Business Professionals and White-Collar Offenders: A Comparative Analysis and Offender Subtypes

Abstract

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This study examines the characteristics of white-collar offenders by comparing 349 convicted individuals in Spain with 157 business professionals without criminal records. A multiple-factor analysis identifies subgroups based on sociodemographic, psychological, and criminological factors. Findings reveal key differences pointing to heightened economic and family instability among white-collar offenders. Psychologically, offenders score higher in agreeableness and openness but lower in social dominance and hierarchical assertiveness. Multiple Factor Analysis identifies two subgroups. Cluster 1 shows higher levels of childhood adversities, substance use, and psychopathy. In contrast, Cluster 2 demonstrates high agreeability, openness, and tradition-focused values, diverging from business professionals’ profiles of higher Machiavellianism and narcissism. These findings stress the heterogeneity of white-collar offenders, refuting the assumption of uniformityand underscoring the interplay of individual and socioenvironmental factors. This study situates white-collar crime within deviance studies by showing that it follows two paths: one born of socio-economic strain, the other of calculated opportunity.