Pink‐Collar Crime

Edwin Sutherland introduced the term “white‐collar crime” in his 1939 American Sociological Association presidential address in which he argued that criminologists should focus attention on the illegal behaviors of professionals. He further expounded upon the concept of white‐collar crime in his seminal criminology text, where he defined white‐collar crime as illegal behaviors committed by respectable professionals in positions of power and high social status. While some scholars argue that women's increased labor force participation closed the gender gap in white‐collar offending, others maintain that the crimes committed by women in the workplace tend to be low‐level embezzlement offenses and low‐level fraud committed by low‐ranking personnel. Therefore, these low‐level offenses typically perpetrated by women tend to be outside the purview of Sutherland's definition of white‐collar crime, creating gendered distinctions between white‐collar crime and “pink‐collar” crime. Blocked economic opportunities, through gendered labor market segmentation and the exclusion of women from informal work networks, shape women's participation in white‐collar crimes. Additionally, gendered focal concerns, risk preferences, and responses to workplace stress influence gendered differences in motivation and rationalizations for white‐collar and pink‐collar crimes.