Sophia Voravong has a good and lengthy article in today’s Lafayette Journal & Courier on embezzlement cases in Tippecanoe County. Special attention was paid to embezzlement from small, non-profit type organizations. The psychology of the embezzler stood out to me:
Although greed is a possible factor, people who steal from nonprofit organizations and small businesses typically begin doing so out of perceived necessity — for example, outstanding medical bills or rising credit card balances, according to Tony Greig, a continuing term lecturer in the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.
“They say they’re just going to borrow a small amount and pay it back,” said Greig, who teaches a class on forensic accounting. “They do that a couple of times and realize, ‘No one’s seen anything, so why pay it back?’
. . .
“In many cases, they rationalize that, ‘I’m a volunteer for a club. I’m doing work that it may cost others to do.’ They feel they’re entitled.“They have to come up with some sort of rationalization because people have to live with themselves.”
I think I’ve mentioned the creative writing teacher who gave us a nugget of wisdom for writing about people who do bad things to the effect that everybody is the protagonist and basically a good guy in their own internal narrative. I suspect that goes a long way toward understanding the psychology of these people. Or, you know, Guns ‘N Roses sing about Mr. Brownstone, “I used to do a little but the little wouldn’t do it, so the little got more and more.”
Until prosecutors better monitor restitution orders on suspended sentence cases, very little will be repaid, even if it was a modest amount that was stolen. Would you hire the thief, who received a suspended sentence
to be in a position to attempt to make restitution payments, to work for your business?
Crimes of dishonesty are probably tougher to recover from, employment-wise, than drug crimes or even some minor violent crimes.