Women and White-Collar Crime: A Convenience Theory Perspective

Abstract

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.