ABSTRACT
Sociologists concerned with the study of white-collar crime have not made any systematic attempts to consider the social structure of occupations in their explanations of white-collar crime. Criminologists might consider the importance of understanding the occupation in the process of formulating theories of criminal behavior; and, on the other hand, sociologists who study occupations might give some attention to understanding the occupation by an investigation of the criminal behavior in the occupation. From what was known about retail pharmacy, then, it appeared that various aspects of the social and cultural structure of the occupation would have implications for the study of prescription violation, particularly the status of retail pharmacy as both a profession and a business. Data were collected through structured interviews with the retail pharmacists. Location within the structure of the occupation determines the effectiveness of the controls on the individual pharmacist.
