Deck 42: Opportunity Structures for White-Collar Crime

Question 1

According to Engdahl, which of the following is a central component in many explanatory models for criminality?

A) Motivation
B) Barriers
C) Opportunity
D) Financial self-interest

Answer 1

Opportunity

Question 2

In contrast to the efforts made with other aspects of white collar crime research, little attention has been devoted to

A) how occupational crime differs from corporate crime.
B) criminal motivation for profit (greed factor.)
C) levels of supervisory authority within an organization.
D) how social positions create opportunities for committing crime.

Answer 2

how social positions create opportunities for committing crime.

Question 3

Engdahl's concept of barriers includes all of the following EXCEPT

A) opportunity structures for crime.
B) "front" or peripheral regions.
C) that which obstructs detection of crime.
D) that which obstructs suspicion of crime.

Answer 3

"front" or peripheral regions.

Question 4

Engdahl proposes all of the following as specific barriers for concealing white-collar crime EXCEPT

A) social position.
B) interpretive primacy.
C) financial self-interest.
D) low priority of control.

Question 5

In the stock fraud case examined by Engdahl, the client's financial self-interest included the view of the broker as follows:

A) the broker worked in line with reasonable business strategies, the broker was seen as reliable, and the firm exercised strong administrative and accounting controls over brokers and deals
B) the broker was seen as reliable, the firm exercised strong administrative and accounting controls over brokers and deals, and the broker was a close friend and associate
C) the broker worked in line with reasonable business strategies, the broker was seen as reliable, and the client thought it in his best interest to exploit broker's extensive knowledge
D) None of the above

Question 6

The client's focus was on his own many extensive deals and business expansion rather than supervision of his own assets. This suggests

A) financial self-interest.
B) low priority of control.
C) interpretive primacy.
D) management impression.

Question 7

The broker's extensive expertise and ability to navigate complicated deals, coupled with ignorance of clients and the firm, suggests a knowledge gap or

A) financial self-interest
B) low priority of control
C) interpretive primacy
D) management impression

Question 8

Engdahl uses Goffman's concepts of

A) "barriers" or "back regions" to show how social positions strengthen the possibility of executing economic crime
B) "fronts" or "front regions" to show how presentation of self and impression management by brokers can increase their ability to carry out economic crime
C) social interaction to demonstrate how clients who are swindled are "marks" who must be "cooled out" by adept brokers to accept their losses and status as losers
D) "interpretive primacy" to account for clients' roles as whistle blowers (enforcers)

Question 9

Discuss how Engdahl draws upon Goffman's concept to explain the issue of how social positions create opportunities for white collar crime. What is it that the broker is to know and what he is assumed to do, which leads the client, and the organization for which the broker works, to extend unquestioning trust? What is the broker's status within the organization that contributes to his autonomy?

Question 10

Define the concept of "barrier" Engdahl employs and identify and discuss two of three such barriers in the case study of stock broker fraud.

Question 11

Based on Engdahl's analysis of the case study of stock broker fraud, it would appear that both the client and the firm must assume a degree of responsibility for making possible this white collar crime. Describe the possible ways in which both the client and the firm must be seen to shoulder at least some of the responsibility for enabling this stock fraud to occur.