Criminology Research Articles

A study and analysis on the role of legal accounting in fraud detection and prevention

Forensic accountants are CPAs that look for evidence of crimes and commonly work for insurance companies, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies. Forensic accountants analyze financial records and accounts that may be used as legal evidence and often testify in court cases as expert witnesses. Forensic accounting is a specialized area of accounting and a challenging one. A forensic accountant investigates incidents of fraud, bribery, money laundering and embezzlement by analyzing financial records and transactions, tracing assets, and more. This study on forensic accounting services and fraud prevention was empirically investigated. The study is vital as it portrays the extent to which the application of forensic accounting services influence the incidence of fraud in health care firms in Nigeria. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the investigation and the statistical test of parameter estimates was conducted using Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance. The study anchored on the White Collar Crime Theory adopted a Survey Design Approach. Hence, data were collected using questionnaire survey administered to the relevant accounting sections of health care firms in Nigeria. The empirical analysis of the study indicates that the application of forensic accounting service has reduced the incidence of frauds and has also led to fraud prevention at 1% significant level. Thus, the study concludes that the application of forensic accounting services prevents fraud in health care firms in Nigeria. In lieu of this, the study recommended that adequate internal control system should also be established to have checks and balances among the staff to reduce fraud to its nearest minimum, thereby, restoring confidence to potential and prospective investors. Also, since staff of health care firms in Nigeria are strategic in prevention of fraud, their remunerations and welfare should be made a priority and taken serious. Also, training and re-training of these staff would encourage them to detect early warning signals for fraud activities in the company.

On the issue of criminal liability in the national pharmaceutical sector: theoretical foundations and practical aspects

A separate segment in the activity of streamlining, stability, and protection of relations arising in the pharmaceutical sphere should be noted the state’s reaction to criminal offenses and, accordingly, the assessment of the actions of persons who commit such offenses. The aim of the work – is to study the current issues of regulatory and legal support of criminal liability in the pharmaceutical sector. Results. The theoretical nature of the criminal responsibility of pharmaceutical workers is revealed from not only legal but also social and moral positions. The legal basis for the status of pharmaceutical workers as distinct subjects of criminal activity is underscored. It has been proven that the object of crimes committed by pharmaceutical workers as a special subject is, first of all, social relations arising in the sphere of human life and health protection; public health (public health); relations arising during the circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, and precursors. Differences in terminology defining the object of pharmaceutical crimes are emphasized. Conclusions. The main aspects determining the problem of the qualification of crimes committed in the pharmaceutical sector of the healthcare industry were analyzed. From the standpoint of criminal law theory, the object, subject, objective, and subjective sides of pharmaceutical crimes were characterized.

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Version among young people in South Africa and the relationship of high scale scores to reported offending or similar deviant behaviour.

While there is empirical evidence to support associations between psychopathy scale ratings and offending or deviant behaviours, suggested as support for a unified theory of crime, evidence to date has been mainly from countries with high economic ratings and Western philosophies. In countries with a wide range of cultural groups and languages and a complex history of colonisation and apartheid, such scale ratings and correlations may differ. To explore the psychometric properties of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Version (YPI-S) and its applicability and relationship to deviant and actual or potential criminal behaviour among young adults in South Africa. 18- to 20-year-olds from poor socio-economic backgrounds were recruited by a fieldworker with an existing relationship with community-based youth centres. Consenting participants completed the Deviant Behaviour Variety Scale, reflecting criminal or similar behaviours in the 12months prior to rating and the YPI-S. Reliability measurements, principal factor analysis, Spearman's Rho correlations, chi square and multiple regression were used to explore performance of the YPI-S in this sample and relationship of YPI-S scores to deviancy. Of the 213 participants recruited, 176 completed all data points and were entered into analyses. The YPI-S was found to have generally good psychometric properties; however, in factor analysis, while items mapped well into an emotional subscale and quite well into an interpersonal scale, as in the original, behavioural items did not. Emotional, interpersonal and total YPI-S scores were significantly associated with reported deviant behaviour scores. The findings of this study suggest value in using the YPI-S with young people in South Africa to help identify those vulnerable to committing criminal acts. Among these disadvantaged young people, however, caution should be used in interpreting scores on its behavioural dimension. It is interesting that the emotional dimension, which incorporates perhaps the most personal features such as 'callous and unemotional traits' (albeit probably better considered as difficulty in recognising emotions in others), seemed most robust, suggesting that there may be core problems in a pathway to crime-or theory of crime-that transcend culture. This possibility, likely to be remediable through personal interventions, would benefit from further investigation.

On the Impossibility of a Purely Objective Economic Theory of Crime

Abstract This essay argues that a purely objective economic theory of crime (i.e., one devoid of moral or ethical judgments) is impossible. The basis for this claim is the reciprocal nature of causation in externality settings as first pointed out by Coase (1960), which renders the definition of harm indeterminate. At most, economic theory can prescribe an efficient pricing scheme once the direction of causation, and hence the nature of harm, has been defined. The essay concludes by discussing the implications of this idea for civil disobedience, cancel-culture, and victimless crimes.

О некоторых проблемах использования отдельных постулатов «экономической теории преступлений и наказаний» в целях «оптимизации» уровня преступности

The problem of optimizing the level of crime is one of the urgent problems facing domestic and foreign criminology. The relevance of this problem is due to the fact that crime is a phenomenon that causes enormous damage to society, which, on the one hand, reduces the income of the population, and on the other hand, requires certain expenses for the maintenance of the law enforcement system to prevent it, which leads to an increase in the social costs of society.
 The purpose of the study is to determine to what extent certain postulates of the "economic theory of crimes and punishments" proposed by scientists - economists can be used in order to optimize the level of crime.
 The subject of research in this article are the features and patterns of criminal and law enforcement activities, the knowledge of which allows us to conclude that there are or are no problems when using certain postulates of the "economic theory of crimes and punishments" to optimize the level of crime
 Methodology and methods. In the course of the study, an analysis was made of the possibilities of using certain postulates of the "economic theory of crimes and punishments" in order to optimize the level of crime. The implementation of this kind of analysis involves the use of a number of research methods, which include: the method of modeling the behavior of a criminal; a method of testing models of economic postulates of the economic theory of crimes and punishments in specific situations, followed by the formulation of conclusions about the validity or inconsistency of these models, including the use of mathematical and statistical research methods. At the same time, mathematical and statistical research methods were used to determine the level of detection of crimes, as well as to analyze the dependence of the costs of law enforcement and the actual level of crime.
 Research results and their scientific novelty. The study found that in a number of cases the postulates of the economic theory of crimes and punishments do not adequately reflect the existing socio-legal reality. The reason for this is the presence of dubious postulates underlying this or that model of criminal and law enforcement activities. Among such dubious postulates are the following postulates: the postulate that the behavior of the criminal is rational In reality, the behavior of the criminal is not always rational; 2 the postulate that the level of crime is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the costs of law enforcement (in other words, the higher the costs of law enforcement, the lower the level of crime, in reality, in some cases this is far from an obvious fact; 3 the damage from organized crime is always lower than the damage from unorganized crime, since the level of organized crime is allegedly lower than the level of unorganized crime, which is also far from obvious. Based on the analysis of individual postulates of the economic theory of crimes and punishments, it was concluded that the use of these postulates does not always lead to optimization the level of crime, because these postulates do not always adequately reflect the legal reality.

The Theory of Substantial Cognitive Capacity of Criminal Defendants with Mental Disorders in China: Theoretical Content and Judicial Application

When dealing with criminal cases involving defendants with mental disorders in China, the theory of substantial cognitive capacity holds significant importance. Although derived from the insanity defense rule of the U.S. Model Penal Code, this concept exhibits certain distinctions. Forensic experts in China frequently deem defendants with mental disorders as lacking substantial cognitive capacity, thus rendering them not criminally responsible. The Chinese theory of substantial cognitive capacity possesses its unique characteristics, setting China apart from other countries in addressing the insanity defense issue. Consequently, introducing this Chinese theory to scholars in other jurisdictions holds considerable academic value. However, the interpretation of substantial cognitive capacity and its relation to cognitive capacity remain subjects of controversy in China, with inconsistent application of this theory. Specifically, some scholars have advocated the theory of common sense cognitive capacity, effectively challenging the mainstream theory of substantial cognitive capacity. The author contends that substantial cognitive capacity should be comprehended from the perspective of the dialectical unity of “phenomenon” and “essence”. The term “substantial cognitive capacity” should be employed from a negative standpoint to underscore the progressive link between the possession of “formal” cognitive capacity and the loss of “substantial” cognitive capacity, while the theory of common sense cognitive capacity should be dismissed. The proper judicial application of the theory of substantial cognitive capacity aids in adhering to the normative requirements of criminal law, emphasizes the logic of stratified criminal theory, and furnishes the judiciary with a theoretical instrument for appropriately handling criminal cases.

The Deviance and Relationship between Locus of Control, Control Ratio, and Self‐Control

The purpose of the current study is to examine the widely used term controllability through analysis of three important factors, based on three known theories of delinquency: The first factor, the control ratio, is the relationship between people's perception of their control over their environment and their perception of the environment's control over them (Tittle, Control Balance: Toward a General Theory of Deviance, Westview, 1995; Tittle, Theor. Criminol., 8, 2004, 395; Tittle, Recent Developments in Criminological Theory, Routledge, 2017). The second factor, locus of control, differentiates between people who think they control their own lives and those who feel that their lives control them (Rotter, Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80 (1, Whole No. 609), 1966). Finally, the third factor, self‐control, relates to people's ability to direct their behavior (Gottfredson & Hirschi, A general Theory of Crime, Stanford University, 1990). Five research hypotheses were examined: (1) the higher the internal locus of control, the lower the external locus of control – fate and others; (2) the higher the self‐control, the higher the internal locus of control/control ratio; (3) the greater the lack of control (i.e., the lower the control ratio), the greater the external locus of control; (4) the lower the self‐control, the higher the external locus of control/lack of control; (5) the higher the control ratio, the higher the internal locus of control. Questionnaires were completed by 215 undergraduate students from four different faculties from the same university, 53 males and 58 females studying psychology or social work (i.e., therapy‐oriented disciplines), 58 males and 46 females studying economics or law (i.e., non‐therapy‐oriented disciplines). The findings of the study reinforced all five hypotheses, thereby providing an additional layer of infrastructure for conducting the important mapping of various factors that are part of controllability. The results also enabled ties and connections to be made between these and additional factors, on the road to understanding, coping with and intervening in a range of human activities in general, and deviant behavior specifically.

Cartel Practices in Relation to Rice Supply Chains

This study discusses cartel practices in the rice supply chain with a focus on the implications of the Indonesian Farmer Shop (TTI) program. The complex rice supply chain has affected the price of consumer rice and farmers' grain. This study uses a qualitative approach with a normative juridical method and organized crime theory. The results of the study show that although the TTI program has a clear basis, cartel practices emerge due to the domination of actors in rice marketing and laxity in implementing policies. The TTI program creates shorter supply chains, but cartel practices still exist. This research reveals that cartel practices arise from the implementation of the TTI program which is controlled by certain parties with strong control. Obstacles in bookkeeping and supply management also influenced the emergence of cartels. Cartel practices arise not because of regulations, but because of their implementation which tends to be abused by cartel actors.

Evaluating the Individual Criminal Responsibility of Gukurahundi Perpetrators under International Law

The aim of this article is to evaluate whether individual criminal responsibility (ICR) is attributable to perpetrators of the Gukurahundi atrocities committed in Matabeleland and Midlands, Zimbabwe, between 1983 and 1987. The criminal liability of Gukurahundi perpetrators is evaluated against the legal requirements garnered from conventions, jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals and the work of leading scholars. Firstly, the article provides an overview and historical development of the concept of ICR under international law. Second, it examines the theories of criminality under international law. Third, it analyses the forms and modalities of ICR including relevant specific crimes. Fourth, it evaluates the individual and superior responsibility of Gukurahundi perpetrators. A crucial feature of international criminal law is the legal obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of international crimes. The article therefore explores the different ways in which ICR could be attributed to perpetrators of the Gukurahundi international crimes. The author sets out to advance knowledge and understanding of possible mechanisms to hold perpetrators of the Gukurahundi atrocities criminally accountable under international law.

전통적 정의론에 따른 범죄피해자 개념의 고찰

The laws and systems that have not grasped the essence of the purpose of recovering the damage of “crime victims” without accurately organizing the concept of crime victims are very dangerous. Fundamentally, the concept of crime victims is relative. It is also the reason for the relativity of the concept that a crime victim can be defined only when it is determined who is a criminal and what is a crime. However, the reason why it is difficult to define the concept of crime victims is that the concept is inevitably different depending on which theory of justice is selected.
 Traditional justice theories do not define the social role of crime victims or even their definitions. Furthermore, traditional justice does not see criminals as social evils or objects that should be permanently separated from society, but also criminals as members of society who pursue individual freedom and interests as rational human beings with free will.
 In the theory of retribution justice, the existence of crime victims seems to be only a means of determining the amount of punishment in the active aspect of requesting that the degree of disadvantage deserved be proportional to criminal damage. However, in the negative aspect, retaliation is a disadvantage that only justifies the existence of punishment and is not related to the amount of punishment, so crime victims are not considered.
 Utilitarianism can be said to be the sum of human responses to the distribution result, not the distribution method of goods. Maximizing the subjective value of utility, in terms of goods, the distribution of goods and the objective sum of goods are always constant. Therefore, it is not possible to confirm how crime victims are defined and what values and respect should be received within society. In Hegel's theory of absolute punishment, there is no room for a crime victim to intervene in the national punishment right, and his absence becomes clear. The state should never reflect the victim’s subjective sense of damage in punishment. If a criminal is approved as a right holder to be punished by his/her criminal act itself as an existence of immediate will, there will be no room for the criminal victim to exist in the action of the right to punish.
 Furthermore, it was confirmed that the distribution of fair resources is emphasized as a matter of welfare, resources, and opportunities if it is approached in terms of means of equal distribution for the purpose of guaranteeing more equal freedom.
 As such, traditional criminal theories approach how to punish criminals from the perspective of justice, so they do not consider the concept of crime victims at all, or the treatment of crime victims is not a matter of justice. However, it can be seen that the principle of proportionality presented as a means of pursuing justice in most justice theories cannot be fully explained by excluding crime victims.

Influence of Forensic Accounting Services on Fraud Reduction in Nigerian Public Sector Organization

This study on forensic accounting services and fraud prevention in the Nigerian public sector was empirically investigated. The study is vital as it portrays the extent to which the application of forensic accounting services reduces the incidence of fraud in the government sector of Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the investigation and the statistical test of parameter estimates was conducted using Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance. The study anchored on the White Collar Crime Theory adopted a Survey Design Approach. Hence, data were collected using questionnaire survey administered to the relevant accounting sections of federal government ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals in Awka metropolis. The empirical analysis of the study indicates that the application of forensic accounting service has reduced the incidence of frauds and has also led to fraud prevention at 1% significant level. Thus, the study concludes that the application of forensic accounting services prevents fraud in the in Nigerian public sector organizations. In lieu of this, the study recommended that government should establish a Public Recovery Fund (PRF), where funds collected through forensic accounting should be held and properly used to improve the performance of Nigerian public sector. Also, forensic accounting services are recommended in the Nigerian public sector as it brings fraud and other fraudulent practices to its lowest level.

Corporate criminals in a market context: enforcement and optimal sanctions

By combining approaches from the economic theory of crime and of industrial organization, this paper analyzes optimal enforcement for three different forms of corporate misconduct that harm competition. The analysis shows why corporate crime is more harmful in large markets, why governments have a disinclination to sanction firms whose crime materializes abroad, and why leniency for those who self-report their crime is a complement, and not a substitute, to independent investigation and enforcement. As public authorities rely increasingly on self-reporting by companies to detect cartels, the number of leniency applications is likely to decline, and this is borne out by data. Upon a review of 50 cases of corporate liability from five European countries, competition law enforcement, governed by a unified legal regime, is more efficient than enforcement in bribery and money laundering cases, governed by disparate criminal law regimes. Sanction predictability and transparency are higher when governments cooperate closely with each other in law enforcement, when there are elements of supra-national authority, and when the offense is regulated by a separate legal instrument. Given our results, Europe would benefit from stronger supra-national cooperation in regulation and enforcement of transnational corporate crime, especially for the sake of deterrent penalties against crime committed abroad.

Transdisciplinary theory of the nature of crime as an expression of a symbiotic complex approach

The issue of combating crime has always been a priority for every rule-of-law state. The low level of crime is a symbiosis of effectively implementing a system of balanced measures. However, these measures must necessarily consider the specific features of the theoretical perception and awareness of crime as a phenomenon and features of the formation of the criminal's personality. The topic of the article is characteristics of the essence and components of the transdisciplinary theory of the nature of crime. The object of research is the symbiotic theory of crime. The authors used the following methods: data integration and meta-analysis, behavioral assessments, collaborative research, literature review, conceptual mapping and others. The authors focus on the main research areas into the nature of the crime, neurocriminology and behavioural epigenetics as conceptually new subfields of criminology, biological correlates of deviant behaviour and sociological theories of the nature of the crime. A qualitatively new symbiotic theory of crime is proposed, combining a three-element structure: an autonomous connection of biological (anthropogenic) factors and sociological ones; the final connecting element of such a symbiosis is the human psyche.

The Connections Between Control Attitude, Locus of Control and Self-Control

The main purpose of the current study is to examine the widely-used term controllability through analysis of three important factors that continuously receive scientific attention- based on three known theories of delinquency and crime: The first factor; the control ratio is the relationship between people's perception of their control over their environment and their perception of the environment's control over them [1-3]. The second factor; locus of control; differentiates between people who think they control their own lives and those who feel that their lives control them [4]. Finally, the third factor, self-control relates to people's ability to direct their behavior [5]. This third factor; whereby the person is both the subject and the object, is more focused than the first two, as it relates to the people themselves, not to their external environment. Five research hypotheses were examined: (1) the higher the internal locus of control, the lower the external locus of control - fate and others ; (2) the higher the self-control, the higher the internal locus of control/control ratio; (3) the greater the lack of control (i.e., the lower the control ratio), the greater the external locus of control; (4) the lower the self-control, the higher the external locus of control/lack of control; (5) the higher the control ratio, the higher the internal locus of control. Questionnaires were completed by 215 undergraduate students from four different faculties from the same university, 53 males and 58 females studying psychology or social work (i.e., therapy-oriented disciplines), 58 males and 46 females studying economics or law (i.e., non-therapy-oriented disciplines). The findings of the study reinforced all five hypotheses, thereby providing an additional layer of infrastructure for conducting the important mapping of various factors that are part of controllability. The results also enabled ties and connections to be made between these and additional factors, on the road to understanding, coping with and intervening in a range of human activities in general, and deviant behavior specifically.

Integrating Norms, Knowledge, and Social Ties into the Deterrence Model of Cartels: A Survey Study of Business Executives

We expand the rational choice theory of crime, as applied to cartels, with three psychological factors—personal norms, social norms and social ties—and knowledge of competition law. Through a survey of Dutch businesses, we find that adding psychological factors substantially increases the explanatory power of the model: All predict attitudes toward future cartel behavior, with personal norms as the strongest (negative) predictor. Better knowledge of competition law relates to stronger deterrence and norms against collusion. We conclude that psychological factors and knowledge of the law are likely necessary to understand and prevent potential cartel behavior.

DEVELOPMENT CRIMINOLOGY: A COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION OF CRIME AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

Development Criminology is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the relationship between crime and social progress. It explores how social, economic, political, and cultural factors contribute to criminal behaviour and how crime, in turn, affects the development of societies. This paper provides a detailed overview of Development Criminology, discussing its historical context, theoretical foundations, key concepts, research methodologies, and practical implications for crime prevention and policy development. By understanding the complexities of crime and its connections to social development, policymakers and practitioners can design more effective strategies to create safer, more equitable communities. KEYWORDS: Development Criminology; Sociological Aspects of Crime; Crime; Theory of Crime

On Economic Theories of Criminal Punishment: Pricing, Prevention, or Proportionality?

Abstract This article examines competing economic theories of crime and punishment within a common analytical framework. The theories—due to Becker (1968), Posner (1985), and Adelstein (1981)—share the view of crime as exchange, but differ in the interpretation of punishment; specifically, is it aimed at pricing crime, preventing crime, or achieving corrective justice? The hybrid model used to address this question, originally developed by Hylton (2005), explicitly incorporates market exchange as an alternative to criminal exchange. The results show that the optimal enforcement policy generally involves maximal punishment (however that is defined), but the optimal probability of apprehension can be high or low, depending on the parameters of the model. In the latter case, crime may completely crowd out the market. (JEL K14, K42)

Criminal Bodies in Popular Victorian and Modernist Detective Fiction

This paper will examine the representation of the criminal body in detective fiction from the popular Victorian story magazine The Strand in its relationship to modernist experimental fiction which draws on the detective genre. Offering a broad survey of the Sherlock Holmes and other detective stories published in the first fourteen years of The Strand (1891-1904), the paper will argue that the period’s theories of criminal anthropology and hereditary criminality are consistently called into question in the popular magazine, suggesting that late-Victorian detective fiction was ambivalent toward theories of biologically determined criminality and was alive to problems of racial and class prejudice, corruption, and misidentification in criminal detection. Moving from the popular press to the canon, the paper will then make a claim for reading literary texts like G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale alongside the classic detective fiction of the popular press. To understand these novels in their engagements with classic detective fiction is to reconceptualize the notion of a neat divide between the period’s genres of fiction and to reach for a broader frame of literary responses to early criminology.

Self-Control and Delinquency in China: Examining the Mediating Role of Thoughtfully Reflective Decision Making

Since Gottfredson and Hirschi proposed the general theory of crime, the direct link between self-control and delinquency has gained strong empirical support. The indirect link, however, remains understudied. Meanwhile, although Gottfredson and Hirschi argued that self-control theory can be applied in all cultural contexts, its generalizability needs to be tested under different circumstances. This study addressed these gaps by assessing the relationship between self-control and delinquency in China and introducing thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM) as the mediator of this relationship. Using self-reported data from the city of Changzhi, China, this study finds that (a) self-control is closely related to TRDM, (b) low self-control is significantly related to general and property delinquency for those with low morality, and (c) TRDM mediates the relationship between low self-control and delinquency for those with low morality. We discuss these findings and their implications for theory, research, and policy.

Study of Financial Fraud Based on Crime Theory

Capital markets have flourished in recent years, and while regulatory forces have continued to advance, there is no shortage of leakages that have caused major shocks to capital markets. It has seriously threatened the confidence of market participants in financial information and deteriorated the quality of the audit function. In order to safeguard the interests of all parties in the capital markets and to promote a thriving industry and business, the fraud problem needs to be curbed more effectively. In this paper, we will focus on five aspects of the case, namely the characteristics of the fraudster, the secret of fraud, the mechanism of incentivising fraud, internal and external monitoring and the results of fraud, from the Crime theory, taking YiHua Lifestyle Technology Co.Ltd. as an example, and offer fraud prevention advice on internal corporate governance, business strategies and external auditing.