Even though white-collar criminals (WCCs) cause financial damage and, at times, emotional and physical harm to individuals, organisations, and consumers, their crimes are viewed as being less harmful than street-level crimes. Misperceptions that WCCs commit financial crimes because of a temporary moral lapse that represents an 'out of character' act for the offender still permeate the criminal justice system and academic venues. Yet, research shows that WCCs may display a pattern of criminal thinking that parallels street-level offenders coupled with the same behavioural traits that serve as risk factors for offences to occur. Furthermore, the belief that WCCs are non-violent is misguided, as there is a subgroup of WCCs who are willing to resort to violence, namely homicide, to prevent their fraud schemes from being discovered and revealed.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a financial fraud practice, known as affinity fraud, relies on building trust with victims based on shared affiliations or characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity or professional designations, for the purpose of exploiting the trust factor for financial advantage. Design/methodology/approach -Sources of information consisted of scholarly articles and articles retrieved from the web. Findings -Findings suggest that these fraud offenders rely on a myriad of persuasion techniques to overcome offender skepticism coupled with victims engaging in a psychological concept known as projection bias to evaluate the credibility of these offenders. These factors create a negative synergy that dilutes the perceived need for due diligence normally required prior to engaging in securities transactions. In addition, these offenders display a predatory quality, debunking the myth that fraud offenders exhibit a homogenous crime group behavioral profile. Practical implications -Social institutions that include both for profit and not for profit should consider evaluating their interactions with those who share similar characteristics and affiliations that attempt to offer goods or services by considering some of the factors contained within this article that may dilute due diligence protocol. Originality/value -This paper serves to alert and educate anti-fraud professionals, law enforcement and policy makers of a predatory fraud practice that targets organizations exploiting the inherent trust that these organizations rely upon.

The co-editor, Terry Shevlin, invited the presenters on the panel to prepare a write-up of the panel presentation and discussion.

Theory and research on the psychology of white-collar offenders has historically been underdeveloped, and our understanding of the prototypical high-socioeconomicstatus offenders, such as today's chief executive officers and chief financial officers, first identified by Edwin Sutherland, has not benefited from the application of psychological trait theory. In this article, the author examines the negative synergy that develops when criminal thinking traits combine with the psychological traits of narcissism and psychopathy to create risk factors for white-collar offending. Psychological trait theory may be especially applicable to those who hold some of the highest positions in corporate organizations, who influence corporate culture, and who, at times, are considered visionaries in their respective industries.