ABSTRACT
Although psychopathy is a personality dimension, due to the nature of their personality traits, criminal activity and antisocial behaviour come naturally to them. The nature of crimes committed by psychopaths tends to be violent and aggressive. Many serial killers possess psychopathic traits that enable them to commit heinous acts and adopt a heinous MO. Homicide is a close-contact crime, but crimes from a distance (such as theft, fraud and scams) cause emotional harm to victims. Sutherland referred to this as white-collar crime. White-collar criminals also exhibit callous-unemotional psychopathic traits. Entrepreneurial psychopaths also have these traits but have superior executive functioning that enables them to be creative and have good problem-solving skills. These skills fair well for them in the corporate world so much so that their psychopathic tendencies help corporations succeed. Babiak and Hare refer to them as ‘snakes in suits’. Such individuals have been described as ‘Seductive Operational Bully’ (SOB) due to their lack of empathy for those working for them. They can cause a toxic work environment and much stress for their employees. Schoeman argued that entrepreneurial psychopaths are likely to be primary, charismatic or egocentrically impulsive. Careers attracting entrepreneurial psychopaths include CEOs, lawyers and police.
