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To examine identity theft in the United States and to provide an overview and assessment of recent legislation designed to assist identity theft victims and punish offenders.

Statistics on the prevalence of identity theft are included, as well as details from a fact‐based, fairly typical case of identify theft. An overview of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and the Identity Theft Penalty Act (ITPEA) are provided, and the provisions of each act are analyzed.

It will take time to determine to what extent the provisions in FACTA and ITPEA will prevent or reduce identity theft. No doubt, in the future, there will amendments to both acts.

Future empirical studies could inform all interested parties by examining the impact of the FACTA and ITPEA over a multi‐year time frame. Moreover, cross‐cultural comparisons focusing on the ways in which other nations address identity theft will also shed light on the issues discussed herein.

The topic of identity theft remains salient to researchers as well as criminal justice practitioners and victim advocates. Public education to increase knowledge of identity theft, and to provide information and resources for victims, will be critical in the future.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the trends of various types of data breaches and their compromised records in the USA using a new model recently developed by the authors.

The 2,280 data breaches and over 512 million related compromised records tracked by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse from 2005 through 2010 were analyzed and classified into four external, five internal and one non-traceable data breach categories, after which trends were determined for each.

The findings indicate that although the trends for the annual number of data breaches and each of the internal and external categories and their related compromised records have increased over the six-year period, the changes have not been consistent from year to year.

By classifying data breaches into internal and external categories with the use of this new data breach model provides an excellent methodological framework for organizations to use to develop more workable strategies for safeguarding personal information of consumers, clients, employees and other entities.

The topic of data breaches remains salient to profit and nonprofit organizations, researchers, legislators, as well as criminal justice practitioners and consumer advocate groups.

Auditors use behavioral red flags (BRFs) to examine which individuals are more prone to unwarranted behavior such as corruption and asset misappropriation. Using a rich data set from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), we analyze the impact of BRFs on loss sizes from asset misappropriation. We control for antifraud mechanisms established at the company level and other factors both at the individual and the firm level. Performing an exploratory factor analysis yields six factors for BRFs which capture the principal perpetrator's situation both at the private level and the workplace. A general wheeler-dealer attitude and financial distress significantly increase loss sizes. By contrast, we find no evidence that nonmonetary private problems lead to higher losses.

In this article, we examine the ways in which older women’s experiences of imprisonment, aging, and health impact their lives. Specifically, we focus on the community reintegration experiences of older women who have served long prison sentences, exploring the lasting effects of imprisonment and aging on their physical and mental health. Two separate Canadian studies of reintegration, consisting of interviews with older reintegrating women, as well as the professionals who assist them in the community, are used to highlight older women’s reintegrations. While researchers have argued that older women should face fewer challenges during reintegration and are more likely to succeed in the community than other reintegrating populations, we find that they experience many difficulties and barriers linked to their age, health and gender.

The purpose of this paper is to explore pathways to fraud perpetrated in accounting-related roles, focusing both on situationally driven attitudes and contextual elements.

Drawing on an anomie-based criminological taxonomy developed by Waring et al. (1995) and Weisburd and Waring (2001), which highlights individual attitudes and situational elements and their connection to illegitimate behaviour, the authors perform a qualitative content analysis of available media and court-reported information on a hand-collected database of 192 accountant frauds in Australia during the period 2001-2011.

The analysis highlights four distinct pathways to accountant fraud – crisis responders, opportunity takers, opportunity seekers and deviance seekers – and the relative distribution of identified cases among these pathways. It also identifies the prevalence of gambling, female offenders, small and medium enterprises as victims, as factors in fraud, as well as the relatively unsophisticated methods in much accountant fraud. In addition, it establishes the importance of situational attitude in moderating inherent character as it relates to fraudulent behaviour and the variable importance of the fraud triangle elements across the pathways to accountant fraud.

This paper provides direct evidence on the nature and pathways to accountant fraud, thus improving understanding of a significant category of occupational fraud. The evidence challenges conventional characterisations of accountant fraud offenders in prior research.

The purpose of this paper is to review the “state of the art” in research on police legitimacy. The authors consider two bodies of theory and empirical research on police legitimacy: one rooted in social psychology and concerned with individual attitudes, and the other based on organizational institutionalism. The authors contrast the theories, discuss the methods with which propositions have been examined, and take stock of the empirical evidence. The authors then turn to a direct comparison of the theories and their predictions.

Critical review and comparison of two bodies of literature.

Police legitimacy is a phenomenon that can be properly understood only when it is addressed at both individual and organizational levels. A large body of social psychological research on police legitimacy has been conducted at the individual level, though it has dwelled mainly on attitudes, and the empirical evidence on the relationships of attitudes to behavior is weak. A much smaller body of research on organizational legitimacy in policing has accumulated, and it appears to have promise for advancing our understanding of police legitimacy.

The understanding of police legitimacy can be deepened by the juxtaposition of these two bodies of theory and research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the various methods available when conducting a pre‐employment screening investigation in attempt to hire honest employees, those less likely to commit fraud against their organization. While many companies perform the most basic type of background check, this paper suggests that companies need to go beyond the basics when hiring its employees.

By reviewing the existing literature and conducting interviews with experts in the area of background investigation services, the paper makes suggestions for companies to follow.

Merely relying on the most basic background check may lead to the hiring of the wrong employee, one likely to commit fraud. Companies should consider performing other screening techniques before hiring an employee.

Background checks have become a widely‐recognized method of pre‐employment screening. However, these checks are just one part of the employee selection process and companies should understand both the practical and legal implications of conducting additional testing.

The guidance provided in this paper will aid companies in the pre‐employment selection process. Both basic and more advanced techniques are discussed and companies can choose any or all of the recommended methods.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a series of hypotheses regarding the use of procedurally just policing during suspect encounters.

Systematic social observation data from police encounters with suspects are used (N=939). Ordinary least-squares regression models are estimated to evaluate the effects of four variable clusters (i.e. suspect self-presentation, situational factors, suspect social characteristics, and officer characteristics) on procedurally just policing practices.

Results from the regression models show that the most salient predictors of police officers exercising authority in a procedurally just manner include the level of self-control displayed by suspects, the number of citizen onlookers, whether the encounter involved a traffic problem, the race/ethnicity of suspects, and suspects’ social status.

This study focused only on police-suspects encounters where compliance requests were made. While the size of the sample is relatively large, the results from this study do not generalize to all types of police encounters with members of the public.

This research adds to an emerging body of research focused on predicting procedurally just practices in police encounters. The findings support increased attention to theories that explain police-citizens interactions, and also indicate that further consideration to the measurement of police behavior is warranted.