Perpetrators and Punishment
Dhami (2007) suggests that perceptions of white-collar crime offenses may be changing. The
author interviewed 14 white-collar crime offenders and found that while the offenders get punitive
reactions from the judiciary and media, they tended to get positive reinforcement from significant
others, prison staffers, and other inmates. Such positive feedback from some elements of society
may allow individuals to rationalize behavior, even though other members of society condemn their
acts. Dhami (2007) attributes at least some of the offenders’ negative perceptions from the judiciary
and the media to the prevailing social norms and suggests that, post-Watergate, society has become
increasingly less tolerant of white-collar crime, indicating that the public perceives that white-collar
crime does economic and moral harm.7
In non-accounting settings, research has examined the consequences of fraudulent acts. For
example, Grasmick and Kobayashi (2002) examine the threat of formal punishment, socially
imposed embarrassment, and self-imposed shame as deterrents for workplace rules violations. The
authors find that, in the United States and Japan, self-imposed shame is a stronger deterrent and
socially imposed embarrassment is not significant. Overall, the results suggest that the threat of
socially imposed embarrassment has no significant impact. We believe that the area of punishment
provides opportunities for further study and the results might impact resource allocation for antifraud
programs.