Women and White-Collar Crime: A Convenience Theory Perspective

Resumo

Traditionally, research on the fraction of women in white-collar crime has focused on
females’ lack of financial motive, organizational opportunity, and personal willingness for
deviant behavior. This article applies the opposite perspective of traditional gender research on
white-collar crime in terms of special female motive, opportunity, and willingness. Based on
the theory of convenience, this article identifies convenience themes that are gender-specific in
favor of female offenders. In the motive dimension of convenience theory, there is concern for
others and strain causing depression and anxiety (Brands and Mehra, 2019). In the opportunity
dimension, there are fewer women than men that face suspicions of misconduct, wrongdoing,
and crime. In the willingness dimension, females as followers might justify their actions and
neutralize their potential guilt feelings far better than males as leaders in crime by claiming
loyalty to their leaders.