Case 1: Enron was a Texas energy company that employed over 21,000 people in more than 40 countries. It had become the seventh largest company in the U.S. within 15 years of its beginning operations. Enron was highly lauded before its financial success was found to be a mirage created by elaborate accounting frauds. Several of its members, including two former chief executive officers, were found guilty on a number of fraud charges.
Case 2: Two men and a woman, suspected to be members of a group known as the "Band-Aid robbers," were arrested by police. The group carried out a series of bank robberies in Kansas and Missouri.
- Although the Enron accounting scandal and "Band-Aid" robberies are two distinct crimes that are white-collar and blue-collar crimes respectively, do you think the motivations of the perpetrators of these crimes were similar? Why?
- Can anomie theory and the variants of strain theories be used to explain the possible criminal motives behind the Enron scandal and the Band-Aid robberies? Explain your position.
- Can differential association theory be used to explain the Enron scandal and the Band-Aid robberies? Provide a rationale for your response.
- Which of the two criminal groups-Enron executives or Band-Aid robbers-is better explained by differential association, anomie, and strain theories? Why?
- Do any other sociological theories help explain the behavior of the bank robbers or of those at Enron? How?