Profiling a Fraudster - Dr. Irma Labuschagne

Profiling a fraudster - What is the nature of the beast ?

Forensic Criminologist - Dr. Irma Labuschagne

INDEX

About the author

About the Author:

Dr Irma Labuschagne is a renowned forensic criminologist in South Africa and is held in high regard by the Courts, the public and peers within the profession. Dr Labuschagne has been involved in over 4000 interviews ranging from brutal murderers to sweet talking white collar criminals. She is regularly quoted by newspapers, magazines and has been interviewed on television. She is well known by the South African public and her opinions and statements are powerful and insightful, with keen observation, wit and a lifetime's wealth of experience she handles constant brutal scrutiny in her stride.

Dr Labuschagne boasts with not only a lifetime's worth of practical experience but also holds the following qualifications:

- BA (Hons) (Cum Laude)

- MA (Victimology) (Cum Laude)

- DPhil (Criminology)

She was associated with the University of South Africa's Criminology Department from 1976 up to 1996. She has served as part of the task team of the South African Correctional Services dealing with Risk Profile Management since 2005.

Dr Labuschagne has always been involved in extreme high-profile cases, the latest which include profiling of Najwa Peterson and Johan Nel (dubbed the Skierlik Skieter)

Profiling a fraudster - What is the nature of the beast ?

Criminal profiling is a form of classification that works backwards. Investigative profiling is best viewed as a strategy enabling law enforcement to narrow the field of options and generate educated guesses about the perpetrator - a psychological profile focuses attention on individuals with personality traits that parallel traits of others that have committed similar offences.

Often "profiling" is only guesswork based on hunches and anecdotal information accumulated through years of experience and can be filled with error, especially when a profiler purports to be able to provide the identity of an offender. All profiling can do is to try and narrow the field of investigation. It can suggest the kind of person that may have committed the crime under investigation, but exact identity is extremely remote.

Clients (offenders of all kinds - serial killers to white collar criminal) - are referred to me by their legal representatives for a criminological evaluation report. When reports of this nature are compiled, it is not done to find excuses for the offender or to try and bring about the lightest possible sentence. These reports are compiled to assist the Court. An important aim is to present the Court with a picture of the person before the Court, the better the Court is able to come to a just conclusion regarding individualised punishment. Broadly speaking, the individualisation process entails the necessary steps to furnish the Court with a comprehensive picture of the social and personal history of the offernder, future criminal potential, mental and physical anomalies and other relevant matters so as to determine a suitable sentence for that specific individual. This all actually means that criminals are individuals and that generalisations are rather dangerous.

The criminologist's inquiry into the causes of crime is complex and multifaceted. The process by which individuals become criminals must be identified; social behaviour in general and the specific context in which the crime was committed, should receive attention.

The Study of Crime

The study of crime involves not only investigations into the motivation of offenders, but also the roles of victims and bystanders, as well as the physical and social context within which the crime takes place.

A criminal event has a particular beginning and an end. Each event has its own distinctive dimensions. A distinction can be made between the preceding factors, the event itself and the aftermath of the event (judicial procedure).

The criminal event involves interaction between people and this interaction forms the course of event, determines the phases that it passes through and the degree to which it will be regarded as being of a serious nature. When studying the criminal event, any explanation should include more than merely the motivation of offenders or the response of victims. It should also include studying the precursors, interaction and aftermath.

As people move from situation to situation, they are confronted with a myriad of messages, rules and expectation, some which are not all that obvious. Through a process of sending, receiving and interpreting messages, individuals help construct the social reality of which they are a part.

White-collar Crime

White-collar crime, defined commonly as offences committed by persons of power and status in the course of their occupation, has challenged many of the commonplace explanations of crime. The law breaking behaviour of businessmen, professionals and politicians can probably best be interpreted in terms of a learning process. Violators encountered examples of law breaking among those with whom they worked, and they drifted or jumped into such patterns of behaviour as part of their routine indoctrination into the rquirements of their job. In time, they found that the definitions they encountered favourable to violation of the law overruled those encouraging law-abiding acts. The trouble with such explanantions is that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to test empirically.

Today, white collar crime often is used to criticise theories taht focus on broken homes, poverty, oedipal conflicts, a poor upbringing, etc. as precursors to crime. It is pointed out that antitrust violators, for instance, often have superb educations, intact families, excellent incomes and commit the crimes nonetheless. It is "greed" and not "need" that appears to push them to break the law. Should greed be the only or main criminal motivation, it will be important to try and ascertain whether this is, with regard to a specific individual, a patterned form of behaviour or whether there are indications that the offence was committed under situational - and therefore transitory - circumstances. Answers to the aforementioned will have a bearing on the sentencing aspect, and then especially with the regard to rehabilitation. Should it become clear that the individual presents with patterned (life long) characteristics such as extreme greed, there will be, for example, a need for rehabilitation.

Greed vs Need

Greed - is described by the Oxford Advanced Dictionary as '"excessive and selfish desire for wealth, power..."

Need - can be defined as " ...a need is perceived as a lack or deficiency in something that is necessary, desireable or useful or as a condition that requires relief in order to identify a need, a need assessment is required..."

(Coetzee, The Assessment of Inmates: A philosophical historical perspective of the South African situation. Unpublished document. 2004)

A need can often be emotional too: " pink-collar" criminals who steal (often VERY large amounts of money) form the workplace in order to enhance their self concept, are often very overweight and feel unwanted and uncared for and attempt to buy love (stated from personal experience, and certainly not a scientific fact at all). The same can be said for men who feel they are not the best providers (often placed under great pressure from their wives, for example, to keep up with the Joneses and then gradually start to defraud their companies. It is also often interesting to note the self righteousness of the spouses once they are confronted with the fact that their wives or lovers are going to prison for a very long time.

Whilst monetary gain is certainly a powerful motive in economic crimes, the standards against which the offender's behaviour is judged and regulated is crucial. These points of reference are strongly influenced by the social context and by one's immediate reference groups, such as fellow workers or peers. Reference groups and the social context are especially powerful influences in white collar crimes - by restructuring their own values to align them with the social climate, white collar offenders are able to engage on behaviour that they would otherwise perceive as truly reprehensible.

(in this regard I have found that the example set by Managers, for example, play a crucial role - if the Manager of an office tells his Personal Assistant where everyone can hear him/her that it really doesn't matter what the problem may be, all callers or visitors should be told that there is an important meeting on the go - and meantime all can see that the Manager is leaving the office with a set of golf clubs, the example is set that " I don't care about the workplace..." and then a situation prevails where that same Manager is very surprised when his workers commit real crimes)

It is also true that human behaviour results from a mutual interaction between personality and situational variables. In the past, much crime research neglected situations in favour of dispositional (personality of character) factors. The situationalists contend that, in many cases, criminality may simply reflect being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. It may be a response to nothing more temporal than the provacations and attractions bound up in immediate circumstances out of which deviant acts arise. Situations are rarely static and, in turn, situations influence behaviour - it is especially in this regard that the example set by those in power will have a great influence on all who work there.

Some types of criminal behaviour can be related to the social position of the people engaging in the behaviour. Social pressures can cause deviant or criminal behaviour and crime can be rooted in the social system rather than being intrinsic to the make-up of humans. Some criminological theories explain crime as based on a distinction between culturally defined goals and the norms that regulate the means to achieve those goals. Goals are valued purposes and interests that the culture holds out as legitimate objectives for all members of society. In most cultures equal oppurtunities for all to attain the goals of wealth and power are emphasised.

Equal opputunity for all in our country of South Africa IS a goal, but many believe that we are not quite there yet. Most cultures value goals of wealth adn power - an individual's worth has always been measured by material success - but oppurtunities to achieve successes have not been completely equal, however. Everyone is encouraged to have the same high ambition, and failure to achieve cultural goals is seen as an individual failing rather than a flaw in the social system. This belief protects the social system from criticism. The culture's influence on the measurement of individual worth by material success produces a society with a built-in incentive to achieve. This has helped many people to achieve a high overall standard of living, but has also generated relative deprivation and crime among those who do not and cannot (due to lack of many things, amongst others, education) achieve these goals of wealth and power.

Norms, which define acceptable ways to reach cultural goals, are derived from the values or preferences of the society, rather than from the pure technical efficiency of the means in reaching goals. Thus performing successful fraud might be the most efficient way for a person who feels deprived and discriminated against to attain material well being, but social and legal norms define this kind of behaviour as an unacceptable way to achieve wealth. Instead, norms emphasise hard work at a socially approved occupation over a lifetime, coupled with deferred gratification of the rewards of material success, as the appropriate way to achieve material well being.

Social Equilibrium

Social equilibrium exists when satisfaction accrue to people who use institutionalised means to reach culturally approved goals. When there is a disjunction between means and goals, anomie or normlessness results. A disjunction may result from the socially structured incapacity of people to use the approved means to reach cultural goals. Thus, previous racial discrimination in education, employment and housing made access to the institutionalised means of achieving success well nigh impossible for most people in South Africa. The strong emphasis on material wealth today produces a powerful emotional investment in that goal, leading to a vulnerability to resort to illegal means to attain it now that acceptable means are seemingly more readily available - or, after long years of genuine struggle, is simply, in the eyes of many, taking too long to achieve.

According to Conklin (1990:115 a.f) the higher rate of labour-force participation may have a subtle effect on the crime rate. It may have increased a sense of relative deprivation or entitlement among many people who feel they are being paid less than some of their colleagues for the same work. If there is a widespread perception among some people that others are doing well financially and are fulfilled in their jobs, some may think that they deserve far more than they are getting. This sense of deprivation develops when people compare their own positions with others. They raise their expectations unrealistically fast and the situation may contribute to crime.

The discrepancy between peoples' expectations and their capabilities can motivate them to violate the law. Expectations are the goods and conditions of life to which people think they are rightfully entitled, and the capabilities are the goods and conditions of life they believe they can attain and maintain under the current social system. The discrepancy between the two is called relative deprivation. Crime is more likely to occur when there is much relative deprivation with regard to deeply held goals such as material success. Crime may also occur when people think they have exhausted all constructive means to reach their goals and believe that legitimate oppurtunities to reduce their relative deprivation are closed to them.

Relative Deprivation

Relative deprivation becomes greater when expectations increase or when capabilities decrease. A sudden drop in prosperity might reduce perceived capabilities, but relative deprivation more often increases because of growth of expectations. In developing nations, the " demonstration effect" leads to a desire for a better standard of living among people who move to large cities where a wealthy lifestyle can be observed firsthand. Capabilities usually do not rise as fast as expectations and thus relative deprivation increases and crime rates rise.

When a behaviour directed at a specific goal is thwarted, frustration is likely to result. Thus, the person must have been expecting, or anticipating the attainment of a goal or achievement. Mere deprivation of goods will not necessarily lead to frustration - people who are living under deprived conditions may not be frustrated unless they actually expect something better. Poverty-stricken people who have never dreamed of automobiles, washing machines or new homes, are not frustrated because they have been deprived of these things, they are frustrated only after they have begun to hope.

When crime is the Result

Crime results when:

a) The person is blocked from obtaining an expected goal

b) Frustration results, genrates anger; and

c) Anger predisposes or readies the person to behave aggressively (or fraudulently)

Whether the individual is going to resort to crime, will depend on previous learning experience, his perceptions of an incident and the normal way in which the individual usually reacts to frustration. It stands to reason that it will also depend on the presence of triggers (stimuli) within the situation itself.

Criminal behaviour will be generated (1) to the extent that a person perceives the mistreatment as intentional; and (2) to the degree that the frustration is experienced as aversive. People become angry and criminal when being kept from reaching a desired goal, if they think someone had intentionally blocked them from achieving that goal or deliberately and wrongly tried to hurt them. They are much more likely to become fraudulent someone's blocking their their goal attainment if they believe their frustrater had deliberately and unjustifiably attempted to keep them from reaching their goal than if they think the thwarting had not been intentional, or had not been directed at them personally.

To do a proper evaluation (profile) of a specific offender, I have to look at many issues, such as Family / Origin. The family is of particular significance to the criminologist, for within it crime can be prevented in the true sense of the word. To exert a positive influence on its members, the family must create a true community. In order to function in this way, it must meet with BASIC requirements - that is where norms and values are formed in the first place. I have found that some white-collar criminals grew up in a hom where they were emotionally and financially deprived - especially then where they felt, compared to their peers, that they were " poor" . If such child is also deprived of loving nurturing, problems will arise! The other scenario that might prevail is where they grew up in homes where " keeping up with the Joneses" was of primary importance - wearing labels, owning the latest of everything defined them, they were never taught that it is the person that counts, not what they possess. Unfortunately our media is also party to blame - advertisements keep on selling the message - what you own, is who you are. If a child was not raised to understand that material things are not the most important norms in life - one can expect trouble.

Now we come to the basic truth - millions of South African children (during the apartheid years) literally grew up in the dust - there simply was NO family life whatsoeve. They have, through no fault of their own, nothing to fall back on (norms / values / education) but they too are bombarded with messages of YOU HAVE TO BE SOMEBODY. (There are young drug lords and hijackers who own expensive german cars and designer clothes and have parties and it is so easy for a youngster to join these types of groups). The horror lies in the fact that these children are becoming parents and a vicious circle is created.

The Importance of Leisure Time

Of course one looks at millions of other issues, and one important one is LEISURE TIME. Leisure time is an important factor in the socialisation process of people. From adolescence and the way in which it is spent could hold criminogenic (crime causitive) meaning. The driving forces behind the way in which leisure time is spent, is related to factors such as gender roles, role expectations and peer relationships. It provides the background for experimenting with social relationships and can provide an individual with oppurtunities to realise their full potential. Positive activities, especially during adolescence, can contribute significantly towards the adolescent's social intergration and value systems - it is a strong indication of norms and values.

Aspects such as schooling (or lack of); tertiary education (if any); occupational history have to be taken into account. (how did the offender get along with colleagues ?, how did the offender perceive the honesty of management ?)

SOME white collar criminals can be far more cruel than people tend to believe - to be able to defraud, for example pensioners of their life savings in a planned and cruel manner - knowing over a period of time what harm you are causing, this cannot be regarded as being a better crime than murder. These offenders have no conscience and pursue their own pleasure at the cost of others, some are even psychopaths.

I believe we have lost the moral plot - we accentuate human rights without ever mentioning any responsibilities! We have become materialised to such an extent that we overlook all else. Good, old fashioned family values have been thrown out the window. We work so hard to earn money - often for the extra family car, swimming pool or designer clothes - at the cost of time spent with our children. We throw money at them and drop them off at malls just to get rid of them...we use television as a "nanny" and never find the time to sit with them and explain certain things. We have become totally desensitized with regard to criminal activities - remember a time when one would run away from television when dead people were shown ? And now ? One glibly finishes your meal whilst watching death and destruction in the Far East.

Dr Labuschagne's references regarding the above and recommended reading

Dr Irma Labuschagne cites the following as references in regards to the above mentioned article:

Bartol, CR. 1998. Criminal Behaviour. A Psychological Approach. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Williams, FP & McShane, MD. 1994. Criminological Theory. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Please note that the above mentioned is a transcribe of a speech delivered by Dr Irma Labuschagne for which we have been given express consent to publish, we must however mention that it should not be regarded as an academic article.