CMY2602
EXAM
1. Employment theft occurs when an employee steals something that belongs to their
employer. Employee theft can take place in many ways this can be seen when money is
stolen from the cash register, time is stolen by taking untheorized lunch breaks, stealing
office supplies such as pens and paper, stealing merchandize or stock that the employer
sells such as clothing and food as well as stealing company information such as client
details.
It can be noted that in criminological research it was revealed that there are three factors
that contribute to an employee partaking in theft or fraud, these factors are financial
factors such as loans and credit card debt , opportunity such as no ethical morals and
values , and the employee’s ability to rationalise the theft or fraud. Another reason is that
the employee is simply just dissatisfied at work due to low wages, long hours or poor
working conditions due to the fact that when an employee’s dissatisfactions have
increased, they are more likely to steal from their employer. Thus, it can be noted that
employees may be driven to steal and commit fraud if they can justify their behaviour
and actions.
According to Fischer and Green (1992:368) the following employee theft motivations
occur due to the employee seeking revenge due to something the employer may have
done, inadequate remuneration can take place when the employee feels like they are
not being paid enough for their skills , self-enrichment can happen in the form of stealing
valuable items in order to get rich quick and assistance to others in the form of stealing
to give to the poor.
Lydon (in Smit 1990:182), believes that employees commit such cries due to awareness
of other employees stealing from the employer, personal financial difficulty, the
remoteness of being caught, and the belief that if they are caught they will not be
prosecuted or punished. Joubert, Maree and Hesselink-Louw (2005:96) support this
claim due to the fact that they have noted that employee theft occurs due to economic
pressure, demographic aspects, opportunity, dissatisfactions, attitudes towards theft and
instability.
Vandalism has many forms with the most common form being damage to property.
Individuals have different motives when it comes to vandalizing and it is often seen as
negative behaviour. There are many different causes of vandalism such as the search
, for adventure, excitement and identity. This can be seen by youth who often feel no
sense of identity, boredom and are unemployed. They partake in vandalism as a form of
expression, this can be seen in colourful graffiti murals on buildings as well as pranks
resulting in some sort of property damage such as throwing eggs at private property
such as houses. Partaking in these acts give these vandals a creative outlet and form a
sense of adventure that the individual may have been lacking. Another cause of
vandalism is neighbourhood characteristics, this occurs when a member of a community
feels frustrated regarding public property. An example that portrays this would be a new
stop sign that has been put in place in order to combat speeding, members of the
community are outraged by this new sign due to the fact that is causes traffic build up
during the mornings and late afternoons,