A case control study: White-collar defendants compared with defendants charged with other nonviolent theft.
We examined the clinical, criminal, and sociodemographic characteristics of all white-collar crime defendants referred to the evaluation unit of a state center for forensic psychiatry. With 29,310 evaluations in a 12-year period, we found 70 defendants charged with embezzlement, 3 with health care fraud, and no other white-collar defendants (based on the eight crimes widely accepted as white-collar offenses). In a case-control study design, the 70 embezzlement cases were compared with 73 defendants charged with other forms of nonviolent theft. White-collar defendants were found to have a higher likelihood of white race (adjusted odds ratio (adj. OR) = 4.51), more years of education (adj. OR = 3471), and a lower likelihood of substance abuse (adj. OR = .28) than control defendants. Logistic regression modeling showed that the variance in the relationship between unipolar depression and white-collar crime was more economically accounted for by education, race, and substance abuse.
Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry, PO Box 2060, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA. poortingae@michigan.gov
Ernest
E
Poortinga
Craig
C
Lemmen
Michael D
MD
Jibson
D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008824:Michigan; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012923:Social Class; D013800:Theft