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Heroic Leaders as White‐Collar Criminals: An Empirical Study
Author(s) -
Arnulf Jan Ketil,
Gottschalk Petter
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of investigative psychology and offender profiling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1544-4767
pISSN - 1544-4759
DOI - 10.1002/jip.1370
Subject(s) - commit , white collar crime , white (mutation) , collar , criminology , psychology , empirical research , social psychology , business , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , finance , epistemology , database , computer science , gene
In an empirical study of 179 white‐collar criminals, we identify a subset of 28 who may be called having a ‘heroic’ status, having received official recognition for contributions to society and fame prior to their being exposed and convicted as white‐collar criminals. We argue that these people are close to the classical picture of the white‐collar criminal, which implies that they are more likely not to be suspected of crimes. They are older, richer, and more powerful than the regular criminals. They also commit crimes assuming the roles of leaders in the crime. Most importantly, it seems as if the combination of heroic status and executive positions induces people to commit large‐scale opportunistic crimes late in their lives. The apparent onset of criminal behaviour late in life may be triggered by latent narcissistic traits. Our study contributes to a differentiated view on the profile of white‐collar criminals and derailed leadership. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.