Examining the Research Gap in White-Collar Crime Studies in Nigerian Corporate Organisations

White-collar crime in Nigerian corporate organisations encompasses a wide range of offences from financial statement fraud and contract manipulation to procurement corruption and insider trading, yet systematic criminological research on these offences using organisational-level analysis remains extremely limited. This study examined the research gap in white-collar crime studies within Nigerian corporate contexts through systematic literature review and gap analysis. A scoping review of eleven databases identified 47 publications from 2015 to 2024 addressing white-collar crime in Nigeria, of which only 12 employed primary data collection at the corporate organisational level and only 8 applied recognised white-collar crime theoretical frameworks (Sutherland's theory, differential association, or routine activity theory). Geographic coverage was heavily concentrated in financial sector studies (74.5 percent of publications), with manufacturing, extractive industry, and healthcare corporate crime almost entirely absent. Methodological analysis showed overdependence on survey self-report methods with inadequate verification triangulation. Four specific research gaps were identified as critically unaddressed: the internal social dynamics enabling corporate crime normalisation, non-prosecuted corporate crime (the dark figure), gender dimensions of white-collar crime perpetration in Nigerian corporations, and the criminogenic role of regulatory capture. The study proposes a priority research agenda and recommends EFCC-university collaborative research programmes to generate corporate crime primary data beyond what is accessible through public prosecution records.

Keywords: white-collar crime, corporate crime, Nigeria, research gap, organisational criminology