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Cressey’s Fraud Triangle has been referenced in 8,584 studies and academic papers [1] and is a stalwart of training courses for accounting and audit practitioners and fraud investigators. The Fraud Triangle has endured for three decades in the academic and practitioner worlds. This study aims to explore the origins of Cressey’s Fraud Triangle and challenge its practical value to a fraud investigator.

This study has developed from analysis of a targeted literature review carried out as part of a wider study into occupational fraud and corruption.

Cressey’s name is intrinsically linked to the Fraud Triangle, although he never used the expression during his lifetime. Two of the three motivational factors identified by Cressey (1953) were developed from the earlier work of Svend Riemer (1941), who it is suggested should have equal billing with Donald Cressey for the concepts that led to the creation of the Fraud Triangle.

The paper illustrates the limitations of Cressey’s Fraud Triangle for practitioners.

Many academics and researchers have either misunderstood Cressey’s role in the development of the Fraud Triangle or been unaware of its true origins. Although the pioneering work of Riemer is referenced in a 2014 study on the Fraud Triangle by Alexander Schuchter and Michael Levi, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to identify the influence of Riemer on Cressey’s thinking and the development of the Fraud Triangle.

Fraud omnipresent in the media, the corporate world and the academic literature has attracted a great deal of research interest. Fraud and its various types and forms have been characterized as significant contributing factors to the development of severe financial crises. Recurrent financial crimes in both the private and the public sectors remind us that fraud and its negative consequences paralyze economic entities all over the world. Understanding the multidimensional nature of fraud is key to prevent and detect it. This paper aims to examine the dominant fraud triangle model framework and its variants developed in the accounting literature to provide the etiology of fraud.

Having identified the fraud theory developed so far, we provide a theoretical framework for international fraud triangle.

Understanding the multidimensional nature of fraud is key to prevent and detect it. This paper examines the dominant fraud triangle model framework and its variants developed in the accounting literature to provide the etiology of fraud. Drawing on theoretical insights and useful criticism of the fraud triangle, this paper proposes an international fraud triangle model framework to help auditors, managers, regulators and academics in understanding fraud holistically in the private and public sector in a global context. The authors finally provide an overview of fraud in the Greek Context.

This paper proposes an international fraud triangle model framework.

The purpose of this study is to examine the existing literature on the fraud triangle. The fraud triangle framework, popularized by Donald Cressey and W. Steve Albrecht, has been used to explain financial crimes since the 1940s. The theory includes that workplace financial crime and fraud occurs only when an offender has sufficient opportunity, pressure and rationalization to commit the crime. The fraud triangle has been empirically applied to the array of criminal behaviors and specific financial crimes and offenders internationally to determine if all three elements are necessary for the crimes to occur.

This systematic review summarized 33 empirical studies that have applied all three components of the fraud triangle to study financially criminal behavior committed by both corporations and individuals. The review included published and non-published papers and manuscripts from a variety of sources internationally.

Of the 33 studies included, 32 found support for at least one element of the fraud triangle and 27 found support for all three elements. Overall, these studies have shown that the fraud triangle has generally received support across different subjects, industries and countries.

This research only examined papers using the “fraud triangle” term.

This paper systematically reviewed different types of studies internationally, concluding that the fraud triangle is largely valid internationally as an explanation for financial crimes.

This study empirically examines the effectiveness of Cressey's (1953) fraud risk factor framework adopted in SAS No. 99 in detection of financial statement fraud. According to Cressey's theory pressure, opportunity and rationalization are always present in fraud situations.

We develop variables which serve as proxy measures for pressure, opportunity, and rationalization and test these variables using publicly available information relating to a set of fraud firms and a matched sample of no-fraud firms. We identify five pressure proxies and two opportunity proxies that are significantly related to financial statement fraud. We find that rapid asset growth, increased cash needs, and external financing are positively related to the likelihood of fraud. Internal versus external ownership of shares and control of the board of directors are also linked to increased incidence of financial statement fraud. Expansion in the number of independent members on the audit committee, however, is negatively related to the occurrence of fraud. Further testing indicates that the significant variables are also effective at predicting which of the sample firms were in the fraud versus no-fraud groups.

In 1988, Donald Cressey published a previously overlooked article. According to Cressey, there was a lack in the agenda of corporate crime research concerning theory and conceptual precision of what exactly the scientific object was and how it could reinforce our understanding of white-collar criminality. Cressey stated the idea that a fictitious person, like a corporation, upon which were bestowed properties such as a will of its own (intentions and motivations) and a consciousness to act morally and ethically have a responsibility to follow the order of law, leads to a fundamental theoretical problem in terms of discovering the causes of crimes committed by such a fictitious person. I follow this line of thought about the arguments made by representatives of corporate crime. Specifically, I follow the concept of “decoupling”, by using various techniques of formal logic. The conclusion is that the concept of corporate crime is a logical contradiction (an eternal false statement), but the research has one analytical point which must be incorporated into the research of white-collar criminality: how structural conditions of a corporation’s policy and strategy “produce” or influence the individuals within the corporation to make decisions.

This paper is a research paper based on the technic of formal logic. The design of this research is sentence and modal logic.

The concept of corporate crime is logically a contradiction. Thereby it has no value in the research agenda of white-collar criminality.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no one has done a formal logical analysis based on modal logic to investigate the consistence of the concept corporate crime.

In 1988, Donald Cressey published a previously overlooked article. According to Cressey, there was a lack in the agenda of corporate crime research concerning theory and conceptual precision of what exactly the scientific object was and how it could reinforce the understanding of white-collar criminality. Cressey stated the idea that a fictitious person, such as a corporation, upon which were bestowed properties such as a will of its own (intentions and motivations) and a consciousness to act morally and ethically have a responsibility to follow the order of law, leds to a fundamental theoretical problem in terms of discovering the causes of crimes committed by such a fictitious person. I follow this line of thought about the arguments made by representatives of corporate crime. Specifically, I follow the concept of “decoupling,” by using various techniques of formal logic. The conclusion is that the concept of corporate crime is a logical contradiction (an eternal false statement), but the research has one analytical point which must be incorporated into the research of white-collar criminality: how structural conditions of a corporation’s policy and strategy “produce” or influence the individuals within the corporation to make decisions. The aim of the paper is to prove on logical grounds that the direction of research on corporate crime is on the wrong track to find the truth (basic elements and mechanisms) about white-collar crime.

Using formal logic, specifically modal logic.

The concept “corporate crime” is a logical contradiction.

Concerning the conclusion, the implications has to be that corporate crime is a misleading concept in the research agenda of white-collar crime.

The authors have to reconsider the whole research field of corporate crime research.

To best of my knowledge, no one has before done a critic of corporate crime concept by formal logic.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate an interdisciplinary system of targeted student supports, drawing from social and emotional learning (SEL), culturally responsive practices (CRP) and positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). While these approaches are not often synthesized in research literature, innovative educators are integrating multiple theories and practices to achieve better outcomes for students.

The paper uses a descriptive, participatory case study method, including quantitative and qualitative data from a three-year period. The author was a participant in the change process, as well as an observer documenting the outcomes. The case study takes place in a Spanish/English bilingual elementary school.

PBIS was a strong influence in the three-year systems change process, due in part to the availability of free, research-based tools. The educators adapted PBIS practices to incorporate SEL, and CRP approaches in several instances. Quantitative data show the increase in PBIS implementation fidelity and one student’s progress with a targeted intervention. Qualitative data illustrate the creative, interdisciplinary and contextualized adaptations made by the team.

Guidance is available for educators seeking to implement SEL, CRP and/or PBIS approaches in isolation. To a lesser extent, integrated models are emerging in the literature. There is a need for more descriptive, real-world case examples of how these approaches are implemented and adapted in practice. This study provides educators with one example that can offer examples and implications for practice.

Presents a literature review of reported findings on the analyses of the contents of codes of ethics in corporations and the various strategies, processes, procedures and resources that accompany and support them. The starting point is the seminal paper by Cressy and Moore. In the literature a distinction is drawn between inspirational and prescriptive code types, and this classification becomes a focal point on what is the appropriate subject matter for a code of ethics. The issue remains an unresolved feature of research articles. For some researchers a document that prescribes behaviours is not a code of ethics because it precludes empowerment of addressees to make the ethical decisions. Others consider prescriptive documents to be “best practice” for codes of ethics. The latter authors propose the perspective that the only satisfactory contents for codes are clear and precise behavioural dictates that lend themselves to a supporting disciplinary function. In practice the managers of corporations continue to publish the types of code they favour.

The purpose of this paper, which is based on the author’s study, is to explore the potential use of behavioral analysis in predicting corruption among public officials in Indonesia as part of the corruption prevention measures.

This study examines major corruption cases in Indonesia in the past three years through reports from various institutions regarding fraud-related issues to gain a better understanding of corrupt leaders in Indonesia and how to predict their occurrence by means of observing and analyzing visible behavioral red flags.

The author establishes that in addition to the financial perspective, corruption can be detected and thus prevented by means of behavioral observation and analysis. The discussions in this paper suggest that bad leadership is a major cause of corruption in the Indonesian Government. However, a main reason corrupt leaders are elected into office is because the people failed to recognize them in the first place and accidentally voted for them. Among the signs of bad leadership visible enough for the people to see is the so-called “narcissism” which has four core dimensions: authority, self-admiration, superiority and entitlement. The four core dimensions are often visible in leader candidates in Indonesia which should have been early warning signs of bad leadership which may lead into, among others, corruption. Furthermore, the need for excessive compensation, exposure and power has been a common trait in many corruption offenders in Indonesia and each can be associated with the four core dimensions of narcissism. It is because of such a need that pressure/motivation to commit fraud among Indonesian public officials occurred. Society’s awareness of the signs of narcissism will help them decide who will become their future leaders and diminish the risk of corruption in the country.

This study is self-funded. Therefore, due to the limited resources available, the discussions and analysis on visible behavioral red flags of corruption in this study are built upon secondary data from agencies such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Constitutional Court (MK), the Supreme Audit Board (BPK) and the election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu). For future studies, primary data from the public regarding their opinions toward the past, present and future leadership in Indonesia will offer a more accurate view into visible behavioral red flags of corruption.

This paper contributes to the development of corruption prevention strategy in Indonesia by empowering the society to monitor potentially corrupt leaders so as to prevent them from controlling the country.

This paper demonstrates how the seemingly small and insignificant behavioral clues may become effective tools to predict and prevent the occurrence of corruption in the future.