ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how white-collar offenders conceive or symbolically construct opportunities. For many white-collar offenders, it is not enough merely to have access to an illegal opportunity to enrich themselves, or to avoid losing money, or to gain a business advantage. Almost all white-collar offenders are like the electrical executive who testified before Congress. Even after they have been convicted, most white-collar offenders are loath to admit that they actually have committed a crime. Although most will grudgingly admit that their actions may have violated the law somehow, they nevertheless describe their offenses as "oversights," "mistakes," or "technical violations." They present themselves as upstanding, law-abiding, moral individuals. They are committed to conventional moral values and have a respectable self-identity. It is possible for white-collar offenders to paint their illegal behavior in saintly colors, because their environment provides them with an inventory of verbal techniques for avoiding and undercutting the moral bind of the law. These techniques are called neutralizations.
