Abstract
To better detect and prevent white-collar crime, it is important for investigators, security specialists, business managers, and other professionals to understand motivations behind how and why individuals participate in such behavior. This paper examines how techniques of neutralization are used by white-collar offenders to justify their behavior and minimize the guilt associated with engaging in illegal activity. Investigator recognition of common neutralizations used by white-collar offenders can help them during the interrogations of suspected offenders. Additionally, a proper understanding of neutralizations available to white-collar offenders can be used by businesses and other organizations to effectively design comprehensive employee ethics programs geared toward helping prevent illegal activity before it occurs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
There is debate in criminal justice circles over the morality of such strategies. For excellent discussion on this point, see Sherman (1982), Marx (1988) and Skolnick and Leo (1992).
The situation is analogous to what new police officers confront. After going through academy training which included at least some consideration of ethical issues confronting police officers and the swearing in ceremony at which time the “oath of office” is given that stresses positive ideals such as honesty, integrity, and courage, the officer is too often confronted with a field training officer (FTO) who immediately tells the new officer to “forget all that stuff” and that the FTO will “explain how things REALLY operate around here,” which could include involvement in corruption (see Sherman, 1982; Adlam, 1998).
References
Adlam, R. (1998) Developing Ethics Education for Police Leaders and Managers: Action Research and Critical Reflection for Curriculum and Personal Development. Educational Action Research. Vol. 6, No. 1, pp 131–151.
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (2003) Fraud Examiners Manual. Austin, TX: ACFE.
Benson, M.L. (1985) Denying the Guilty Mind: Accounting for Involvement in a White Collar Crime. Criminology. Vol. 23, No. 3, pp 583–607.
Box, S. (1983) Power, Crime and Mystification. London: Tavistock Publications.
Blumberg, V.E. and Potter, G.W. (2000) The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice. 3rd edn. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Cohen, A.K. (1955) Delinquent Boys. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
Coleman, J.W. (2001) The Criminal Elite: Understanding White Collar Crime. 5th edn. New York: Worth Publishers.
Conklin, J.E. (2001) Criminology. 8th edn. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Cressey, D.R. (1953) Other People's Money: A Study in the Social Psychology of Embezzlement. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
Cressey, D.R. (1999) Other People's Money. In Traub, S.H. and Little, C.B. (eds) Theories of Deviance 5th edn. Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock Publishers, pp 244–251.
Deloitte & Touche, LLP and Corporate Board Member Magazine (2004) Business Ethics and Compliance in the Sarbanes–Oxley Era. Retrieved 17 April 2004 from http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/whitepaper/0,1017,sid%253D11611%2526cid%253D56215,00.html.
Ermann, D.M. and Lundman, R.J. (2002) Corporate and Governmental Deviance: Origins, Patterns, and Reactions. In Ermann, D.M., and Lundman, R.J. (eds) Corporate and Government Deviance: Problems of Organizational Behavior in Contemporary Society. 6th edn. New York: Oxford Press, pp 3–49.
Friedrichs, D.O. (2003) Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society. 2nd edn. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Geis, G. (2002a) White Collar Crime: What Is It? In Shichor, D., Gaines, L. and Ball, R. (eds) Readings in White Collar Crime. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, pp 7–25.
Geis, G. (2002b) The Heavy Electric Equipment Antitrust Cases: Price Fixing Techniques and Rationalizations. In Ermann, M.D. and Lundman, R.J. (eds) Corporate and Government Deviance: Problems of Organizational Behavior in Contemporary Society. 6th edn. New York: Oxford Press, pp 111–130.
Green, G.S. (1997) Organizational-Occupational Crime. In Green, G.S. (ed.) Occupational Crime. 2nd edn. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, pp 93–148.
Inbau, F.E., Reid, J.E., Buckley, J.P. and Jayne, B.C. (2001) Criminal Interrogations and Confessions. 4th edn. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
Jayne, B.C. and Buckley, J.P. (1999) The Investigator Anthology. Chicago: John E. Reid and Associates.
Jesilow, P., Pontell, H.M. and Geis, G. (1997) How Doctors Defraud Medicaid: Doctors Tell Their Stories. In Green, G.S. (ed.) Occupational Crime. 2nd edn. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, pp 106–115.
Marx, G. (1988) Undercover: Police Surveillance in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Reiman, J. (2004) The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. 7th edn. Boston: Pearson/Allen & Bacon.
Sherman, L.B. (1982) Learning Police Ethics. Criminal Justice Ethics. Vol. 1, No. 1, pp 10–19.
Skolnick, J. and Leo, R.B. (1992) The Ethics of Deceptive Interrogation. Criminal Justice Ethics. Vol. 11, No. 1, pp 3–22.
Sutherland, E.H. (1983) White Collar Crime: The Uncut Version. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Sykes, G.M. and Matza, D. (1957/2003) Techniques of Neutralization. In Cullen, F.T. and Agnew, R. (eds) Criminological Theory: Past and Present. 2nd edn. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing, pp 135–141.
Thurman, Q.C., St. John, C. and Riggs, L. (1984) Neutralization and Tax Evasion: How Effective Would a Moral Appeal Be in Improving Compliance to Tax Laws? Law and Policy. Vol. 6, No. 2, pp 309–327.
Underwood, J. (2004) HealthSouth is Enron-Like in Some Ways. The Birmingham News, 22 February, p D1.
Wells, J.T. (1992) Fraud Examination: Investigative and Audit Procedures. New York: Quorum Books.
Williott, S., Griffin, C. and Torrance, M. (2001) Snakes and Ladders: Upper-Middle Class Male Offenders Talk About Economic Crime. Criminology. Vol. 39, No. 3, pp 441–466.
Acknowledgements
Authors are listed alphabetically. We thank Bonnie S. Fisher and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on prior versions of the paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kieffer, S., Sloan III, J. Overcoming Moral Hurdles: Using Techniques of Neutralization by White-Collar Suspects as an Interrogation Tool. Secur J 22, 317–330 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sj.8350087
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sj.8350087