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The purposes of this paper are to highlight those topics of forensic accounting that have received little or no attention in the forensic accounting research that has been published in forensic accounting research journals; discover what research methods have been most commonly used; and identify research methods that have been infrequently used.

This is a descriptive research study that explores the topics and methods used in forensic accounting research published in forensic accounting journals.

Fraud and quantitative methods make up the largest percentage of topics and research methods published in forensic accounting journals.

Limited to forensic accounting journals. Results suggest forensic accounting researchers are using mimetic topics and methods of accounting research. The absence of diversity in forensic accounting research topics and methods has the potential to compromise the overall contribution of forensic accounting research.

This paper identifies gaps in topics and research methods in forensic accounting research to encourage research in diverse topics using diverse methods that will be valuable to forensic accountants.

This original research is the first to survey and classify research published in forensic accounting journals according to topic and method.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of crime-related forensic accounting methodology in the USA.

The author describes how these early methods have evolved through the use of technology.

The author also discusses the next generation of crime-related forensic accounting tools and techniques which, although in limited use today, will grow to widespread use in the near future.

This viewpoint is a summary of a presentation made at the 3rd National Forensic Accounting Teaching and Research Symposium held at the Queensland University of Technology on February 10, 2014.

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 paper aims to investigate Task Performance Fraud Risk Assessment (TPFRA) and Knowledge Requirement (KR) of the forensic accountant and auditor on Fraud-Related Problem Representation (FRPR) in the Nigerian public sector.

The study used cross-sectional design and 400 survey questionnaires. The respondents are real professional people (auditors and forensic accountants in the Nigerian public sector) as true representatives to enhance the generalization of the outcomes. A total of 36 indicator items was measured on five-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling 2.0 3M and IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 were used as the primary statistical analysis tool for the study.

The results of the present study confirm the positive relationship between KR on TPFRA, positive relationship of KR on FRPR and positive relationship of FRPR and TPFRA. Specifically, the results revealed that FRPR positively mediates the relationship between TPFRA and KR (forensic accountant and auditor) in the areas of fraud prevention, detection and response.

The first limitation deals with fraud and corrupt practices in a developing country, Nigeria. Examining the mediating influence of FRPR on KR and TPFRA in the public sector could be considered as sensitive and raise the issue of bias. The second limitation is the adoption of cross-sectional design in which data are collected at one point in time. Researchers are encouraged to use a longitudinal design to explore interactions between KR, FRPR and TPFRA.

This empirical study has revealed the value of KR (forensic accountant and auditor) as a significant capability requirement in the workplace. In addition, it shows the importance of FRPR as an important mental state in decision-making or judgment and also the significance of FRPR as an important mediating variable on KR and TPFRA.

No nation is immune to fraud, and loss due to fraud in the public sector is enormous and costly; the result of this research will improve the KR of auditors and forensic accountants in the areas of fraud detection, prevention and response. It will also contribute to the regulatory, legal and institutional frameworks in accounting and auditing systems in Nigeria and portend an increase in demand for forensic accountants.

This paper aims to investigate factors which may influence or bias judges’ decisions to exclude or admit the testimony of accounting expert witnesses, under the US judicial guidelines commonly known as the Daubert/Kuhmo standards. Accounting experts are increasingly providing expert testimony as a part of financial litigation support services.

Judges’ decisions, in which opposing council evoked a Daubert/Kuhmo challenge to the testimony provided by 130 professional accountants serving as expert witnesses, were analyzed. The period of study was 2010 through 2014. Based on prior research, three variables believed to potentially influence or bias judges to systematically exclude expert testimony were examined: gender, complexity and familiarity.

The results of binary logistic regression show that none of the variables has a significant relationship to the accounting expert witnesses’ probability of surviving a challenge to Daubert/Kuhmo standards. Findings suggest that judges are objective in evaluating the testimony provided by accounting experts under Daubert/Kuhmo guidelines and that they may be immune to biases based solely on gender, complexity and familiarity.

These results will be of interest to judges, lawyers and forensic accountants acting as expert witnesses.

This paper aims to propose the application of the Crime Triangle of Routine Activity Theory to fraud events as a complement to the universally accepted Fraud Triangle.

The application of the Crime Triangle is illustrated using scenarios of asset misappropriations by type of perpetrator: external perpetrator, employee, management and the board and its governing bodies.

The Crime Triangle complements the Fraud Triangle’s perpetrator-centric focus by examining the environment where fraud occurs and the relevant parties that play their role in preventing fraud or not playing their role, and thus, allowing the occurrence of fraud. Applying both triangles to a fraud event provides a comprehensive view of the fraud event.

The scenarios are limited to asset misappropriations with one perpetrator. Future research can apply both triangles to different types of fraud and cases where perpetrators collude to commit fraud.

This paper maps the Crime Triangle to the Fraud Triangle to provide forensic accounting practitioners and researchers with a comprehensive perspective of a fraud event. This comprehensive perspective of fraud is the starting point to designing fraud risk management strategies that address both the perpetrator and the environment where the fraud event occurs.

This paper is the first to propose the application of the established Crime Triangle environmental criminology theory as a complement to the Fraud Triangle to obtain a comprehensive perspective of a fraud event.

This study aims to examine the influence of attitude, subjective norm and adherence to Islamic professional ethics on fraud intention in financial reporting among Muslim accounting practitioners in the Malaysian banking institutions.

A questionnaire was used for a sample of 121 Muslim accounting practitioners who are participants in the financial reporting process of Malaysian banking institutions. The data are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The study found that attitude and subjective norms are positively significant in influencing fraud intention in financial reporting. In other words, the more the respondents were in favour of fraud and perceived that their referent groups would approve or support the behaviour, the stronger their intentions to commit fraud. On the other hand, the result for Islamic professional ethics is insignificant, which indicates that the Muslim accounting practitioners may not be significantly influenced by the Islamic code of professional ethics on their intention towards fraud in financial reporting.

The study adds to the scant literature investigating factors influencing Malaysian accounting practitioners’ intentions for fraud in financial reporting in the banking sector. The limitations include the use of scenario leading to the issue of social desirability bias and the use of purposive sampling technique that limits the generalizability of the results.

The findings provide potential avenues for Malaysian banking sector managers to enhance their recruitment and training programmes and give some insights to the public, especially the banks shareholders and depositors, into the fraud in financial reporting intention of the actual participants in the financial reporting process.

To the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to examine, in the Malaysian banking setting, the influence of attitude, subjective norms and adherence to Islamic professional ethics on the fraud intention in financial reporting among accounting practitioners. There are few investigations to date on the factors of influencing or mitigating the accounting practitioners’ intention to commit fraudulent reporting.

This study aims to examine the influence of attitude, subjective norm and ethical judgement on unethical financial reporting intention among Malaysian accounting practitioners in the banking industry.

For achieving the objective, a questionnaire survey was used. With the inclusion of 121 samples of participants in the financial reporting process, data analysis was conducted using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm and ethical judgement are significant in influencing unethical financial reporting intention, with ethical judgement having the smallest effect on such intention.

The findings of this study are useful in guiding the management and regulators to develop strategies to curb the occurrence of unethical financial reporting. This study also gives some insights to the public, especially the banks’ shareholders and depositors, into the unethical financial reporting intention of actual participants in the financial reporting process, who are being entrusted to handle the reporting affairs of banking institutions.

This study is the first to examine the factors influencing accounting practitioners’ intention to financial reporting fraud in a Malaysian banking setting. As it examines the actual participants in the financial reporting process, the results contribute towards a better understanding on unethical financial reporting intention within banking institutions as highly regulated industry. Additionally, it provides evidence for the suitability of the PLS-SEM in statistical analysis.