Lady Justice and the Corporate Visor: An Application of Routine Activity Theory as a Synthesized Theoretical Framework for Explaining Corporate Crime
Abstract
The routine activity theory approach to the etiology of "street crimes" has received considerable empirical support as a viable, synthesized explanatory framework for understanding the universal social problems of violent and property crimes. However, the criminological community has all but ignored this useful theoretical tool as an apropos explanatory framework for our most insidious and prolific crime problem: corporate crime. This article highlights the deplorable lack of criminological attention to the problem of corporate crime, details the development of legally defined "corporate actors" in American society, and explains how routine activity theory synthesizes previous theoretical efforts in a manner capable of explaining the existence and proliferation of corporate crime. The present discussion accomplishes this last objective by reworking and reapplying the three major elements of routine activity theory(motivated offenders, suitable targets, and lack of capable guardians) to the phenomenon of corporate crime. Lastly, this article proposes an empirical research design focusing on contract overpricing in United States Air Force procurement contracts as a starting point for establishing the empirical utility of this theoretical perspective to the problem of corporate crime against the most suitable target of all, the federal government.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 15, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA378703
Entities
People
- James G. Anderson
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology