Making Sense of Deviance: Comparative Perspectives

This chapter explores empirically how deviance in the form of white-collar crime can be understood as an affront, or assault, on the social license. Founded on original comparative fieldwork into executive decision-making conducted in India, Norway, Iran, and the United States, the empirical study presented links respondents’ self-reported extent of understanding of the white-collar crime phenomenon to propositions in convenience theory. While it is beyond the scope of this book to conclusively extrapolate clear points of convergence and divergence between these nations, content provides a persuasive pathway for future research to discuss potential explanations for social license in terms of culture, development, and equality.