffensmeier, Darrell J. 1983. “An Organizational Perspective on Sex-Segregation in the Underworld: Building a Sociological Theory of Sex Differences in Crime.” Social Forces 61:1010–1032. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Steffensmeier, Darrell J. 1989. “Causes of White-Collar Crime Revisited.” Criminology 27:345–58. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Steffensmeier, Darrell J., Allan, Emilie. 1996. “Gender and Crime: Toward a Gendered Theory of Female Offending.” Annual Review of Sociology 22:459–87. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Steffensmeier, Darrell J., Terry, Robert M. 1986. “Institutional Sexism in the Underworld: A View from the Inside.” Sociological Inquiry 56:304–323. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Steffensmeier, Darrell J., Ulmer, Jeffery T. 2005. Confessions of a Dying Thief: Understanding Criminal Careers and Illegal Enterprise. New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine-Transaction. Google Scholar | |
|
Stewart, James B. 2011. Tangled Webs. New York: Penguin Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Sutherland, Edwin H. 1940. “White-Collar Criminality.” American Sociological Review 5:1–12. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) . 2003. First Year Report to the President: Corporate Fraud Task Force. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Google Scholar | |
|
Wang, Xia, Holtfreter, Kristy. 2012. “The Effects of Corporation- and Industry-Level Strain and Opportunity on Corporate Crime.” Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency 49:1–35. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Zeitz, Dorothy . 1981. Women Who Embezzle or Defraud. New York: Praeger. Google Scholar | |
|
Zhang, Sheldon X., Chin, Ko-Lin, Miller, Jody. 2007. “Women’s Participation in Chinese Transnational Human Smuggling: A Gendered Market Perspective.” Criminology 45:699–733. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
