Characteristics of white-collar criminals: a Norwegian study

Abstract

This article addresses the following research question: What are the characteristics of white-collar criminals in Norway? Our research is based on data from articles in Norwegian financial newspapers for one year were a total of 67 white-collar criminals convicted to jail sentence were identified. Our sample is analyzed and presented in comparising with especially U.S. literature on characteristics of white-collar criminals, which is believed to be both general and limited. Our contribution is also important, as studies of white-collar criminals so far has focused on case studies rather than statistical analysis of a larger sample. We find that the typically white-collar criminal is male, 46 years old, involved with first time crime of the amount of 30 million US dollars and convicted to 3 years of imprisonment. As a contradiction to previous literature on white-collar crime, we also find that they are not part of upper-class and higly education. On the contrary, even though mostly being leaders, they are not higly educated, but have a position that gives them access to money. Consequently, we also find that manipulation and fraud is the most common form of white-collar crime in Norway.