Increased Executive Functioning, Attention, and Cortical Thickness in White-collar Criminals

Overview

Journal Hum Brain Mapp

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Neurology

Date 2011 Oct 18

PMID 22002326

Citations 6

Authors

Adrian Raine

William S Laufer

Yaling Yang

Katherine L Narr

Paul Thompson

Arthur W Toga

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

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.

Citing Articles

Executive dysfunction and cortical variations among intimate partner violence perpetrators and the association with sexism.

Romero-Martinez A, Beser-Robles M, Cerda-Alberich L, Aparici F, Marti-Bonmati L, Sarrate-Costa C Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2024; 19(1).

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White-collar crime: a neglected area in forensic psychiatry?.

Clarkson R, Darjee R Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2022; 29(6):926-952.

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Biomarkers for the Rich and Dangerous: Why We Ought to Extend Bioprediction and Bioprevention to White-Collar Crime.

Zohny H, Douglas T, Savulescu J Crim Law Philos. 2019; 13(3):479-497.

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Biological explanations of criminal behavior.

Ling S, Umbach R, Raine A Psychol Crime Law. 2019; 25(6):626-640.

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Neurocriminology: implications for the punishment, prediction and prevention of criminal behaviour.

Glenn A, Raine A Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013; 15(1):54-63.

PMID: 24326688 DOI: 10.1038/nrn3640.

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