Dr. Joan Pastor, psychologist and Monday morning keynoter, said real psychopaths have the ability to think outside the box. "Potentially … the hardest thing for us to do is to get inside the mind of a criminal."

Pastor said ultimately anybody is capable of committing fraud. "However, the average person does not want to commit crimes unless they're forced to," she said. "Most people have a conscience; most people try to do the right thing. … But I want to talk about the not so average person: the 5 to 7 percent hardcore white-collar criminal."

Pastor described a profile - five key characteristics - of this type of criminal. She zeroed in one characteristic: personality disorders. Those with antisocial personality disorder are the socio- or psychopathics. She said that almost 40 percent of those in prison are in this category.

White-collar criminals who have the narcissistic personality disorder believe that they’re special and lack empathy — the inability to step out of their own worlds. Sometimes, because they can be naive, they might actually talk fully about their crimes in interviews.

She contrasted that with those with the antisocial personality disorder. "They understand what you are feeling; they just don't care. Even though they know that they will be committing pain, they know they're going to be robbing your pension funds, they know that people will be losing their jobs and their homes due to the crimes they commit … but the lack of conscience is there."

Pastor said she tells executives and board members that tone at the top is critical, but a lot of times we ask, "Is change really possible?" In this society of entitlement, narcissism is now the norm, she said. "But the truth is, we can change," she said. The way to do that is via spaced repetition: communicating your message throughout your organization in many different ways such as ethics training, anti-fraud marketing, and executive videos.

She said one company lists on employee badges the chief audit executive contact information, phone numbers for the hotline and legal counsel, and a description of how much fraud costs its organization every year.

Pastor said observing body language in interviews is important. But because hardcore white-collar criminals are savvy, she encouraged attendees to concentrate on the auditory level: words that are used and vocal modulation and pacing, which criminals cannot easily change to feign innocence.

Pastor said that applying psychological techniques in our fraud examinations could be fruitful when we need to burrow into the minds of hardened, white-collar criminals. 

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