Red Collar Crime

Traditional viewpoints held by academic and non-academic professional groups of the white-collar crime offender profile(s) are that they are non-violent. Yet research has begun to unveil a sub-group of white-collar offenders who are violent, referred to as red-collar criminals, in that their motive is to prevent the detection and or disclosure of their fraud schemes through violence. This article is the first to discuss the origin of the red-collar crime concept developed by this author coupled with debunking white-collar offender profile misperceptions that have persisted for decades by offering current research on the anti-social qualities displayed by this offender group that predates their violence. Secondly, the article applies behavioral risk factors, such as narcissism and psychopathy, which contributes to our understanding of why some white-collar offenders may resort to violence while other white-collar offenders do not. Case analysis also draws upon gender distinctions, workplace violence and homicide methods used to illustrate that red-collar criminals are not an anomaly to ignore simply because they may not reflect the street-level homicides typically observed by society, investigated by law enforcement and studied by academia.