women’s apparel retailer in New York City.
| Theft was predicted by conscientiousness and agreeableness. | Alalehto, Tage (Alalehto, ) | 2003 | 128 businessmen in Sweden acted as informants about personality of 55 close friends/colleagues known to be ‘non-law-abiding’ (whether or not convicted). | | Identified three WCC personality types: the ‘positive extrovert’ (socially competent, manipulative and egocentric), the ‘disagreeable businessman’ (bitter, inflexible, aggressive and contemptuous towards colleagues) and the ‘neurotic’ (insecure, sloppy and anxious). |
Blickle, Gerhard, Alexander Schlegel, Pantaleon Fassbender, and Uwe Klein (Blickle et al., ) | 2006 | 76 male prison inmates from 14 correctional institutions in Germany, convicted of high-level WCC, compared to 150 managers working in German corporations. | scale | Low behavioural self-control, high hedonism and high narcissism predicted WCC. Unlike Collins and Schmidt, they found high conscientiousness after controlling for social desirability. They characterised the WCO as a ‘rationally calculating business person’ with low integrity and high conscientiousness. |
Ribeiro, Rita, Inês Sousa Guedes, and José Cruz (Ribeiro et al., ) | 2019 | 74 male inmates convicted of WCC in Portuguese prisons, compared to 63 inmates convicted of violent crimes. | | They found higher levels of ‘openness to experience’ (with low levels of internal consistency), no difference in levels of self-control between WCOs and violent offenders. |
Nee, Button, Shepherd, Blackburn, and Leal (Nee et al., ) | 2019 | 17 WCOs, ‘in the field’, all sanctioned for ‘occupational corruption’-related offences | Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised (EPQ–R) | The subjects were found to be gregarious, outgoing, agreeable, emotionally controlled and possessing an ability to lie and manipulate. They were described as ‘personable liars’. |
Note: WCC = white-collar crime; WCO = white-collar offender; DSM–III = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Third Edition.
Studies of personality and WCC in non-offender samples.
Authors | Year | Sample | Measures | Results |
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Leeper Piquero, Nicole, Lyn Exum, and Sally Simpson (Piquero et al., ) | 2005 | 13 business executives and 33 MBA students. | | Identified ‘desire-for-control’ as being associated with willingness to break the law. |
Turner, Michael (Turner, ) | 2014 | 357 undergraduate accounting students in Australia. | | Individuals scoring lower in agreeableness and conscientiousness had self-reported higher propensity to commit WCC. |
Schoepfer, Andrea, Nicole Leeper Piquero, and Lynn Langton (Schoepfer et al., ) | 2014 | Sample of 391 criminal justice students. | | Desire-for-control significantly predicted intentions to offend in participants with low self-control for embezzlement; was significant under both low and high levels of self-control for shredding incriminating documents; and not significant for shoplifting. |
Craig, Jessica Maeve (Craig, ) | 2015 | 298 undergraduate criminology students. | | Respondents with lower self-control reported more intentions to offend. Amongst those with high self-control, higher desire-for-control was protective for offending. |
Craig, Jessica M., and Nicole Leeper Piquero (Craig & Piquero, ) | 2017 | 298 undergraduate university students. | | Association between unsocialised sensation-seeking and intentions to engage in shoplifting, embezzlement, and credit card fraud. |
De Vries, Reinout E., Raghuvar D. Pathak, Jean-Louis Van Gelder, and Gurmeet Singh (De Vries et al., ) | 2017 | 235 working adults in Fiji and the Marshall Islands. | | Association between lower honesty and humility ratings and willingness to make unethical business decisions. |
Note: WCC = white-collar crime; BFI = the Big Five Inventory; HEXACO -PI -R = The HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised.
Typologies of WCOs.
Authors | Year | Sample the typology is based on | Typology |
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Weisburd, David, Elin Waring, and Ellen Chayet (Weisburd et al., ) | 2001 | Subset of the Yale Studies sample; 968 WCC cases processed in seven federal judicial districts during 1976–1978. | The authors identified three groups; the first and largest group comprised low-frequency offenders (subdivided into ‘crisis responders’ who engage in crime in response to a perceived crisis, and ‘opportunity takers’ who respond to unusual sets of opportunities for WCC). The second was a group of intermittent offenders, ‘opportunity seekers’, who live stable lives with long spells of nonoffending and seek out opportunities to commit crime, and the third group was persistent offenders or ‘stereotypical criminals’. |
Kapardis, Andreas, and Maria Krambia-Kapardis (M. K. Kapardis, ; A. Kapardis & Krambia-Kapardis, ) | 2004 | 50 major fraud cases investigated and prosecuted by the Major Fraud Group (MFG) of the Victoria police. | 12-type taxonomy of serious fraud offenders, based on offending pattern and motivation: (1) predator/career fraud offender (16%); (2) opportunist first offender in professional occupation (24%); (3) fraud under an assumed professional identity (2%); (4) isolated fraud as response to unshareable financial pressure on the family (4%); (5) serial fraud as response to unshareable financial pressure on the family (10%); (6) fraud as personal justice (2%); (7) isolated fraud as response to unshareable financial pressure on oneself (4%); (8) serial fraud to solve a financial problem of a personal nature (8%); (9) serial fraud due to a vice (6%); (10) isolated fraud to restore social identity (2%); (11) serial fraud by an unscrupulous deceiver (14%); and (12) serial fraud to assist loved ones with a financial problem (8%). |
Bucy, Pamela, Elizabeth Formby, Marc Raspanti, and Kathryn Rooney (Bucy et al., ) | 2008 | Semi-structured interviews with 45 WCC ‘experts’, including federal prosecutors, whistleblowers’ counsel and private defence lawyers specialising in WCC. | Most experts agreed that WCOs can be divided into ‘leaders’ (‘Type A’ personalities; intelligent, arrogant, cunning, prone to risk-taking, greedy, narcissistic, determined and charismatic), and ‘followers’ (less confident and aggressive, gullible, passive and naïve, and much more susceptible to deterrence). Some suggested additional categories such as those who retaliate by becoming whistleblowers or who are genuinely unaware of violating the law. |
Van Onna, Joost H. R., Victor R. Van Der Geest, Wim Huisman, and Adriaan JM Denkers (Van Onna et al., ) | 2014 | 644 prosecuted white-collar offenders in the Netherlands | The authors identified four trajectories of WCOs from their sample: 1. The ‘stereotypical’ white-collar offenders (38.9%) who show no criminal offending in adolescence and early adulthood, start offending in their mid-30s and peak at age 50; 2. ‘adult onset’ (39.3%) whose offending starts in early adulthood and steadily increases until it peaks at the age of 40; 3. ‘adult persisters’ (17.8%) who start offending in adolescence and continue to increase offending until they peak at age 40; and 4. ‘stereotypical criminals’ (4%) who start their criminal careers in adolescence at a high rate, peak at age 31 and then sharply decline. |
Note: WCC = white-collar crime; WCO = white-collar offender.
Psychopathy
The link between psychopathy and workplace malfeasance has been another area of interest (Babiak et al., 2007 ; Boddy, 2015 ; Cleckley, 1976 ), although some have argued that ‘psychopathy can be safely ignored in the attempt to predict white-collar crime’ (Blickle et al., 2006 , p. 223). Higher rates of psychopathy have been found at senior levels of organisations, between 4% and 20% (Boddy, 2015 ; Fritzon et al., 2016 ; Howe et al., 2014 ), the so-called ‘successful psychopath’ (Howe et al., 2014 ), ‘corporate psychopath’ (Fritzon et al., 2020 ) or ‘snakes in suits’ (Babiak et al., 2007 ). Associations between psychopathic traits and attitudes supportive of WCC have been found in undergraduate students (Ray & Jones, 2011 ) and online surveys (Lingnau et al., 2017 ). However, a direct link between psychopathic traits and WCC has yet to be empirically established, and remains theoretical (Perri, 2011 ). It has been suggested that ‘corporate’/‘successful’ psychopathy may be associated with Factor 1 psychopathy (Hare et al., 1990 ; including interpersonal manipulation and callous affect), but not with Factor 2 psychopathy (erratic lifestyle and anti-social tendencies; Boddy, 2011 ; Lingnau et al., 2017 ). One possibility is that corporate psychopaths engage in misconduct that does not violate criminal law, but still causes widespread harm (Boddy, 2011 ; Passas, 2005 ). Overall, this area remains under-researched (Boddy, 2015 ).
The link with violent offending
Although WCC is conceptualised as non-violent, recent research has suggested a subtype of violent WCOs, so-called ‘red collar’ criminals (Brody & Kiehl, 2010 ; Friedrichs, 2009 ). Perri and Lichetenwald ( 2007 , 2008 ) suggested that WCOs may commit instrumental homicide/attempted homicide to conceal their crime, including ‘murder-for-hire’ cases. Perri gives 28 examples of ‘red collar’ homicide cases (Perri, 2015 ) and an additional nine attempted-homicide cases. He raises the role of narcissism and psychopathy in these ‘red collar’ criminals (Perri, 2011 , 2015 ), although this has subsequently been challenged (Alalehto & Azarian, 2018 ).
The intersection between organised crime and WCC (Edwards & Gill, 2002 ; Kleemans & Van de Bunt, 2008 ) is fuzzy (Huisman, 2019 ; Naylor, 2017 ) and another area where violence occurs (Kendall, 2010 ). Organised crime groups may require the skills of WCOs, such as money laundering (Huisman, 2019 ), and the revenues of organised crime often cannot be separated from those of WCC by investigators (Ruggiero, 2017 ). Further, WCO offending can result in physical injury and death through criminal corporate negligence (Cohen, 2016 ; Croall, 2016 ). As highlighted above, studies have found that a quarter of WCOs commit violent offences that may be unrelated to WCC (Van Onna et al., 2014 ). So, overall, we should not assume that WCOs are non-violent (Perri & Brody, 2011 ).
The heterogeneity of WCOs
WCCs include a range of offences. For example, the offences included in the studies of Wheeler et al. ( 1987 ) included antitrust offences, securities fraud, mail fraud, false claims, bribery, income tax fraud, lending and credit fraud, and bank embezzlement. Considering offenders who commit these offences as one group may obscure characteristics of those who commit particular types of WCCs. For example, antitrust offenders have been found to be quite different in terms of demographics and offending histories from mail and wire fraud offenders, with the latter group similar to non-WCOs (Weisburd et al., 2001 ). So, it may not be that some WCOs of any type overlap with non-WCOs, but that certain groups of WCOs overlap with non-WCOs.
The WCO in the legal system
Only a small percentage of identified WCCs are prosecuted by the criminal justice system (Friedrichs, 2009 ; Gottschalk, 2021 ). Many investigations are done internally or privately by law firms or fraud examiners; reports are never made public and/or subject to attorney–client privilege (Gottschalk, 2017 ). Several factors deter prosecutors from pursuing white-collar cases (Benson & Cullen, 1998 ); prosecution of WCC is time and resource heavy, and more likely to take place in an administrative or civil capacity than in a criminal court (Marriott, 2018 ). Those cases that do reach the criminal justice system have a high probability of a guilty plea to avoid an expensive trial (Weidenfeld & Spire, 2017 ).
Braithwaite ( 1982 ) argued that a ‘just’ system would result in WCOs making up the majority of the prison population, noting that ‘just desserts for the powerless, and comparative lenience for the powerful, is not just desserts at all’ (p. 761). The Yale Studies found that WCOs were treated favourably during the presentence stages, as prosecutors engage in negotiations with defence attorneys (Mann, 1985 ; Wheeler & Rothman, 1982 ), although more recent research has suggested that this may be changing (Galvin & Simpson, 2019 ). Some advocate for WCOs ‘voluntarily’ repaying their victims, in favour of custodial sentences. This has led to concerns that WCOs can ‘buy their way’ out of prison, although others have argued that voluntary restitution provides the best outcome for victims (Faichney, 2014 ).
Watkins ( 1977 ) noted that juries are reluctant to convict WCOs, even when the law has been clearly violated. Jurors are influenced by underlying racial assumptions; mock jurors are more lenient on black WCOs than white ones, although black conventional offenders are punished more harshly (Gordon, 1990 ; Gordon et al., 1988 ). Although female offenders generally receive lighter sentences than males (Van Slyke & Bales, 2013 ), in some cases the reverse may be true (Etgar et al., 2019 ). Cox et al. ( 2016 ) found juries more likely to recommend harsher sentences for WCOs perceived as remorseless and lacking empathy. Filone et al. ( 2014 ) found that a personality disorder diagnosis was less influential on mock jurors’ sentencing decisions than for violent crime.
Despite recent legislative changes aimed to increase penalties for WCC, lower court judges have been found to make significant ‘downwards departures’ from sentencing guidelines (Ford, 2008 ). Wheeler et al. ( 1988 ) interviewed 51 federal judges in the USA, and found a general belief that WCOs do not reoffend, getting caught is sufficient deterrent, WCOs have ‘more to lose’, and more weight is given to the impact on dependents. These attitudes, in combination with judges’ greater empathy with offenders with similar backgrounds and lifestyles, may lead to the observed disparity in sentencing outcomes.
Considering the sanctioning of WCOs, outcomes may be affected by indirect impacts other than conviction and punishment, such as media coverage, loss of status and opportunity to work in particular areas (Button et al., 2018 ). These may contribute to subsequent mental health problems.
Experiences in prison
A commonly-held belief is that WCOs are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of incarceration, referred to as the ‘ special sensitivity hypothesis ’ (Hunter, 2019 ; Logan et al., 2019 ; Stadler et al., 2013 ). Advocates of this position suggest that prison is particularly shocking for WCOs, and they will have greater difficulty adapting to prison life than street-level offenders (Payne, 2003 ; Pollack & Smith, 1983 ; Wheeler et al., 1988 ). Payne ( 2003 ) described the “six Ds” of white-collar incarceration: depression, danger, deviance, denial, deprivation and doldrums. Entry into prison is a common feature of autobiographical writing by WCOs (Hunter, 2019 ), which involves ‘status degradation ceremonies’ (Garfinkel, 1956 ; Watkins, 1977 ).
However, despite this presumed vulnerability, until recently there have been no empirical studies. WCOs are almost always sent to minimum security prisons (Friedrichs, 2009 ). Stadler et al. ( 2013 ) reviewed data gathered on 78 WCOs, including offender interviews, administrative records and prison-staff observations. They found that WCOs were less likely to experience general difficulties in prison than the non-WCO group, were more likely to make friends and were no more likely to have concerns for their personal safety, trouble sleeping or problems with current or former cellmates. Crank and Payne ( 2015 ) compared 116 incarcerated WCOs to 6510 other inmates, and found WCOs were no more likely to have mental health interventions and were less likely to receive psychiatric medications than violent inmates. Logan et al. ( 2019 ) used survey data to compare WCOs (using two definitions, one offence based, N = 932, and one socioeconomic status based, N = 132) to non-WCOs. They found no statistically significant differences for either white-collar group in self-reported negative affect or mental health treatment in prison, and socioeconomic status (SES) WCOs were significantly less likely to report feeling hopeless. They suggested that these findings provided support for the ‘ special resiliency hypothesis ’; WCOs have better emotional regulation, avoid confrontation and can ingratiate themselves to prison-staff and other inmates. Button et al. ( 2018 ) found some positive prison experiences, including helping others, improving health/fitness and new friendships. It is likely that WCOs cope with prison better because they are generally older, better off financially and have more stable relationships and social circumstances than other offenders.
Convicted WCOs in the community
Home detention is increasingly used for WCOs (Friedrichs, 2009 ). However, community supervision is seen by most probation officers as ‘going through the motions’ (Benson, 1985 ). Convicted WCOs tend to reject a criminal identity (Hunter, 2019 ). Mason ( 2007 ) interviewed 35 WCOs and found they viewed supervision as ‘demeaning and demoralising paperwork’. Murphy and Harris ( 2007 ) used survey data from 652 tax avoiders, and found that those who perceived their treatment as less stigmatising were less recidivist.
Convicted WCOs have better odds of regaining stable employment than street-level offenders, although multiple prior arrests and incarceration before age 24 decreases those odds (Kerley & Copes, 2004 ). Benson ( 1984 ) found that professionals and licensed occupations (such as medicine and law) and those employed in the public sector were much more likely to lose occupational status after a conviction than those in private business. Button et al. ( 2018 ) interviewed 17 convicted WCOs in the UK post release, and found that this period may prove to be more challenging than prison itself, with 41% accessing mental health treatment, and three WCOs requiring psychiatric admission.
Despite a general perception that WCOs are unlikely to reoffend, a significant proportion commit further crimes after conviction, with similar recidivism rates to those of robbery and firearm offenders (Perri, 2011 ). A total of 683 forgers, compared with burglars and car thieves over a 14-year period, had higher rates of parole violations and revocation (McCall & Grogan, 1974 ). The Yale sample had an overall recidivism rate of 29%, with no difference between those who were incarcerated and those who were not (Weisburd et al., 1995 ). Listwan and colleagues (Listwan et al., 2010 ) followed 64 convicted WCOs over 10–12 years, and found that 53% were arrested at least once, with ‘neurotic-type’ personality (using the Jesness Inventory) as a significant risk factor for reoffending. Harbinson et al. ( 2019 ), using data on 31,306 white-collar offenders under supervision, found that 7.8% had their supervision revoked (re-arrest data were not available); of the 2.2% classified as high risk on the Federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (a measure not specific to WCC), the reoffending rate was around half. Goulette ( 2020 ) suggested that gender may play a role in recidivism risk, as women score lower on general risk assessment tools. However, it is unclear whether general risk assessment tools are valid in the assessment of WCOs and whether psychiatric factors are risk factors for recidivism.
In summary, the reasons for white-collar recidivism are not well understood, and risk factors have not been studied separately from factors common to all crime. Convicted WCOs (who represent a small and arguably atypical proportion of WCOs) may need higher post-release support than they receive, to prevent reoffending and improve their well-being and successful re-integration into society, an area where high-quality mental health support could play a significant role. There may be risk factors beyond the common factors for criminal/violent reoffending that are relevant to WCC, such as anxiety-related disorders, cognitions related to offending including self-identity and neutralisation, a history of non-aggressive rule breaking, or financial responsibilities to dependents, although these are yet to be established.
Limitations
This study had several limitations. Due to the diverse terminology and non-medical academic focus of the literature, some publications may have been missed, along with non-published material and other potentially relevant grey literature. Given the breadth of the topic and the different aspects to WCC, there are undoubtedly many other topics relevant to forensic psychiatry that have not been included, such as wrongdoing at the level of the corporation (rather than by individuals) and legal aspects.
Implications
There are clearly many gaps in the understanding of WCC and WCOs, particularly with respect to factors of relevance to forensic psychiatry. We are of the view that forensic psychiatry can contribute to filling these research gaps in a number of ways, and therefore contribute to the multi-disciplinary understanding of WCC. Forensic psychiatrists also have a clinical role to play in the assessment and treatment of WCOs.
Research implications
A recent edited volume on forensic neuroscience (Beech et al., 2018 ) highlighted the significant contribution that neurobiology can make to understanding offending behaviours, the conditions that underpin such behaviours and interventions for these behaviours. However, WCC did not feature, and a chapter on deception (Vendemia & Nye, 2018 ) was of limited relevance to WCC, although manipulation and deception seem to play a key role in WCC. The neurobiological understanding of psychopathy is quite well developed (Glenn & Raine, 2014 ). Research on the neurobiology of deception and psychopathy may inform the understanding of the genesis of WCC, and such research could be conducted on WCOs. Neurobiological research on WCOs is very rare compared to that on violent and sexual offenders.
Research on offenders with different trajectories and criminal careers has highlighted developmental and psychopathological differences between those who persist and those who desist (McGee & Moffitt, 2018 ). Such psychopathological differences may be relevant to WCOs, and research comparing one-off WCOs, recidivist WCOs, diverse offenders who commit non-WCC as well as WCC, and non-WCOs may help in the understanding of the personality and developmental factors predisposing to these different trajectories. Research ascertaining the rates of mental illnesses, personality disorders and psychopathy in WCOs could help with understanding such offenders but also to know what their mental health needs are. Violence may be linked to WCC in different ways. One important factor in understanding this relationship, given the relationship between various mental disorders and violence (Sariaslan et al., 2020 ), could be psychopathology. Studies of the psychopathology and mental health of WCOs both before and after sanctioning and subsequently would help with understanding the development of mental health difficulties seen in WCOs and their relationship to punishment, imprisonment, loss of status and other factors. Research on the relationship between mental health conditions and reoffending, and whether mental health treatment reduces reoffending, would help in understanding the potential role forensic mental health services could play in the rehabilitation of WCOs.
Given the impact of WCC and the recidivism rates, which are higher than those for sexual offenders and similar to those for violent offenders, there is a need for methods of identifying offenders who are more likely to recidivate. There are a number of instruments that have been validated in the prediction of general and violent recidivism (Douglas & Otto, 2020 ). Research should be undertaken to ascertain whether such instruments have predictive validity for WCOs. Instruments for general recidivism emphasise antisociality and social instability and may not cover factors of relevance to WCC. There may be other factors that need to be considered as well as, or instead of, such factors. Some of these may be psychopathological in nature, for example Factor 1 psychopathy. To assess risk of recidivism it is likely that an approach considering both the uniqueness of WCC and commonalities with other offending will be required. This is analogous to what we know about risk assessment for sex offending, stalking and intimate partner violence (Douglas & Otto, 2020 ), where some factors are common to all types of interpersonal violence offending (e.g. history of violence and antisociality), while others (e.g. sexual deviance for sexual offenders) are unique to specific groups. Understanding the role of mental health as a dynamic factor in precipitating offending and in desistance could help determine the role of mental health in risk assessment and management.
Clinical implications
Forensic psychiatrists tend to focus on violent mentally disordered offenders, and most will be unaware of the aspects of WCC and WCOs summarised in this review. So forensic psychiatry as a clinical specialty has little to do with WCOs and little understanding of such cases. This lack of involvement and non-evidence-based assumptions about WCOs may perpetuate the notion that forensic psychiatry has little to offer. However, this review challenges this.
One fundamental clinical implication that arises from this review goes to the very nature of the practice of forensic psychiatry. Forensic psychiatrists focus their clinical work on individuals with mental health conditions who commit interpersonal violence rather than ‘general offenders’. Given the impact of WCC, the recidivism rates of WCOs, the link with violent crime and the similar rates of mental health conditions, it could be argued that forensic mental health services should be more involved in the treatment and management of WCOs.
Psychiatrists undertaking assessments for courts need to know that recidivism is no less common in WCOs, they are often not specialists, and psychopathology may be relevant to their offending. The countertransference of psychiatrists to WCOs may be different from that for other offenders as they are more likely to have similar demographics. This may impact judgments about the presence and role of psychopathology, perceptions of risk and approaches to intervention. The mental health of WCOs subsequent to sanctioning and/or release may be relevant to several outcomes including the well-being and social functioning of the WCO, risk of suicide and risk of recidivism.
Conclusions
Despite its fuzzy borders, and although it does not generate the same public outrage and opprobrium as violent or sexual offending, WCC falls squarely within the realms of criminal behaviour, mental health and the legal system, with a high cost to victims and society. There has been a general neglect of WCC in the field of academic forensic psychiatry. The relationship between psychopathology, personality factors, other psychological factors and WCC has been poorly studied, and needs further exploration. Even though the vast majority of WCOs may turn out to be psychiatrically ‘well’, this has yet to be established, and the post-release period may be one of particular vulnerability. Other areas that could benefit from further study include: predisposing factors for WCC (such as personality and psychopathy, a history of non-criminal unethical behaviour/boundary violations), precipitating factors (psychosocial or financial stressors), and the role of notoriety and fear of retribution as barriers to reintegration to the community. Psychiatry has a particular role to play in understanding the role of psychopathology and mental health in predisposing to, precipitating, perpetuating and desisting from WCC.
Doctors share high levels of societal trust, respectability and similar socioeconomic and educational backgrounds with WCOs (including offenders within the medical profession itself), which may lead to bias in the average psychiatrist, as has been proposed for sentencing judges (Wheeler et al., 1988 ). There may be a reluctance to pathologise people with whom we can more easily identify, and to locate the causes of their offending in external factors. It is time to start grappling with these issues.
There are several ways in which forensic psychiatry may contribute meaningfully to the field of WCC. Forensic psychiatrists can offer valuable insights into the role of psychopathology in sentencing (particularly in jurisdictions where personality disorder is accepted as a mitigating factor, such as Victoria), treatment and management of WCOs, and understanding the meaning of WCC is helpful in clinical practice and assessment. It is surprising, given the degree of victimisation, societal harm and recidivism rates, that there are no validated risk assessment tools specific to WCC, and this is an area where forensic psychiatry may be able to provide expertise and guidance. In light of the growing public discourse about WCC and issues such as tax avoidance by wealthy individuals and banking irregularities, our understanding and response to this behaviour should be based on sound theory and evidence, rather than assumptions.
Database search terms
The search terms for each database were as follows:
PsychNet search terms: ‘white collar crim*’ OR ‘financial crim*’ OR fraud OR Ponzi OR embezzlement OR bribery OR ‘wage theft’ OR racketeering OR laundering OR forgery AND Psych* OR mental OR personality AND demographics AND characteristics. This search generated 2174 results.
EbscoHost Health business elite, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection search terms: ‘white collar crim*’ OR ‘financial crim*’ OR fraud OR Ponzi OR embezzlement OR bribery OR ‘wage theft’ OR racketeering OR laundering OR forgery AND Psych* OR mental OR personality OR demographics OR characteristics. This search generated 397 results.
Pubmed search terms: (psychology OR psychiatry OR mental OR personality OR demographics OR characteristics) AND (white collar crime OR white collar criminal OR financial crime OR fraud OR ponzi OR embezzlement OR bribery OR racketeering OR laundering OR forgery). This search generated 744 results. In Pubmed, the following terms were also applied as exclusion terms, to reduce the large number of irrelevant results regarding industrial cleaning (from the search term ‘laundering’) and the psychological concept of imposter syndrome (from the search term ‘fraud’): NOT (microbial OR microbes OR bacterial OR clothing OR attire OR laundry OR impostor OR washing machine).
Ethical standards
Declaration of conflicts of interest.
Rose Clarkson has declared no conflicts of interest
Rajan Darjee has declared no conflicts of interest
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the authors.
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Annual Review of Sociology
Volume 11, 1985, review article, white collar crime.
- John Braithwaite 1
- View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: Senior Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra 2601, Australia
- Vol. 11:1-25 (Volume publication date August 1985) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.11.080185.000245
- © Annual Reviews
Only banal generalizations are possible in answer to questions of who engages in white collar crime and why. Doubt is cast on the common assertion that firms in financial difficulty are more likely to offend than profitable ones. Qualitative studies of how white collar offenses are perpetrated and how regulatory agencies seek to control offenses constitute the most illuminating part of the literature. This literature depicts consistent pressure for blame for white collar crime to be passed downwards in the class structure, widespread use of international law evasion strategies, and a preference of control agencies for informal, “direct action” modes of social control over litigious regulation. The thesis that the latter reflects “capture” by ruling class interests is critically examined. It is contended that community attitudes toward white collar crime have become increasingly punitive. The review concludes that theoretical progress is most likely via organization theory paradigms, but that partition of white collar crime into “corporate (or organizational) crime” and “occupational crime” is necessary to facilitate such progress.
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Digitisation of Financial Markets: A Literature Review on White-Collar Crimes
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This is an empirical study which describes the financial issues with an increasing usage of the virtual currency in the present situation. With the introduction of the democratising, the influence of the ICT and its effect involved in various aspects of our lives like the economic, political, and the societal requirements. The financial frauds in various forms and its impact on financial market had been identified in the earlier research. The economic structure of the markets has been facilitating these. The frauds in the financial sector are identified as the lending frauds, identity frauds, and the investment frauds. The financial frauds are purely dependent on the market segmentation and the involvement of the various market instruments. The present study is carried out to understand the recent developments happening in the field of financial frauds, various developments like the free entry exit of participants, global currency involvement, increasing types of transactions in the financial sector, and the financial innovations involving technological and legal aspects. Technical problems in maintaining the secrecy and confidentiality of the dealings of the banking transactions. The present study tries to connect the different types of financial crimes to the facilities brought in by the ICT, and it needs more attention and more transparency to fight the white-collar crimes.
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Pillai, R., Lokanadha Reddy, M. (2021). Digitisation of Financial Markets: A Literature Review on White-Collar Crimes. In: Singh, P.K., Polkowski, Z., Tanwar, S., Pandey, S.K., Matei, G., Pirvu, D. (eds) Innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (IICT-2020). Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66218-9_7
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Antecedents of white collar crime in organizations: A literature review
- S. Bashir , K. Shahzad , +2 authors Sania Saeed
- Published 30 December 2011
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White-collar criminals and organizational criminology, perception of civil society about white-collar crime in punjab, pakistan: jrsp, vol. 57, issue 2(july-dec 2020), the concept of white-collar crime: nature, causes, political and legal aspects in accountability and way forward, unethical and criminal – predicting “dark side” phenomena in the aec industry, ethical leadership and followership, 59 references, information management for investigation and prevention of white-collar crime, perception of seriousness and concern about white-collar crime: some results of an opinion survey among swiss banks, understanding white collar crime, white collar crime: re-examination of a concept, are white-collar and common offenders the same an empirical and theoretical critique of a recently proposed general theory of crime, formally shaming white-collar criminals, bringing white-collar crime back in: an examination of crimes and torts*, whistle-blowing in public sector organizations: evidence from pakistan, white-collar, organised and cyber crimes in the media: some contrasts and similarities, white-collar crime and the study of embezzlement, related papers.
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What Does It Take to Become a Prodigy Scam Artist?
In “Never Saw Me Coming,” Tanya Smith tells of her life as a young financial criminal — and the harsh prison sentence that changed everything.
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NEVER SAW ME COMING: How I Outsmarted the F.B.I. and the Entire Banking System — and Pocketed $40 Million , by Tanya Smith
When Tanya Smith was in high school, spending time with her upwardly mobile father in 1980s Minneapolis, she developed a kind of class consciousness — a curiosity about money and race and a desire to know just how much income qualified someone as “rich.”
Most people would probably just try to guess; Smith had a different solution. Deploying what we now term “social engineering,” she would call banks and trick workers into revealing exactly how much was in someone’s account. This led to more experiments with low-level scamming, some of it, she says, for a good cause. “Between the ages of 15 and 16, I managed to void people’s utility bills, at least temporarily, at least 300 times,” she writes in her memoir, “Never Saw Me Coming.” Smith “also handled overdue mortgages.”
In recounting her childhood, Smith conveys a certain admiration for this younger self. She was, by her own account, both smart and fearless.
But as the story unfolds, the mood darkens. Smith has a twin, Taryn, who gets into drugs as Smith becomes further involved in her white-collar crimes and moves to live a glamorous life in Los Angeles; her parents, rendered as saintly figures, recede into the background, and a series of flashy and obviously ill-intentioned men enter the picture. Smith’s educational promise evaporates as her biggest scam — basically, finding ways to tap into a bank’s reserve funds to send phony wire transfers — becomes her full-time job.
The initial glamour of cavorting around with celebrities gives way to the more depressing (and familiar) picture of a young woman losing control of her life. By the time we’ve reached the book’s final third, Smith is in prison. She breaks out twice. She also gives birth twice while incarcerated.
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IMAGES
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White-collar crime is one of the least understood and arguably most consequential of all crime types. This review highlights and assesses recent (primarily during the past decade) contributions to white-collar crime theory (with special emphasis on critical, choice, and organizational theories of offending), new evidence regarding the sentencing and punishment of white-collar offenders, and ...
A 1976 estimate of the total cost of white-collar crime puts the figure in the neighborhood of $250 billion per year (Rossoff, Pontell, & Tillman, 1998), while a more recent study estimates financial losses from white-collar crimes to be between $300 and $600 billion per year (Stewart, 2015).
Introductory Works. Disagreements about what white-collar crime is and how it should be studied have been part of the criminological landscape since Edwin Sutherland first called attention to crimes by persons "in the upper or white-collar class, composed of respectable or at least respected business and professional men" (Sutherland 1940, p. 1), and contrasted these offenders and offenses ...
Several bodies of research indicate that an increased focus on the psychological correlates of white-collar crime is essential to better understand, predict, and control white-collar offending. This chapter explicates the literature and theory on two primary psychological correlates of white-collar offending: cognitions and personality.
White-collar crime: a neglected area in forensic psychiatry?
Juveniles' Race and Police Relations. Online citation: McGurrin, Danielle, Melissa Jarrell, Amber Jahn and Brandy Cochrane. 2013. "White Collar Crime Representation in the Criminological Literature Revisited, 2001-2010.". Western Criminology Review 14(2):3-19.
It is contended that community attitudes toward white collar crime have become increasingly punitive. The review concludes that theoretical progress is most likely via organization theory paradigms, but that partition of white collar crime into "corporate (or organizational) crime" and "occupational crime" is necessary to facilitate ...
seen in literature about white-collar crime include the variables, situations, and cultural contexts that differentiate white-collar crime from more traditional criminal areas [3]. Crime obviously varies in its nature, context, effect on society, etc., however, the overarching issue found in literature has to do with crime prevention and control.
Explore the latest full-text research PDFs, articles, conference papers, preprints and more on WHITE COLLAR CRIME. Find methods information, sources, references or conduct a literature review on ...
Crime is committed by abuse of trust to benefit the individual by occupational crime or to benefit the organization by corporate crime. Perceived seriousness of white collar crime has been studied as a factor that can influence the involvement or lack of involvement of the criminal justice system.
Thus, a core goal of the Journal of White-Collar and Corporate Crime (JWCCC) is to support new socio-legal and political interventions through targeted policy change and critique (Alvesalo-Kuusi & Barak, 2020), and by embracing proposals to regulate and prevent white-collar and corporate crime from a multidisciplinary background (see for ...
The whiteness of white-collar crime in the United States: Examining the role of race in a culture of elite white-collar offending ... Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2017) A few observations: Literature in 2017. ... White-collar crime: A review of recent developments and promising directions for ...
Understanding White Collar Crime. Hazel Croall. Published 1 June 2001. Law, Sociology. This comprehensive overview of white collar crime begins by introducing the concept, looking at its definition, its identification with class and status, and its development within criminology. The problems of estimating the vast extent of white collar and ...
White collar crime (WCC) is oftentimes mistaken for a victimless crime due to its nonviolent nature. However, that assumption could not be farther from the truth; ... Literature Review: A Synthesis of Fraud-Related Research Pre-fraud state of mind:-The Fraud Triangle Post-fraud state of mind:-The act-Conversion-Concealment
James William Coleman California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. This paper attempts to integrate etiological research on white-collar crime under the hypothesis that criminal behavior results from the confluence of appropriate motivation and opportunity. The starting point is the interactionist theory of motivation basic to most ...
The authors describe recent literature on insider threats and white-collar crime in non-government organisations and industries and identify management strategies used to counter them, both internationally and in the Australian context. ... A Literature Review. Marigold Black, Jade Yeung, Douglas Yeung. Research Published Feb 16, 2022. Download ...
social status, the literature suggest that the major causes of prevalence of white collar crimes are peer support, corporate culture, lack of accountability and lack of reporting. This review helps to understand the importance of white collar crime in today's public sector organizations. Key words: White collar crime, public sector organizations.
The white-collar crimes are thousand times higher economic loss to the society, whereas the blue-collar crimes are very nominal in value. A white-collar crime takes place due to selfishness, and for its execution, they use very well-intended approaches.
A white-collar. crime takes place due to sel fishness, and for its execution, they use very well-intended approaches. But when we. compare the blue-collar crimes these are carried out because. of ...
Referring to a crime committed by someone of high social status, the literature suggest that the major causes of prevalence of white collar crimes are peer support, corporate culture, lack of accountability and lack of reporting. This review helps to understand the importance of white collar crime in today's public sector organizations. Key….
The cases of white-collar crimes have been increasing exponentially in the 21st century due to the advent of technology because fraudsters apply technological tools in cheating, swindling, embezzling, and defrauding people or organizations. White-collar crime is a complex issue in society because its occurrence is dependent on many factors such ...
Management document from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 13 pages, Initiative to Combat White-Collar and Corporate Crime A Comprehensive Strategy for Prevention and Enforcement Gabriella (Jax) Niederwerfer 8-03-2024 Introduction! White-collar and corporate crimes are a big threat to economic stability and trust. These
Smith has a twin, Taryn, who gets into drugs as Smith becomes further involved in her white-collar crimes and moves to live a glamorous life in Los Angeles; her parents, rendered as saintly ...