The Future of Behavioral Forensics: Developing Psychological Awareness to Complement Financial Fraud Suspicions
Summary
The purpose of this book is not to provide an easy answer. The purpose is to add new ideas to a task that to date have been largely quantitative. We need to continue this conversation to include the qualitative aspects of forensic investigations that may offer a refreshing approach to fraud prevention and detection. Continuing our examination of the ecology of fraud, we suggest doing a psychological autopsy of every governance failure so as to learn more about the interpersonal dynamics that preceded manipulation of information or people, including fraudulent representations, lying, and deception. We emphasize the need for multidisciplinary teams and the complementary approaches of financial, computer, and behavioral forensics to forge a comprehensive approach to tackling the global scourge of fraud. The future of behavioral forensics is likely to include contributions from anthropologists to decode how international fraudsters exploit and arbitrage ethical, legal, and cultural differences to their advantage. Fraud, like many other things, is greatly influenced by the prevailing culture and language in a society, including ethical understandings and expectations and relevant regulation and legislation.