Financial crime – is there any way out of the theoretical deadlock?

Paul Eisenberg

Journal of Financial Crime, 2017, vol. 24, issue 4, 529-540

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims to approach fundamental topics of financial crime and the law. What does constitute financial crime? Which field of law is best suited to address the threats of transgression by financial executives? What does motivate highly rewarded financiers to become white collar criminals? Design/methodology/approach - To answer these research questions, contemporary theories of criminology in general and of white collar crime in particular, as well as theories on motivation, are critically discussed. Benefits and limitations of the theories in use are exemplified on the background of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal. Findings - The paper criticises that the state-of-the-art theories are not able to embrace financial criminality in its entirety. A provoking pace for further research might be that of psychopathic disorders among white collar criminals. Thus, white collar crime maintains its challenging character. Originality/value - This paper provides a thorough testing of multidisciplinary theories that emerged over the past decades against the recent LIBOR scandal. The research questions addressed and the methodologies applied provide a framework for the assessment of the prevailing theories against other financial scandals.

Keywords: American dream theory; Differential association theory; Harm principle and welfare principle; Preservation of social order and social order theory; Rational choice theory; White collar crime and LIBOR scandal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jfcpps:jfc-06-2016-0043

DOI: 10.1108/JFC-06-2016-0043

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Financial Crime is currently edited by Dr Li Hong Xing and Prof Barry Rider

More articles in Journal of Financial Crime from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().