Table 1.

Studies of personality and WCC in offender samples.

Authors	Year	Sample	Measures	Results
Collins, Judith, and Frank Schmidt (Collins & Schmidt, 2006)	1993	365 inmates incarcerated for WCC in federal correctional institutions, compared with 344 non-offenders in positions of authority.	The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Adaptation of Owens and Schoenfeldt’s (1979) Biodata Questionnaire PDI Employment Inventory (PDI-EI)	WCOs had greater tendencies towards irresponsibility, lack of dependability and disregard of social norms and rules, which the authors characterised as a lack of ‘social conscientiousness’. They found higher levels of anxiety in the offender group.
Kolz, Arno R. (Kolz, 1999)	1999	218 employees working for a women’s apparel retailer in New York City.	Conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism scales of the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NFFI) Self-report of theft from employer in the last year Manager ratings of ‘counterproductive’ behaviours	Theft was predicted by conscientiousness and agreeableness.
Alalehto, Tage (Alalehto, 2003)	2003	128 businessmen in Sweden acted as informants about personality of 55 close friends/colleagues known to be ‘non-law-abiding’ (whether or not convicted).	Semi-structured interviews with the principal question: Why does one become an economic criminal?	Identified three WCC personality types: the ‘positive extrovert’ (socially competent, manipulative and egocentric), the ‘disagreeable businessman’ (bitter, inflexible, aggressive and contemptuous towards colleagues) and the ‘neurotic’ (insecure, sloppy and anxious).
Blickle, Gerhard, Alexander Schlegel, Pantaleon Fassbender, and Uwe Klein (Blickle et al., 2006)	2006	76 male prison inmates from 14 correctional institutions in Germany, convicted of high-level WCC, compared to 150 managers working in German corporations.	German version of the Social Desirability scale German translation of the Schwartz Values Inventory German translation of diagnostic features of DSM–III Narcissistic Personality Disorder German translation of the conscientiousness scale from the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO–FFI)	Low behavioural self-control, high hedonism and high narcissism predicted WCC. Unlike Collins and Schmidt, they found high conscientiousness after controlling for social desirability. They characterised the WCO as a ‘rationally calculating business person’ with low integrity and high conscientiousness.
Ribeiro, Rita, Inês Sousa Guedes, and José Cruz (Ribeiro et al., 2019)	2019	74 male inmates convicted of WCC in Portuguese prisons, compared to 63 inmates convicted of violent crimes.	Self-control items from Grasmick et al. (1993) scale Portuguese version of the Neo Five-Factor Inventory (NEO–FFI)	They found higher levels of ‘openness to experience’ (with low levels of internal consistency), no difference in levels of self-control between WCOs and violent offenders.
Nee, Button, Shepherd, Blackburn, and Leal (Nee et al., 2019)	2019	17 WCOs, ‘in the field’, all sanctioned for ‘occupational corruption’-related offences	Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised (EPQ–R)	The subjects were found to be gregarious, outgoing, agreeable, emotionally controlled and possessing an ability to lie and manipulate. They were described as ‘personable liars’.

Note: WCC = white-collar crime; WCO = white-collar offender; DSM–III = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Third Edition.