There is an old saying that says that 'opportunity makes thieves'.  But there is  also a research paper entitled 'Opportunity makes the Thief: Practical Theory of Crime Prevention (1998)' that provides evidence supporting this common observation. The paper argues that  opportunity is a “root cause” of crime. This therefore also applies to the behaviour of corporations.

 

The Causal Loop Diagram on the left indicates that the number of crimes will  increase rapidly as the opportunities to commit them increases.  This suggests that the introduction of a negative feedback loop aimed at diminishing  opportunities for committing crimes is an appropriate measure to improve the situation. A number of remedial mesures  tailored to specific situations are contained in the report. A generally effective means must be the use of law and regulations that were also mentioned in the report.