Detection and the Perception of Detection
In the area of detection, non-accounting research offers some scoring methodologies that might
be helpful in more efficiently using red flags to detect fraud. Further, it may be useful in developing
risk assessment frameworks that might be applicable for fraud in accounting (Dionne et al. 2009).
Non-accounting researchers have also investigated whistle-blowing as well as the role of regulation.
Regulators and future research might consider motivations for higher levels of whistle-blowing and
less frequent passive silence as well as the role of regulation particularly with regard to the relative
successes and failures of regulatory regimes, policies, and procedural alternatives offered in a global
marketplace.
A largely unexplored area of accounting research is the professional area of interviewing for
the detection of deception. Ben-Shakhar and Elaad (2002) and Seymour et al. (2000) examined
interviewing and deception, but not in an accounting or auditing context. Accountants and auditors
find themselves in the role of interviewer (i.e., information gathering) virtually every day. The
ability to accurately identify symptoms of deception could be a valuable skill in the auditing
context. Yet, the means by which auditors should be trained, the relative amounts of training
required to obtain some level of proficiency, and other issues associated with interviewing are
largely unexplored in accounting research.