Toward Specifying a Spectrum-Based Theory of Enterprise

Abstract

This article builds upon the illuminating thinking of Dwight Smith (1980) to proffer aframeworkfor understanding criminal enterprise. For too long social scientists, law enforcement officers, and laymen have viewed crime as distinctly separate from business. This, and corollary compartmentalizations, have led to misunderstandings about criminal activities which in turn have hampered law enforcement efforts. Indeed simplistic beliefs about crime have blinded many even to the need to investigate certain types of crimes committed by business.