ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapters, we have argued that opportunities for whitecollar crime are shaped and distributed according to the nature of the economic and productive activities of di erent industries. Certain types of white-collar crime are more common in some industries than others because the opportunity to commit those types of crime is built into the organization of the industry. For example, the structure of the health care insurance system makes possible certain types of fraud, deception, and abuse of trust that would be di cult if not impossible to carry out in the retail clothing industry. As a general rule that has only a few exceptions, white-collar crimes are not spread evenly across industries or occupations. e exceptions involve activities that are common to all business undertakings. For example, all businesses must engage in accounting, and in recent years, accounting fraud appears to have spread to all types of businesses and industries, indeed even to some municipal authorities (Partnoy, 2003).
