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Abstract:
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White -collar crime is a major loss to the economy , employers , and consumers . It is a crime that often goes undetected , and when detected , employers rarely file charges , so estimates as to how often it occurs are hard to come by . White -collar crime is a very broad category so the focus of this study was on a sector of white -collar crime , <italic >retail employee theft < /italic > . Cressey's (1973 ) fraud triangle contained three components : motivation , opportunity , and rationalization . Cressey (1973 ) claimed that if any of one of these three components did not exist , then the crime would not occur . In this study , retail employee theft was analyzed by reviewing associates whose employment was terminated for theft at Retailer XYZ in a 12 month period from July 1 , 2007 to June 30 , 2008 . The study revealed that management failure in following correct policy and procedures was present 77 % of the cases of employee theft in the dataset . There was not a significant correlation between age , length of employment , and management failure . However , the study did reveal vulnerabilities that may contribute to associate theft . |