Avenues for Future Research
A great deal of psychological research has been done in the area of rationalization. Work in this
area has generally not been considered by accounting researchers and could be used to help our
understanding of the psychology of the fraudster.
An examination of the nature of rationalizations used by perpetrators of fraud could help us to
better understand how perpetrators try to justify their actions.
Prior research has shown that personality matters in economic crimes. Further work in this area
could help us to better understand the extent to which personality traits—by themselves—are
important in understanding the fraudster, and it could serve as a springboard into understanding the
effect of the ‘‘person 3 context’’ interaction on fraudulent behavior.
Research that examines individuals’ innate psychological characteristics might be explored in hopes
of developing a better understanding of the factors that drive the actions of white-collar criminals.
Future research can examine how attitudes and moral values of individuals in different societies
around the world are affected by their economic and social environment, and how a combination of
such factors might be associated with the incidence of fraudulent financial reporting, other fraud
acts, and financial crime.
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