Design/methodology/approach – 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.