White Collar Crime: Qualitative Explanation of Contexts and Motives

White-collar crime is a controversial term about which there is no consensus. A comprehensive explanation of white-collar crime needs integrated theories that join various factors. White collar crime is an encompassing phrase which refers to a wide range of crimes. Corporate crime, organizational crime, state crime, and state-corporate crime are the most common types of white-collar crime. Essentially, this research used a qualitative case study as its research method. Nineteen cases of white-collar criminals who were convicted in Tehran criminal courts were selected for a case study. Most of these cases include crimes that occurred in private corporates. In the beginning, the intention was to have in-depth interviews with criminals in order to collect data but various difficulties forced researchers to utilize the document analysis method instead. Findings of this research are consistent with the other research findings, although the qualitative research findings are not generalizable. Majority of perpetrator's gender was male and most of them were middle-agers. Findings of this research reveal that white collar criminals usually work in financial organizations or in financial sectors of non-financial organizations. Correlation of "being in full strained society" and "material-based culture" will result in a cycle which is named as "victim and predator cycle". The variables such as abuse of delegated trust, week surveillance, opportunity and easy access to resources, the perception of not being caught and prosecuted, noncriminal self-image, deviant organizational subcultures can be regarded as important factors leading to white-collar crime.