Croall, Hazel: Individual Differences and White-Collar Crime

White-collar crime is viewed most often as unlawful conduct that elites and the powerful commit without fear of coming into contact of the criminal justice system. Hazel Croall questions the elitist stereotype of white-collar crime by examining the differences in offenders and offenses that exist for individual and corporate offending. She also questions the second assumption of differential enforcement of respectable white-collar offenders. When Edwin Sutherland first introduced the term, he argued that elites were able to influence the administration of law and avoid the criminal justice system. Croall argues that this understanding of white-collar crime is too simple. Individuals of high social status may not be brought to the attention of the criminal justice system partly because of their ability to influence the administration of law, but it may also be attributed to other structural and market factors. While the scholarly community and society have embraced a typecast of the elite white-collar offender who possesses a high-level position within his or her occupation, it oversimplifies explanations and theories of crime. Croall argues that this emphasis on the elite, corporate offender hides the other types of offenders and offenses of white-collar crime.

Croall questions the assumption that there is a homogenous group of white-collar offenders composed of respectable persons of the business community. Croall draws this conclusion from a study conducted in 1987 in which she examined crimes against the consumer, which were violations of consumer protection legislation in the United Kingdom. These violations included food adulteration, food sold at unhygienic locations, misleading descriptions of goods and prices, and the sale of goods with short weight or measure. Croall considered these violations to be white-collar crimes because they “are committed by persons ‘in the course of trade and business,’ and consumers are diffuse victims, poorly organized and often ignorant of their victimization” (Croall, 1989, p. 158). What is absent from her criteria of white-collar crime is that offenders are characterized by a high social status or respectability.

This study of violations of the consumer protection legislation is characteristic of typical white-collar offenses, yet the typical corporate offender was not always the perpetrator of these crimes. From official records and court observations, Croall found that the typical offender was not the large corporation but rather the small business. Furthermore, she discovered that there was also a small representation of criminal businesses, which are entities that are organized for the purposes of illegitimate activities. Croall's data challenge the typical depiction of the large corporation as the white-collar offender. Croall's investigation provides insight into the varieties of offenses and offenders that are involved in violations of the consumer protection legislation. Even though these cases appear to be trivial offenses by smaller businesses, they are important to consider because they still affect a number of victims. The usual portrayal of the wealthy, corporate criminal obfuscates the other types of white-collar offenders.

Larger, more powerful corporations are blamed for receiving differential enforcement by the criminal justice system. Yet Croall argues that there is more than a simple explanation for the lack of appearance of large perpetrators in the criminal justice system. Instead, other structural factors may be at play as well. It is a complex interaction between individuals, the market, and the criminal justice system that shapes the visibility of white-collar crimes. Furthermore, even though larger corporations may be able to avoid the criminal justice system, it does not mean that smaller businesses do not engage in white-collar crimes. This simplified explanation affects the way in which white-collar offenders are typically characterized and hides the different varieties of offenses that are committed.

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