White collar criminals' brains built differently, study shows

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People who commit "white-collar" crime such as credit-card fraud and hacking have brains that are structurally different from the brains of non-criminals with similar backgrounds, scientists have found.

Psychological tests on white-collar criminals also showed that they were better at making decisions in the kind of "higher executive" brain functions associated with being good at business, researchers said.

The study found that white-collar criminals had more grey matter than a comparable group of non-criminals, suggesting there may be a biological basis for this kind of criminal behaviour, says Adrian Raine, a criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

"They have better executive functions. They have better executive skills, such as planning, regulation and control. So in a sense these people have all the advantages we really want in successful business people," he said.

"This study is agnostic in terms of the cause of these differences. All it is saying is there are some differences."

The study used magnetic resonance brain scanners to compare 21 convicted white-collar criminals with a similar group of people of the same age and social class who had not committed such crimes, Raine said. He emphasised the study did not show that difference in brain structure was the cause of someone turning to crime, only that there was an association that might indicate a cause and effect.

- INDEPENDENT