White Collar Crime Theories

Paper Summary:

This research examines Michael Milken's white-collar crimes and corporate deviance in terms of sociologist Robert K. Merton's theory of deviance. The research sets forth the context in which Milken's behavior patterns lend themselves to analysis from Merton's perspective and then discusses how shifts in Milken's behavior since the exposure of his white-collar crime can be explained by Merton's views.

From the Paper:

"Merton's conception of deviance is structured around the relationship between individual wants and needs on one hand and the ability to fulfill those wants, needs, and dreams on the other. According to Merton (25ff), the venue for fulfillment is society, and its class structure, institutions, cultural norms, and the position of the individual within the whole may facilitate, prevent, or retard fulfillment. Man, says Merton (195), "is to a very important degree controlled by his social relations to the instruments of production." Written and unwritten rules of engagement between individuals and between individuals and social institutions dominate life experience, such that social life amounts to life in a bureaucracy, with behavior assuming the character of ritual adherence to specific kinds of action."

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