White-Collar Crime Triangle: Finance, Organization and Behavior

Cressey’s [1] fraud triangle examined the motivation for crime. McMahon et al. [2] suggest there is a need to move beyond the traditional fraud triangle to fight white-collar crime. In this article, we suggest a white-crime triangle which includes financial motive, organizational opportunity and deviant behavior. The suggested white-collar crime triangle is based on convenience theory [3], where white-collar crime can be explained by financial desires, organizational concealment and rationalization of criminal behavior. Convenience is a relative concept, where an illegal path may be more convenient than a legal path when considering potential benefits and costs. Potential benefits may be avoidance of pain and suffering, while potential costs may be detection and conviction. In this article, we suggest a research model to predict the extent of financial crime based on the white-collar crime triangle. We ask the following research question: What determines the tendency towards white-collar crime depending on financial motive, organizational opportunity and acceptable behavior?