Psychological differences between those convicted by fraud and economic crimes compared to a common offender’s group and businessmen

Abstract

Fraud and economic crimes cost the governments many millions of euros every year. Once those who commit this type of crimes are sentenced to prison, rehabilitation programmes must focus on their criminogenic needs in order to prevent their recidivism. However, economic crime literature has no stablished conclusive differences in risk factors between economic and common offenders. The main goal of this communication is to present the psychological profile of economic offenders. We compared a group of economic offenders (N=350) to a control of group of common offenders (N=330) in several psychological measures (values, attitudes, personality, materialism, etc.). In addition, we analysed the differences between these two groups (economic and common offenders) and a group of businessmen (N=83) with no criminal records. The results of this study can help to better design the rehabilitation process and activities for economic offenders in prison. Finally, the implications of these results for further research will be discussed.