328.6
A Comparative Research on the Deterring Effects of Religious and Non-Religious Factors on Economic Crimes in Iran

Monday, 11 July 2016: 09:50
Location: Seminar 52 (Juridicum)
Oral Presentation
Mahmood SHAHABI, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Iran
In this paper the results of the first cross-sectional study in Iran examining different correlates of white-collar crime both in private and public sectors are presented. Theoretically, the present paper is framed in competing or alternative theories of white-collar crimes including Hirschi & Stark’s theory of the fear of hell’s fire, Collins and Schmidt’s theory of personality correlates of white-collar crimes, James William Coleman’s sociological theory of corruption, and finally Cornish and Clark’s economic theory of white-collar crimes. The data were obtained in the spring 2012 from 120 managers currently active in Iranian corporations and official departments and also 120 white-collar criminals who formerly held such positions and currently incarcerated in prisons. Participants filled out paper and pencil scales measuring some personality correlates of white-collar crimes (hedonism, narcissism, lack of behavioral self-control), motives (dealing with the crisis threatening the criminal, the family, or the company), level of religious socialization through interpersonal communication (via orientation family, close friends, schools, and community), level of religious socialization through the media (religious programs broadcast from the national radio and television broadcasting organization, books, movies and CDs), level of the individual’s religiosity, individual’s perception of the probability of being arrested, individual’s perception of the levels of criminal opportunity, and some demographic variables such as socio-economic status, age, education level. The logistic regression analysis accounted for 75 per cent of the variance between the two groups. According to the research results, white-collar crime in Iran is predicted by individual’s perceived risk (probability) of being caught, and individual’s perception of the levels of criminal opportunity.