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The purpose of this paper was to study the vexing problem of defining financial exploitation. Advocates and practitioners in the field who have been battling financial exploitation are pleased to observe the increased attention that financial exploitation is receiving at all levels of society. With this increased attention, however, there has been a conflation of terms used to describe financial exploitation, resulting in some confusion about what constitutes financial exploitation.

Fully recognizing that definitions serve different functions, this paper identifies three main purposes of a definition and then describes the myriad ways financial exploitation has been defined in the research literature, by organizations, and in civil and criminal statutes.

Financial exploitation has been defined in multiple ways within and across categories. Furthermore, the definition has expanded over time. This paper proposes the need for greater definitional clarity around the concept of financial exploitation, and argues that at a minimum a distinction must be made between financial exploitation and financial fraud.

This is the first paper to comprehensively review the myriad ways in which financial exploitation has been defined in the literature, by organizations and within state civil and criminal statutes.

Purpose – This chapter will demonstrate the usefulness of mixed methods research in an understudied area of criminology and criminal justice, namely elder financial exploitation.

Methodology/approach – The data and research methodology described in this chapter come from a recently completed comprehensive case study of elder financial exploitation in Florida.

Findings – Elder financial exploitation is a growing social problem in the United States and there is little theoretical or empirical research available regarding the prevalence, risk factors, protective factors, and consequences. Given that the current status of the research literature is largely fragmented and discontinuous, conducting a survey aimed at validation was not possible. Through the mixed method case study involving a literature review, focus group discussions, and interview questions, the authors have developed a theoretical framework for elder financial exploitation that can be quantitatively validated.

Originality/value – This chapter provides justification for the expanded use of mixed methods research for other understudied topic areas within criminology and criminal justice and provides the foundation for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework for explaining elder financial exploitation.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of an online program evaluation survey conducted in the USA in 2018 which was designed to understand how members of an enhanced multidisciplinary team (E-MDT) use the expertise of a forensic accountant (FA) in suspected cases of elder financial exploitation.

This paper analyzes responses to an online survey from 54 E-MDT members. Narrative responses to open-ended questions were analyzed by using cross-case thematic analysis. Data from demographic questions and those with nominal response options were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Overwhelmingly, the E-MDT members described how useful the FA’s expertise and subsequent detailed reports are in helping determine whether financial exploitation is taking place and providing information needed to continue an investigation and pursue criminal charges.

The increasing longevity and sheer number of older adults present ongoing challenges in the fight to address financial exploitation. Findings suggest that FAs working with E-MDTs can help identify signs, collect evidence and help investigate cases of suspected financial abuse of older adults. The development of training programs focused on educating accountants to fill a need in a growing area of forensic accounting may be needed.

This paper adds to the growing evidence of multidisciplinary teams as an effective model for investigating cases of financial elder exploitation by focusing specifically on the expertise of an FA.

Little empirical attention has been given to adult protective services (APS) investigations and the clients involved in those investigations. The purpose of this study was to explore aspects of the APS investigation of and response to reported elder maltreatment, the perceptions of elderly victims and their refusal of services, and to compare findings by the type of maltreatment involved (financial exploitation, physical abuse, neglect, and hybrid financial exploitation).

Data were collected from two sources over a two‐year period: in‐depth interviews with 71 APS caseworkers and 55 of the corresponding elderly victims who experienced substantiated elder maltreatment; and a statewide database that contained 2,142 substantiated cases of elder abuse.

Many aspects of the APS investigation and response differed by the type of maltreatment involved. While elderly victims were generally cooperative and satisfied with the APS intervention, 38 percent would have preferred APS not to investigate their case. Elderly clients responded differentially to offers of assistance, depending on the type of abuse involved, with victims of physical abuse most likely to refuse services.

Future research will want to understand why elderly victims refuse services in order to develop appropriate interventions.

New approaches may be required for intervening in physical abuse cases, including collaborations between APS and domestic violence advocates and the inclusion of services for perpetrators.

This is the first large‐scale study to examine elderly victims' refusal of services, further enhanced by the analysis of refusal of services by type of abuse, thereby revealing a group of victims for which changes in intervention strategies may be necessary.

This study aims to examine the demographic factors of investors, contributing to financial victimization that occurs in Canada from June of 2008 to December of 2019.

In all 235 cases disclosing the details of financial crime victims are collected from the Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) enforcement platform between June of 2009 and December of 2019 for the analysis. The study used a descriptive analysis to showcase the demographic characteristics of investors who have been victims of financial crimes in Canada.

The findings indicate that these investors of age 60 and above were more likely to fall prey to various types of financial crime. The results also disclosed that retirees and investors with limited investment knowledge increase the probability of being vulnerable to the perpetrators than others.

Overall, the study helps regulators in the securities industry gain insights into demographic portraits of the more vulnerable investors. Hence, more precautionary measures could pitch into these concerns to protect specific subsets of investors from investment fraud.

Individuals who are more vulnerable to investment fraud might not be entirely comparable with the stereotypical victims that most studies portray. The research gap could cause individual investors who appear to be at lower risk to unconsciously fall prey to investment fraud. The IIROC study, detailing the demographic factors of victims, can fill the gap and improve understanding of the tendency of victims.

While metrics are becoming increasingly important for marketing’s relevance, there is also a need to understand how they, as enablers of learning, affect marketing’s adaptive capabilities that ensure its long-term success. Therefore, this study aims to test the association of marketing and financial metrics use and the metric-based orientations of training and compensation, with two key marketing routines – exploitation, i.e. the perfecting of existing activities while allowing for incremental adaptations and exploration or experimentation accompanied by radical adaptation.

The study gathers data from 205 managers and uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.

Marketing metrics encourage both forms of marketing adaptation. Financial metrics use discourages exploration. Market orientation and long-term orientation strengthen (weaken) the positive (negative) relationship between marketing (financial) metrics use and marketing exploration. Metric-based training is more positively associated with both adaptive capabilities than a metric-based compensation orientation, albeit weakly.

The study’s central proposition – that different metrics or metric orientations are associated with distinct types of knowledge, interpretations, mindsets, motivations and cultural contexts – provides a deeper theoretical understanding of the pathways by which a metric emphasis affects marketing adaptation.

Marketing managers should emphasize marketing metrics and training more than compensation, to promote marketing exploitation/exploration, while exercising caution in overstressing financial metrics given their negative association with exploration. This latter negative relationship can be weakened (as can the positive one between marketing metrics and exploration be strengthened) with increased market orientation and long-term orientation.

This study addresses the research gap regarding the relationship between metrics as a configurational element of marketing organization and marketing adaptation.

The issue of exploitative labour practices has been a persistent and recurring problem in the textile and garment industry. Despite increased media, policy and practitioners attention the evidence base remains unexplored. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has acknowledged the presence of labour exploitation in global supply chains because of private sectors’ employment practices. The purpose of this study is to apprehend views of multilevel stakeholders to explore the nature and driving mechanisms of exploitation.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 76 respondents from 25 factories from 3 cities of Pakistan i.e. Faisalabad, Lahore and Gujranwala. Convenient and snowball sampling techniques were used because of the complexity of research settings. Transcribed data was analysed with the help of NVivo.

Drawing on qualitative evidence, the study reveals that workers experience a range of exploitation at the workplace, which is unlikely to fall within the scope of severe exploitation. The findings reveal that three types of exploitation exist in Pakistan’s textile and garment industry such as financial, physiological and psychological. Power inequality is the foundation and a fundamental cause of the endurance of exploitation. The study found three mechanisms that facilitate the endurance of exploitation, i.e. distance, profit and oppression.

The study contributes to supply chain literature by exemplifying power inequality. It is crucial for the government to step up efforts to stipulate a minimum wage rate in the textile and garment industry to alleviate labour exploitation. The findings provide motivation for policy and decision-makers to implement incremental changes to global supply chains to protect the rights and welfare of workers, according to the standards of social accountability 8000, the ILO and other world trade stakeholders.

This study argues that the international and local instruments do not specifically address the severe labour exploitation in Pakistan textile and garment industry. Therefore, the need arises to develop a specific instrument to address the problem. In the absence of such an instrument, there is a piecemeal approach by international and local bodies towards the regulation of labour exploitation.

To inform readers of new FINRA Rule 2165 and amended FINRA Rule 4512, which are aimed at protecting seniors from financial exploitation.

This article discusses the scope of the FINRA Rules and amendments, including provisions for temporary holds on disbursements of funds or securities and the revised National Adjudicatory Council (NAC) Sanction Guidelines, and provides the author’s analysis.

This article concludes that the while FINRA Rule 2165 and the accompanying amendments to FINRA Rule 4512 take the apparent position that financial professionals are an initial line of defense against exploitation, brokers could face challenges in implementing the changes, including with the decision-making discretion afforded to them with respect to the “reasonable belief” elements of the rules.

This article contains valuable information about recent FINRA Rules and guidance from an experienced investment management lawyer.

Financial abuse is widely recognised to be an important but under‐reported risk area for vulnerable adults, especially elderly people. This paper provides an introduction to relevant issues, indicators and remedies. It also highlights areas needing further attention both within the professional council and financial systems such as banking.

Currently, consumers of financial products and services have become more vulnerable to predatory financial institutions, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, financial consumers like the persons with disabilities (PWDs) should be equipped with knowledge and skills to help them to evaluate complex financial products on offer in financial markets, especially in developing countries to avoid being victims of fraudulent lending. The purpose of this study is to establish whether customized financial literacy mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

SmartPLS 4.0 was used to construct the measurement and structural equation models to test whether customized financial literacy significantly mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

The results revealed a partial mediating effect of customized financial literacy in the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic. Conducting customized financial literacy increases financial consumer protection by 12 percentage points to promote financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

This study focused only on customized financial literacy and financial consumer protection to promote universal financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs post Covid-19 pandemic. Future studies may use data collected from other vulnerable groups amongst the unbanked population in developing countries, Uganda inclusive. In addition, this study also collected only quantitative data from the selected population. Further studies can be conducted using key informant interviews and focused group discussion to get the perceptions of the PWDs on being protected from exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions.

The findings from this study can help policymakers in developing countries like Uganda to revise the existing consumer protection law to include strong clauses on protection of people with special needs like the PWDs. The law must ensure that they are not exploited by financial institutions because of their conditions. The law ought to make sure that the PWDs are educated about their rights in the financial market place and all information on financial products offered by financial institutions should be simplified and interpreted to them before they make consumption decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is amongst the first few studies to provide a meticulous and unique discourse on the ever increasing role of financial literacy combined with consumer protection to reduce consumption risks within the financial markets, especially in developing countries in the aftermath of global pandemic shocks. This study uses the social learning theory, theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour to elucidate how customized financial literacy can enhance consumer protection to increase financial inclusion of groups with special needs like the PWDs who have become more susceptible to exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions in under-developed financial markets, especially in post Covid-19 pandemic.