Red Collar Crime

Abstract

Traditional viewpoints held by academic and non-academic professional groups of the white-collar crime offender profile(s) are that they are non-violent. Yet research has begun to unveil a sub-group of white-collar offenders who are violent, referred to as red-collar criminals, in that their motive is to prevent the detection and or disclosure of their fraud schemes through violence. This article is the first to discuss the origin of the red-collar crime concept developed by this author coupled with debunking white-collar offender profile misperceptions that have persisted for decades by offering current research on the anti-social qualities displayed by this offender group that predates their violence. Secondly, the article applies behavioral risk factors, such as narcissism and psychopathy, which contributes to our understanding of why some white-collar offenders may resort to violence while other white-collar offenders do not. Case analysis also draws upon gender distinctions, workplace violence and homicide methods used to illustrate that red-collar criminals are not an anomaly to ignore simply because they may not reflect the street-level homicides typically observed by society, investigated by law enforcement and studied by academia.

Financial Delinquency: Overarching Personality Dispositions and Circumstantial Risk Factors

“…The type of psychopathy found to be associated with white-collar offences (Alalehto & Azarian, 2018;Collins & Schmidt, 1993) is manifested in a dubious life style, impulsiveness, outbreaks of violence, risk-taking and antisocial leanings , with no acceptance of responsibility and no setting of long-term goals (Hare, 1994). Perri (2016) points to particularly dominant psychopathy in instances where white-collar offenders become red collar criminals (resorting to murder in response to a fear of exposure). He claims that the perception that white-collar offenders are not violent is mistaken (Perri, 2011).…”

When white collar criminals turn to fatal violence: The impact of narcissism and psychopathy

“…Subsequently, narcissist personalities may not deter from committing crimes, as their extreme sense of entitlement prevents the wrongfulness of such behaviour from posing a moral dilemma to them and instead induces them to regard themselves as having right to special privileges over and above ordinary people (Perri, ). It nonetheless should also be mentioned that in a later article, Perri () makes a central theoretical statement, suggesting that both psychopathic and narcissist red collar criminals (RCC) are instrumental rather than passionate killers, acting in cold blood and with direct intentionality rather than induced to act by some overpowering passion.…”

Pandemics, human rights, and measures of presidential psychopathy

“…In particular, scientific research on successful psychopaths ("successful psychopathy [is] characterized by higher levels of autonomic responsivity and executive functioning, it may also be tied to elevated fearless dominance and conscientiousness ( Smith, Ashley, & Sarah, 2015 )), makes clear that it would be an inadmissible oversimplification to assume such personality traits only occur in prison settings or among "red collar criminals” ( Perri, 2016 ). Given the prevalence of this personality trait, it is highly likely that one or another of us has already suffered or is suffering from the destructive characteristics of a "successful psychopath", either directly in personal interactions, or indirectly through socioeconomic policies or conditions at governmental and corporate levels ( Babiak, Neumann, & Hare, 2010 ; Coid, Yang, Ullrich, Roberts, & Hare, 2009 ).…”