Female White Color Criminals in the Upstate

I am amazed at the number of news reports of white collar crimes in the Upstate, committed by women. It seems that every few weeks there is another story in the news. In fact, since January of this year, the following reports have appeared in The Greenville News:

• A 31 year old Simpsonville woman has pleaded guilty to breach of trust by taking $539,000 from the company where she worked for 10 years.
• A 45 year old Greenville woman has been sentenced for embezzlement from the retirement pension fund at a family-owned Seneca business, resulting in a loss of $1.2 million by the pension fund for employees.
• A 50-year-old Simpsonville woman pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling more than $96,000 in public funds from a magistrate judge's office where she worked.
• A 52-year-old Greenville woman drew a 12-year prison term for defrauding Bank of America of $75,000.
• A 48 year old woman who was the former treasurer of a Greer homeowners' association, accused of stealing more than $89,000, pleaded guilty Monday to breach of trust.
• A 47 year old Greenville woman was arrested and charged with stealing approximately $2.9 million from her employer.

I am at a loss as to why there seems to be such a large number of these crimes being committed. Especially by women. This is not an expensive area in which to live. One can purchase a single-family home in a good school district for $150,000. Gas is some of the cheapest in the nation. (Today I paid $2.13.) Lots of businesses are coming to the region, resulting in lots of new jobs.

I also wonder what these women are doing with these large amounts of money! Perhaps with the lower amounts, one could pay off their mortgage or buy a fancy car. But half a million dollars? $1.2 million? $2.9 million? Where in the world is all of it going?

Interestingly, I saw no reports of males committing such crimes in the same period of time. Is it that this is a female phenomenon around here, or is it just a case of what makes the news? You know, the beautiful missing girls get national news exposure, but the average girls barely make it to the crime-summary column on the 4th page of the 2nd section of the paper.

As someone who earned their Bachelor's Degree in Criminology, I am fascinated by all this. It would make a really interesting research study. Unfortunately between a husband, raising 2 kids, keeping a house, and numerous volunteer activities, I think it will be quite a while before I have the opportunity!