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Describes recent attempts to help auditors fight financial crime in the USA, focusing on the new Statement on Auditing Standard (SAS). Indicates however auditors may lack sufficient training to recognise or understand fraud, and that accounting students at universities should have anti‐fraud education. Outlines the provision of the new SAS 99, which requires the audit team to brainstorm in order to detect misstatements in client accounts and maintain professional scepticism; auditors also have to question more directly in their investigations of fraud risk, and the SAS introduces the “fraud triangle” and guidelines to help assess risk factors; finally, auditors must respond to the assessments. Reports two recent fraud surveys: the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) found 663 fraud cases for 2002, most of them involving asset misappropriation, and the Pricewaterhouse‐Coopers 2003 survey found similarly. Concludes with a look at ACFE’s higher education programme for fraud, and that of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; the trend in the USA is to provide specific courses on fraud.

This research is a 6-year extension of Bernardi's (2005) initial ranking of the top ethics authors in accounting; it also represents a broadening of the scope of the original data into accounting's top-40 journals. While Bernardi only considered publications in business-ethics journals in his initial ranking, we developed a methodology to identify ethics articles in accounting's top-40 journals. The purpose of this research is to provide a more complete list of accounting's ethics authors for use by authors, administrators, and other stakeholders. In this study, 26 business-ethics and accounting's top-40 journals were analyzed for a 23-year period between 1986 through 2008. Our data indicate that 16.8 percent of the 4,680 colleagues with either a PhD or DBA who teach accounting at North American institutions had authored/coauthored one ethics article and only 6.3 percent had authored/coauthored more than one ethics article in the 66 journals we examined. Consequently, 83.2 percent of the PhDs and DBAs in accounting had not authored/coauthored even one ethics article.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate several variables that are theoretically associated with the internal audit function (IAF) having an active role in corporate governance.

The paper uses responses from 782 US Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) in the CBOK (2006) database for the investigation. The paper makes the assumption that an IAF has only one CAE, thus the dataset represents 782 US IAFs.

It is found that an IAF having an active role in corporate governance is significantly and positively associated with the use of a risk‐based audit plan, existence of a quality assurance and improvement program, and audit committee input to the audit plan. Control variables such as stock exchange listing, firm size, the existence of an internal control framework, and a CAE with an internal auditing qualification also are positively associated with the IAF having an active role in corporate governance.

A limitation of this study is that CAE perceptions may deviate from actual practice. Also, the sample is limited to the US CAEs who are also IIA members, thus it may not reflect the views of non‐members and the CAEs from other countries.

The results have implications for CAEs who wish to increase the chance for their IAFs to play an active role in corporate governance. The IIA may benefit from these results in its supporting role for the internal auditing profession.

The study is complementary to the literature on the existence and size of the IAF and reveals several avenues for further research.

This paper aims to recognise the importance of informal processes within corporate governance and complement existing research in this area by investigating factors associated with the existence of informal interactions between audit committees and internal audit functions and in providing directions for future research.

To examine the existence and drivers of informal interactions between audit committees and internal audit functions, this paper relies on a questionnaire survey of chief audit executives (CAEs) in the UK from listed and non‐listed, as well as financial and non‐financial, companies. While prior qualitative research suggests that informal interactions do take place, most of the evidence is based on particular organisational setting or on a very small range of interviews. The use of a questionnaire enabled the examination of the existence of internal interactions across a relatively larger number of entities.

The paper finds evidence of audit committees and internal audit functions engaging in informal interactions in addition to formal pre‐scheduled regular meetings. Informal interactions complement formal meetings with the audit committee and as such represent additional opportunities for the audit committees to monitor internal audit functions. Audit committees' informal interactions are significantly and positively associated with audit committee independence, audit chair's knowledge and experience, and internal audit quality.

The results demonstrate the importance of the background of the audit committee chair for the effectiveness of the governance process. This is possibly the first paper to examine the relationship between audit committee quality and internal audit, on the existence and driver of informal interactions. Policy makers should recognize that in addition to formal mechanisms, informal processes, such as communication outside of formal pre‐scheduled meetings, play a significant role in corporate governance.

This paper aims to determine current views of educators and practitioners regarding forensic accounting education, given the recent dramatic growth in the number of colleges and universities offering such education.

Survey, with statistical analysis of responses.

Results find that while both groups agree the demand for forensic accounting services will increase in the near future and that they prefer a separate course or degree be offered at the graduate and undergraduate levels, there are several significant differences between the educators’ and practitioners’ opinions on forensic accounting content and preferred teaching techniques. Practitioners consider topics outside traditional accounting as more important to include in forensic accounting education, and more highly value teaching techniques that add an experiential learning component.

Results can be useful to educators who have not considered offering forensic accounting courses or who wish to refine or update their existing forensic accounting education. Students seeking a career in forensic accounting can also use these results to facilitate their course choices to develop skills that employers value.

These results find that practitioners value some nontraditional accounting skills, such as in forensic technology and interviewing, more highly than academics, which suggests accounting educators may need to develop interdisciplinary approaches to forensic accounting education.

As the number of institutions offering forensic accounting education has dramatically increased, current views of forensic accounting educators and practitioners are needed.

Research suggests that gang-involved youth are more likely than non-gang youth to experience victimization. However, very little research has addressed the issue of whether the relationship between gang involvement and victimization depends on the context in which victimization takes place. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the relation between gang involvement and violent victimization in both street and school contexts.

Data were provided by youth (n=421; ages 11-18; 70 percent male; 66 percent non-white) referred by the justice system for intensive home and community-based treatment of problem behavior. At intake, youth reported on their experiences of violent victimization, mental health status, problem behavior, and substance use. Youth and therapist reports were utilized to indicate gang involvement.

Approximately 62 percent of gang-involved youth in the sample were victimized across both contexts. Linear and censored regression models found that on average, gang-involved youth experienced a greater frequency of victimization than non-gang youth (p < 0.001). Importantly, results also show that gang involvement amplifies the impact of victimization on key behavioral and mental health outcomes. Victimization in both street and school contexts increases the risk of serious problem behavior for gang-involved youth (p < 0.001). Victimization experiences in schools in particular also may increase alcohol use among gang-involved youth (p=0.006).

These findings emanating from a unique sample of youth in treatment demonstrate the value of considering victimization in context for intervention programming.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness about internal fraud in small businesses among small business owners, managers, and consultants.

Recent statistics from international fraud surveys are presented, and the theory of why people commit fraud is described. The most common internal fraud schemes as identified in the international fraud surveys are explained, as well as some of the related red flags and preventative measures. Examples of actual internal frauds perpetrated in small businesses are discussed.

This paper summarizes pertinent facts that repeatedly show small businesses are most vulnerable to fraud and suffer a disproportionate median loss when compared to larger businesses. External audits by Certified Public Accountants cannot be relied upon to detect fraud. Owners, managers, and advisors are strongly encouraged to have knowledge of how fraud can affect their organizations in order to prevent or detect fraud and avoid the devastating effect it can have on the small business’s viability.

Fraud knowledge can help owners, managers, and advisors prevent small businesses from falling victim to fraud.

This paper addresses a critical issue to small businesses, but has so far been largely neglected in the literature. While large financial statement frauds receive widespread publicity, they are relatively uncommon compared to asset misappropriation fraud schemes suffered by small businesses.

Leadership, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship.

This case study is intended for undergraduate and graduate levels.

This is a leadership case about Agnes Jean Brugger, founder of the A.J. Brugger Education Project (also known as the A.J. Brugger Foundation (AJBF)) in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It is the story of how and why she and Chris Berry co-founded this unique non-profit foundation in tandem with Piedras Y Olas: Pelican Eyes Resort (PEPO) in the late 1990s. The case focuses on how her identity and values shape the origins of AJBF and how the organization evolves in the context of the Nicaraguan and Anglo-American cultures. “Devoted to assisting Nicaragua through education and development of one of the country's most valuable and treasured resources: its young people”, the vision for AJBF was a cutting edge socially conscious venture that grew to meet the needs of the community that had captured Jean's heart and mind. The case ends in early 2009 on the precipice of the biggest economic down-turn the US economy has experienced in recent history. Standing at the edge of this cliff, Jean contemplates the numerous successful accomplishments of the foundation, while reflecting on the many leadership and organizational problems she, as Founder and Chair of the Board, faces.

The case will help participants to: evaluate and discuss leadership effectiveness, identifying responses to opportunities and challenges; explain cross-cultural identity from the Globe Study model and how it impacts organizational interactions; explore successful models of cross-cultural leadership through the lens of gendered theory; explore the ways in which social entrepreneurship can be seen as an extension of socially-minded leadership; describe how socially-minded entrepreneurship is different from traditional forms of entrepreneurship; describe social identity and evaluate its impact on leadership; and discuss the rich historical and community context that influences interpersonal and organizational dynamics.

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