White Collar Crime and Informal Social Control: The Case of “Crisis Responders” in the Swedish Banking and Finance Sector

Abstract

Drawing upon case studies on the type of white-collar offenders frequently called “crisis responders”, this article critically examines Sampson and Laub’s general theory on informal social control. In the article, this theory is for the first time confronted with data not used in its development and prior testing. Based on the evidence, the theory retains its validity for the white-collar offenders considered, insofar as their crime was closely connected to a perceived threat of identity loss, distrust in social support obtainable from others, and lack of supervision and monitoring at workplace. At the same time, the argument is made that the notion of interdependence relied upon in this theory needs to be developed more fully if it is to take into account the kind of dependency relations tying these particular offenders to their environment