characteristics of criminal behaviours

• criminal behaviour can be hard to identify as crime is a social construct, and there are many different types of crime, and criminal behavior, which are bound to the laws of each society.
• criminal behaviour will always have a detrimental effect on a victim, and that the person who committed the crime knows that what they are doing is wrong and illegal.
• fraudulent crime


  • Farr and Gibbons identify 7 different types of crime, one of these which is property fraudulent crime, like embezzlement or bribery.
• fraudulent crime


  • KPMG suggests that a typical fraudster is often a threat from within their company, and often seen as esteemed or well-respected within their organisation.
• fraudulent crime


  • fraudsters have similar characteristics as entrepreneurs, in that they are risk taking, have a need to achieve, and over-optimistic.
• fraudulent crime - they are often motivated by personal gain or greed.
• serial killers


  • Holmes and Holmes identified different types of serial killers with different motivations
• visionary serial killers


  motivated to kill by voices or visions, (often from God or the devil,) and are often declared insane.
• hedonistic serial killers


  motivated by lust or the "thrill," - there is a link between sexual gratification and violence.
• missionary serial killers


  believe they have a calling to eliminate a certain group of people.

  they may stalk a potential victim, and usually have an organised typology.
• terrorism


  terrorists act from a perceived injustice or wrong, and are typically motivated by political or economic issues.
• terrorism


  they try to rationalise their motivations with an illogical perception of the truth.

  they are out of touch with reality and often diagnosed with paranoia or schizophrenia.
• due to the wide range of other types of crime, it is difficult to define it, as there are no set of "symptoms" as there is for other psychological disorders, like autism or schizophrenia.