title: Increased executive functioning, attention, and cortical thickness in white-collar criminals.
abstract: Very little is known on white-collar crime and how it differs to other forms of offending. This study tests the hypothesis that white-collar criminals have better executive functioning, enhanced information processing, and structural brain superiorities compared with offender controls. Using a case-control design, executive functioning, orienting, and cortical thickness was assessed in 21 white-collar criminals matched with 21 controls on age, gender, ethnicity, and general level of criminal offending. White-collar criminals had significantly better executive functioning, increased electrodermal orienting, increased arousal, and increased cortical gray matter thickness in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, somatosensory cortex, and the temporal-parietal junction compared with controls. Results, while initial, constitute the first findings on neurobiological characteristics of white-collar criminals. It is hypothesized that white-collar criminals have information-processing and brain superiorities that give them an advantage in perpetrating criminal offenses in occupational settings.
authors: Department of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. araine@sas.upenn.edu
authors: Adrian
authors: A
authors: Raine
authors: William S
authors: WS
authors: Laufer
authors: Yaling
authors: Y
authors: Yang
authors: Katherine L
authors: KL
authors: Narr
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Thompson
authors: Arthur W
authors: AW
authors: Toga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests