Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal

by Eugene Soltes

What drives wealthy and powerful people to white-collar crime? Why They Do It is a breakthrough look at the dark side of the business world. From the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the insider traders at McKinsey, to the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, the failings of corporate titans are regular fixtures in the news. In Why They Do It, Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes draws from extensive personal interaction and correspondence with nearly fifty former executives as well as the latest research in psychology, criminology, and economics to investigate how once-celebrated executives become white-collar criminals. White-collar criminals are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris, nor do they usually carefully calculate costs and benefits before breaking the law. Instead, Soltes shows that most of the executives who committed crimes made decisions the way we all do-on the basis of their intuitions and gut feelings. The trouble is that these gut feelings are often poorly suited for the modern business world where leaders are increasingly distanced from the consequences of their decisions and the individuals they impact. The extraordinary costs of corporate misconduct are clear to its victims. Yet, never before have we been able to peer so deeply into the minds of the many prominent perpetrators of white-collar crime. With the increasing globalization of business threatening us with even more devastating corporate misconduct, the lessons Soltes draws in Why They Do It are needed more urgently than ever.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, True Crime, Psychology, Crime, Audiobook, Economics

330 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Tanja Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in a class or training with the author, sponsored by work, earlier this week. I promptly downloaded the book and it’s been fascinating. The author gives the history of white collar crime - and how it even became a crime. He then recounts excerpts from a number of personal interviews with former CEOs that have been caught and convicted. It’s a good guide on how to stay on the straight and narrow, and how easily it can be to move into grey areas.

Business has become impersonal - this is what makes white collar crime easy. It’s difficult to identify victims. You don’t have to lie to someone’s face, you could just rid the numbers a little. Many of the crimes committed by the likes of Enron executives have, through SOX, had a significant influence on how we do business. I am not entirely convinced of the efficacy, but oh well - I understand where it comes from.

One of the dangers of management is that you don’t hear enough dissenting opinions. Even if they are presented, it’s unlikely that they get all they way in to changing actions and behavior. Here is where the value of diversity and having the courage to speak up for what is right comes into play.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is nonfiction and it is exactly what the title says it is. I found this so fascinating as the author examines the human psyche of these men who are or were in prison for their white-collar crimes. It blew my mind that some still don't think they did anything wrong because after all, they didn't hurt anyone. The author mentioned that people may tell a lie when selling a car about how much they paid for it (which isn't a crime), but if they tell that same kind of lie in the financial world, it's securities fraud....meaning jail time.

I enjoyed the research that this must have taken and how the author broke this down. He presented it well and I didn't feel he was talking over my head. Well done.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Available as a well-read 12-hour audio download.

An interesting and occasionally even fun book to listen to, even if you disagree with the book's thesis, as I did. The author did some great research and got many convicted criminals to speak up on the record. Spoiler alert: Attempts to explain away or justify their crimes do not put them in a more sympathetic light.

Positive points of this book: it's a good review of the shameful details of the top white-collar swindles of our generation. Many of these were headline material when they were first revealed but now are fading from imperfect memory. It's good to be reminded of the appalling consequences of such unvarnished greed and willful self-deception.

Negative points: That thesis I mentioned is that white-collar criminals become white-collar criminals due to “faulty intuition”, as opposed, I guess, to twirling their mustaches, gazing into the camera, and saying “Bwa-ha-ha, I am a master villain.” The word “intuition” is such a squishy word that the thesis is really impossible to prove true or false. Any attempt to do so would probably end in a pointless argument over the definition of the word “intuition”.

I chose this book after it was mentioned in passing in this article in the 27 October 2016 edition of The Economist. The article says that this book “demonstrate[s] that America is getting tougher on business crime” and “that the rich aren’t getting away with a slap [on the wrist, presumably].” This is preposterous – the book does not demonstrate either of these things. The article is simply misleading. Don't read or listen to this book expecting a case for or against tough white-collar crime sentencing.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soltes has successfully walked me through the history of white-collar crime, outlined the whys and hows, put forward some possible remedies and introduced me to several convicted white-collar criminals, including the Big Kahuna of NYC Ponzi fame. I was baffled and angered by super successful men becoming criminals. Before the book, I saw them as entitled psychopaths. Or perhaps as malignant, antisocial narcissists like my muse, our oh-so transparent Tweeter in Chief.

Apparently, white-collar crime was mostly accepted until recently. Historically, business was local. Proximity to customers encouraged decent behavior. When businesses broadened and consumers became distant, some men (so far, all men) began behaving badly. The idea of a “fraud triangle” (based on Donald Cressey’s work): “pressure, opportunity, and rationalization” was used later as a study tool. As businesses grew more complex, especially with the advent of institutional investing, modern white-collar criminals saw their “grey” “activity) as victimless. Including the ones in prison who were interviewed for the book. Even Madoff(!) claims he made his clients lots of money before he lost them some. He also justifies his actions by pointing out his clients were all rich to begin with. As CEOs, CFOs and accountants find ever more ways to push the limits of the law and ignore the intent of the law, they are cheered on by their peers, the media and investors as long as they turn a profit. In retrospect, the backslapping bewilders these criminals. They felt successful and brilliant.

The crimes are typically unintentional and evolve very slowly. They are made without analysis, rather based on gut feelings. People naturally reinforce existing notions rather than challenge themselves. No shortage of that foolishness in the white-collar criminal world. “… [P]oor managerial intuitions , rather than failed reasoning, can motivate fraudulent behavior.” Furthermore, successful top US executives have little or no push back or evaluation other than profits. They make fast, pressured decisions operating in a bubble. Inertia sets in. These guys exhibit “lack of recognition of the consequences of their actions.”

Corporate culture and business ethics training can help but will not eradicate the crimes. Soltes suggests a censure of indicted businesses recruiting on college campuses. By denying them access to the best and brightest, the companies will self-police. And, herein, lies my only disagreement with Soltes. Why wouldn’t censured businesses just rent hotel conference rooms in Boston when MIT and Harvard host their campus recruiting events? I do agree with Soltes that harsh punishments don’t dissuade these guys. They don’t self-identify as criminals. I don’t know enough about Corporate America to suggest how to introduce checks and balances at the top without over-burdening them with more bureaucracy, but that seems a way to tackle this. Bring in more lawyers!!! OTOH, we can’t really eradicate this type of crime in our culture. Success as rewarded with money is the American Way.

Soltes has a fine, clear-thinking mind. I understood everything except Madoff’s trading. I stay away from reading about the economy, Wall Street and Corporate American cuz I don’t understand the concepts, the argot or the writing. It’s been painful up to now. I also appreciate how he deescalates the criminal action from an emotional to an intellectual realm. It is in essence a problem of bad decision making to be prevented. Soltes synthesizes like a grown up and seems like a nice, decent guy (despite teaching at HBS😊) Magnificent, detailed endnotes. Believe me!

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, informative and interesting, Why They Do It by Eugene Soltes talks about white-collar criminals and why and how they choose to commit white-collar crimes.

Summary: White-collar crimes have been prevalent for the longest time ever, and there have been many related scandals throughout the years. Most of the perpetrators are wealthy people who have everything they need. Here lies the question, then: Why do they do it?

Tropes/Genres:
• non-fiction
• crime
• white-collar crime

Review: This book includes many real cases of white-collar crimes involving different types such as insider trading and insights provided by perpetrators regarding their reasons for committing such crimes. I find them very interesting, and I would say that these cases are compiled very concisely.

This review isn't going to be long because this book is primarily informative, though there are many interesting real stories of white-collar crime in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the many different cases and experiences of committing such crimes by the perpetrators. Admittedly, I found myself feeling sorry for some of them because they didn't even realise what they were doing was wrong. Some of them merely thought about helping their loved ones.

Of course, this doesn't excuse their actions, but it's worth thinking about such situations from different perspectives for better understanding. Institutional crimes can never have the emotional impact of personal crimes, but they may be just as or more reprehensible and injurious to society. However, sometimes, a small slip of judgement can cost them everything.

While some white-collar criminals made the mistake through a moment of erroneous judgement, some of them required a lot of planning. Many try their hardest to look for loopholes in the rules for personal financial gain. One quote that stood out to me was this:

"Perhaps people who committed criminal offences simply weighed the benefits and costs and decided that it was worth the risk."

That made a lot of sense! I mean, why would they choose to commit a crime they know they will face consequences for if they didn't think that they would either not likely get caught or that the benefits outweighed the risk and consequences of getting caught committing the crimes?

This book made many interesting points. One of those that interested me the most was the part about genetics possibly playing a huge part in criminal behaviour. For example, greater levels of testosterone have been hypothesised to lead to more aggressive and egocentric behaviour. There are just so many reasons that may account for white-collar criminal acts, and this author delivered them concisely through cases and interviews with the perpetrators.

Overall, I like how the author has dived into the different reasons one may commit white-collar crimes. I learned a lot about white-collar crime and the reasons surrounding it through this book. It's truly a complex matter that requires a lot of empathy and open-mindedness to understand. I recommend this book to those interested in this topic.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eugene Soltes' book is a much-needed and far-ranging scholarly exploration of white collar offenders' motivations for their behavior, told from first-hand accounts of "Celebrity" offenders like Marc Dreier, Bernie Madoff, and Allan Stanford. There is an absolute vacuum of such studies in the space of sociology and anthropology, and although Soltes is a business professor, this work is largely located in the social science space, although there is a good deal of discussion of business ethics as well. "Why They Do It" feels in some ways like two books--the first "book" is Parts I and II, which essentially lay out the US-specific context of the construction and policing of white collar crime and then goes through criminological theory from 19th century positivism to 20th century rational choice theories and differential association, showing how these theories apply (or don't) to the white collar offender. For those who actually teach Criminology, I think the book would be a fine edition to courses as Criminologial textbooks often completely ignore application to white collar crime. The theory section would have benefitted, though, from a discussion of critical/conflict theory, especially given the subject matter and the applicability of such theory to white collar crime and punishment.

The second "book" is comprised of Part III, which creates a distance from the first "book" and its discussion of criminological theory. It goes in great detail into specific instances of white collar wrongdoing--insider trading, cooking the books, Ponzi schemes, and then gives the offenders the "space" with guiding interjections from Soltes--to express their rationalizations and thought processes. What they reveal has been posited by social scientists in the past--that white collar offenders don't "see" themselves as criminals, that there are (although it's not called this) "techniques of neutralization," and that they often invoke the culpability of a wide range of other individual and systemic forces rather than themselves. Soltes avoids moralizing or psychoanalyzing, and even is empathetic to "gray areas" where the distinction between criminal and non-criminal actions are really semantic or where harm is not clearly delineated. He often points out that "intuition" fails in these cases.

I think this is an important book that can also be adopted for business ethics classes. The question fo "what is to be done, then?" was not answered--and since the book was published before November 2016, the reality it was describing in its introduction of harsher punishments and more regulation is already in our rearview mirror. But I do hope that it is part of a wider movement around scholars to study white collar crime and not just from a theoretical perspective.

[Marcella Wigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes an academic approach to understanding the psychology that underlies white-collar crime, exploring current law enforcement understanding of the motives for white-collar crime, cases across the spectrum, from the seemingly psychologically normal executive who goes too far in information sharing to the seemingly sociopathic. Soltes gives a chilling example of the ease with which Madoff changed the subject from his son's death to dry financial concepts, seemingly untouched by the loss, as a disturbing clear-cut example of someone who felt no compassion from the people he defrauded, but many other white-collar criminals, he argues, may not be all that psychologically aberrant; sometimes they can be leaders who, in social conversation or business strategy, crossed the line into illegality. Given the distinction between profit, business ethics, and law, there is not always a connect between what is legal and what is ethical or makes a lot of money.

There were portions of the book that were slightly dry if you don't enjoy academically oriented prose, but I found the real-world case examples throughout the book very interesting, and the writing is solid. It feels like a relatively objective treatment of white collar criminals and law enforcement and business responses alike.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read to about page 225 (just over 300 total pages) before giving in. I hate not finishing books, however, I feel that the book didn’t explore the mind and psychology of white collar criminals, and those topics were what I was wanting to read about. Very interesting that the title is, “Why they do it, inside the mind of white collar criminals” It would behoove me to finish the book, to see if Soltes ever talks about the criminal psychology, but after 200+ pages of not reading about it, I’m throwing in the towel.

I did like that the book talked about specific instances and cases of white collar cases but I was more curious to read about the “why.”

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eugene Soltes examines the problem of white collar crime--what makes some of the most successful and respected businessmen in the country (and the world, but his focus is mainly on the US) commit financial crimes that destroy their careers and land them in jail. He takes a hard and detailed look at how our views of white collar crime have evolved, as well as why white collar criminals do it.

The most fascinating parts of the book are the profiles of major white collar criminals, and the ways in which they justified their crimes to themselves. What I found a bit hard to swallow is the Enron story, in which the company officers are presented as succumbing to the desire to be clever and successful, with no sense that they were going to be hurting anyone. This would be easier to take if we didn't have audio of Enron traders laughing about "Grandma Millie."

So, please. I think there's a lot of good work here that Sontes has done. I think he does add a lot to our understanding of what lets successful businessmen (and he says that even now it really is almost all men who get caught in this trap) get drawn into white collar crime when they have no need to do it. I don't regret at all any of the time I spent listening to this audiobook, or the money spent on it.

But I'd like to sit down with him for a long chat about some parts of it.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

[V. Prince · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read as assigned, not by choice.

Surface level anecdotes of various famous cases of white collar crimes, copy and pasted Reuters-sourced summaries unneeded if you’ve read the ticker tape over the last couple decades.

Beyond that, 600 pages to say white collar crime is a result of imperfect information and irrationality rather than evil — how steep has the intellectual decline in this country gone?

As a bellwether, i learned ~30% of the graduate students assigned first encountered the trolley problem by reading this.

[EJ]

Read for Forensic Accounting class

[Mariam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert. Distance from potential victim and poorly assessing how they will feel in the future are the bulk of it. Interesting read.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

First. I think this is a great book. I think the ratings may reflect the readability. It is a lot of information and it is a thorough documentation. I think the author really knows the subject matter and made some compelling points, don’t expect to finish this in a weekend though.

[Hbombme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid on exploring the motivation, rich in examples, weak on identifying the enablers

Why do they do it? Soltes builds good evidence with a tremendous number of case studies to answer this tricky question from the motivational perspective, but I think he goes a little easy on the perpetrators and the current system of enablers. I understand why the author avoids the self-righteous tone. After all, the criminals became his pen pals as he worked on this book, and he met quite a few of them in-person. Some relationship-building ended up taking place. Keeping that in mind, the book does not devolve into a full-on apologia of their behavior, but harsh in judgement it is not. Nor is the book deep in acknowledging a whole host of enablers that incent, act slowly, don’t think critically, behave dismissively, and/or at times ignore the crime – that may be a harder subject to broach since those people are perfectly happy with themselves and are not in jail.

Soltes covers the historic background on the rise of white-collar crime as a concept within our justice system. Then he discusses psychological and organizational reasons that may incent corporate executives to cross beyond the grey space of corporate gamesmanship. In short, I think the framework of – Pressure, Opportunity, Rationalization – works quite well to explain a lot of misbehavior in Corporate America. Yet I would argue there is still plenty of work to be done to study the specific traits or pressures that end up leading people in the wrong direction, and talk about the enablers (internal and external to the company).

I think volume two of this work, if the author ever considers pursuing this subject matter further, should involve more interviews with the market participants who deal with these types of executives before their crime becomes official – wall street research analysts, i-bankers, auditors, institutional investors, SEC investigators, short sellers, etc. It may be amazing to see just how much the current system enables corporate crossover onto the dark side. Victims, beneficiaries, and investigators must all have a treatment on this topic.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

As one who has conducted qualitative research, I appreciated the enormous amount of work that went into Soltes' Why They Do It. Undoubtedly hundreds of hours of interviews, and a multiple of that in analysis, not to mention writing and crafting the book itself. All of which has resulted in a worthy read, especially for those who, like myself, are interested in finding ways to help young business professionals become better able to recognize and appropriately handle the ethical dilemmas that come their way.

While I see that an important part of Soltes's message is that people must find ways to build hyper-awareness of ethical dilemmas, it also seems indubitable to me that at some point, people make a choice. Sometimes they make that choice over and over again, getting themselves ever deeper into the morass of unethical decision-making. And for some few (Bernie Madoff, I'm looking at you!), they are purely and simply sociopaths, and will never care about the ethics of any situation the way most people do.

Two big takeaways that I continually try to convey to my students are the importance of (1) regular and deliberate reflection and (2) a sounding board - a spouse, an attorney, a colleague, mentor, or friend. Reflection gives you the time and mechanism to engage in deliberate thinking about the situations, decisions, and challenges one faces in the workplace. Done regularly (daily?) and sincerely, reflection will inevitably raise awareness of ethical dilemmas, and provide a way of systematically thinking them through, rather than just reacting instinctively. And the practice of using a sounding board, one who will be honest and even confrontational with you (if necessary) will lead you to face up to ethical dilemmas that might otherwise be missed or ignored.

I will use the findings, and perhaps even more importantly, the stories and examples found in this book as I teach my business students. Hopefully, it will lead many of them to consider carefully when the time comes (as it does for each of us) to navigate an ethical dilemma.

[Judy Monchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
Flash: The only regret expressed in Why they Do It: Inside the Minds of White-Collar Criminals is that they got caught. This isn’t surprising: CEOs, CFOs and leaders are praised and handsomely rewarded for finding ways to bolster profits, avoid taxes and pump up quarterly results. After all, this is finding a solution to a problem that's not considered one --- until someone's caught doing something illegal.

Harvard Business prof Eugene Soltes provides the history of white-collar crime and interviewed Wall Street executives, including Bernie Madoff, whose decisions led to investment losses worth tens of millions of dollars.
Admissions of guilt were hard to find.
Virtually all believed that given enough time, they could fix things or even that their victims had benefitted through in the process. Research has found that business ethics classes aren’t much help in blocking/reducing white-collar criminal behaviour because decisions made alone by those in C suites are too often beyond reproach: no one second-guesses them. Or questions the ethics of their actions. Rarely if ever do they have to face someone who suffers from their deception.
Chief financial officer Andrew Fastow served five years in prison for conspiring to mislead shareholders about Enron’s true financial position summed it up this way: “We were finding ways to get around the rules but going through a complex process to find the loopholes to allow us to do it… I cheated fair and square.”
Interesting.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good grief this was boring. Not so much the mind of the criminal as the mind of the corporate officer who has no morals and not a lot of remorse.
The writing had little structural interest - basically ever paragraph started with a sentence that told you what was happening, and the next 3-4 sentences repeated it. In the back half of the book I found myself skimming just the first sentences for a few pages to move it along. Repetitive and unimaginative.

I feel badly for the author’s students who take his class at HBS.

[Lori Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eugene Soltes presents innovative views about why white collar criminals commit their crimes. The first part of the book lays some necessary groundwork, including criminal justice theories and history. Then it gets increasingly interesting as he relates those theories to the extensive interviews he conducted of white collar criminals. Any business executive, accountant, corporate lawyer, regulator, or prosecutor can learn something useful from this book.

[Laura Carpenter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this on audio-book and did not enjoy the voice of the narrator. So that may have negatively biased my review.

In general, I found this to be a pretty boring book that did not provide a ton of actionable takeaways. It seemed to attempt to justify the behavior of many white collar criminals by humanizing these men (and yes, they are all men) through personal narratives.

[Jordan McPeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew business ethics could be such a great read. It comes down to a book of how people convince themselves something bad is okay. Of course, that's applicable in far more parts of life than business or management.

It starts off with a brief history of the concept of white collar crime, mostly by looking at related theories from psychology and criminology, some legal and philosophical facets, too. Fascinating to see how it moved from being perfectly acceptable to an actual crime, at least in theory, at least in some cases.

A good chunk of the book is drawn from his extensive conversations with convicted white collar criminals, many famous ones (e.g. Enron, Madoff, Tyco). This is where grey enters the picture and makes things real interesting. Most didn't think they were doing anything criminal at the time of their crimes. Some still didn't think so after conviction. Most of the stories had some variation of how some creative interpretation or definition or workaround was the base of the crime. Some were very closely related to perfectly acceptable and legal schemes. So it's easy to see how decisions were made with an eye on other considerations (e.g. stock price, earnings projections) over something else so complex and clever it sounded legal. Especially when some of these guys (yes, mostly guys) were winning awards and being lauded for their innovation and success.

Soltes doesn't spend a lot of time on solutions. But he does bring out the idea of dissonance being important, and giving up gut reaction decisions for more deliberative thinking. To this end, executives need to encourage contrary thought, both structurally and individually. There is enormous value in healthy debate within organizations.

A few quibbles with the book. First, he leaves the impression white collar crime is vigorously pursued and prosecuted. Not really. But that's not the focus of the book so I can't really fault him for it. Something like The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives by Jesse Eisinger is better for that part of the story.

Second, and this isn't really a quibble, this isn't a true crime book. Yes, in relating the thinking of the executives some context about their frauds is necessary. But these aren't the full stories of any. Most are subject of their own books where one can find fuller stories. Again, not the focus, so not a fault so much. Just don't go in expecting more.

I heard about the book because Soltes was part of a documentary called Collared that I watched as part of annual continuing professional development requirements for my chartered professional accountant designation. It's also a very good thought-provoking film, especially if you can get access to the CPD version that has extended interviews.

So many interesting cases, so much grey - it leaves so much to think about. This would be a great book to discuss in a class.

Audiobook performer did a great job.

[Pablo Cañadas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even a good person can lose their way - Eugene Soltes

This book was recommended to me by a Risk & Fraud professor during my MBA. I really like that class because it taught that everyone is good inside their own minds, and we usually don't realize how gray those white decisions we make are. During this class I learned an alarming statistic: 40% of people would never commit fraud, 30% of people would commit fraud if in the presence of a fraud triangle (opportunity, necessity and justification), and 30% of people are actively looking for ways to commit fraud.

"Why they do it" is a hard read, since Eugene is not trying to sell anything but hard data on the mind of white-collar criminals, so in his neutrality of speech, he might lose the uninterested reader to boredom. However, stories and interviews with famous white-collar criminals are very interesting. Split-second decisions, victimless crimes and every-day policies happen to be the reason behind a great company shambling down in days. He gives really good examples of similar companies with the same dilemma, and how one solution leads to fraud, and the other one to a common business practice.

I believe it is a great read for people interested in legal & compliance, and even though not everyone will want to read it, it is also a good book for any manager in position of power.

Here are some good quotes from the book I believe are worth remembering:

- Managers often do confront judgments that must be made in the penumbra of gray
- We too might err
- Absence of self-control causes all crimes except those that it does not cause
- The answer comes down to separating correlation from causation
- Harm arises when individuals purchase products that they would otherwise not buy if they were more accurately informed about the quality of the products.
- Even a good person can lose their way

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book piqued my interest as a practitioner in the white-collar crime space, and I found Soltes’s analysis fairly interesting. He begins the book by tracing the history of what we now call white-collar crime and how public perceptions and norms about business crimes have evolved over the past century. He then provides an interesting review of the psychology of how people make decisions - and specifically, how they decide to take actions that violate the law in a corporate setting (spoiler alert - the story is much more nuanced than “they’re just greedy.”) He then animates the principles covered in the earlier sections with recent case studies from his discussions with convicted criminals. I found the historical and psychological pieces very interesting, and the case studies were cool (who doesn’t want to hear Madoff’s side of the story?) but my biggest critique is probably that the different pieces of the book didn’t fully fit seamlessly together. I thought the lessons learned and recommendations in the conclusion were a really helpful capstone that provides useful guidance to practitioners and compliance professionals, though. Not sure how much a general reader would enjoy it but I found it insightful for purposes of my practice.

[Kylewelch · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking at the title of this book and were interested enough to actually look at reviews, you are likely the type of person that would love this book. The book is incredibly well written and moreover, well researched. After reading it, you will be surprised with the knowledge you walk away with from such an entertaining read.

I have found prior efforts in this literature to offer knee-jerk platitudes as the causal mechanisms in these crimes, providing the most obvious and uninsightful observations. Most books and articles read like a child storybook plot when relating these stories.

Eugene Soltes has done something unique with this book. Its unique approach becomes evident when you review the references and footnotes. This is not only the most comprehensive study on white-collar crime; but a thoughtful weaving of how it relates to multiple academic disciplines. This book is obviously a labor of love for Eugene Soltes--that is the only way to explain how well this book and ideas have been put together.

Looking forward to seeing what he does next.

[L.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why They Do It was a fascinating read. I especially liked when the author interviewed convicted criminals about why they made the decisions they did and how they justified those decisions to themselves. It also was an interesting look into the white collar crimes that have happened in America. There was a lot more that I wished was in the book, and I don’t always think that the author was accurate in his assessment on the motivations for some of the convicted criminals (he seemed to give quite a few convicted criminals the benefit of the doubt when it came to them making bad mistakes which lead to their crimes), but overall I found this book extremely interesting and great learning tool.

Overall Rating: 4.25 Stars. The writing was good and made it easy to read the book. I liked the case studies he presented, but I think he didn’t quite get to the true heart of why people commit white collar crimes. All in all, I recommend this book.

[Henrique Soarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrongdoing comes after 3 factor line up:
1. A need
2. An opportunity
3. An excuse

It happens mostly "without thinking" and starts small

The text made me think of how much the critical reflexion that sometimes goes on during a church sermon or when one reads the Bible can help stave off the arrogance that will/would eventually fell many.

Sometimes the author seems to fail understanding orders of magnitude (when he compares faults of grotesquely different dimensions and calls them similar) and sometimes he seems to lack a good understanding of the mind of the businessman.

The text is profoundly lucrative because of the many stories it tells.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good blend of true situations and studies, Soltes does a thorough job of trying to answer the question presented in the title. Even after getting caught and sent to prison, it's astounding that most of those who got busted are still in denial that they did anything wrong. But as presented throughout the book, when ambition, achievement, and outcome are your goals and your guiding principles, then anything done that accommodates them and achieves them is merely a means to an end. When one abandons the reality of True Truth, truth that transcends whatever we want to justify, then "means to an end" is a perfectly acceptable moral standard.

[Leanne Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greed and profits are the biggest incentives in business. Good detail on how out-of-touch smart guys get caught up in the cycle of success. They so minimize their role and deflect all blame (ex. "everyone else is doing it..."). They have no accountability or connection to their workers. They are in complete silo echo chambers of ego, not engaging in deliberative reason. Disturbing how so many brilliant minds want to "game" the system with complicated financial maneuvers to hide losses and profits to avoid taxes to make the rest of us make do with less.

How much is enough? Sickening...

[Willis Tripp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why They Do It is included in the Forensic Accounting course curriculum, where I serve as a graduate assistant. I audiobooked it to gain a better understanding of the class and to hopefully prepare me for my career. While dry at times, I learned a great deal about White Collar Crime, including many real-world examples as well as biological and circumstantial predispositions that make people more likely to commit these crimes. My biggest takeaways are having a greater level of empathy for offenders and an understanding of steps to take to better mitigate these crimes in the future.

[Uzima Espoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why They Do It" by Eugene Soltes is a thought-provoking read that delves into the realm of business ethics, particularly regarding white-collar crimes. This book effectively challenges our preconceived notions and offers a nuanced perspective on individuals involved in such offenses. It compels readers to reconsider the black-and-white societal lens through which we often perceive these actions. Overall, it is a captivating and enlightening book.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a BIG book. There is so much good information here about the psychology of the people who perpetuate white collar crimes, the business world both past and present, the difficulties in examining corporate wrongdoing, and discussion for how to make white collar crime less pervasive.

Excellent.