A private investigation is an examination of facts, sequence of events, causes for deviance, and responsibilities for negative incidents. Recent years have seen an increasing use of private internal investigations in terms of the assessment of financial irregularities. The form of inquiry aims to uncover vulnerabilities to unrestricted opportunities, failing internal controls, abuse of position, and any financial misconduct such as corruption, fraud, embezzlement, theft, manipulation, tax evasion and other forms of economic crime. When fraud examiners discover evidence of white-collar crime, they almost always leave it to their clients to decide whether or not to report crime to the police. We examine the gaps in white-collar crime reporting after fraud examination and reasons behind such decisions. In Norway, these gaps could be as high as 96% percent, as calculated in this article. Reasons for non-reporting include concerns over law enforcement interference with business and consequences of law enforcement, lack of trust in the police, and different perceptions of the seriousness of crime. We apply the theoretical approach pioneered by Sykes and Matza (1957) and demonstrate how techniques of neutralization apply to private fraud examiners' reasoning for nonreporting of suspected or detected white-collar crime. We also offer some possible policybased solutions to reduce the identified gaps in reporting.
Research in biosocial criminology and other related disciplines has established links between nutrition and aggressive behavior. In addition to observational studies, randomized trials of nutritional supplements like vitamins, omega‐3 fatty acids, and folic acid provide evidence of the dietary impact on aggression. However, the exact mechanism of the diet‐aggression link is not well understood. The current article proposes that the gut microbiome plays an important role in the process, with the microbiota–gut–brain axis serving as such a mediating mechanism between diet and behavior. Based on animal and human studies, this review synthesizes a wide array of research across several academic fields: from the effects of dietary interventions on aggression, to the results of microbiota transplantation on socioemotional and behavioral outcomes, to the connections between early adversity, stress, microbiome, and aggression. Possibilities for integrating the microbiotic perspective with the more traditional, sociologically oriented theories in criminology are discussed, using social disorganization and self‐control theories as examples. To extend the existing lines of research further, the article considers harnessing the experimental potential of noninvasive and low‐cost dietary interventions to help establish the causal impact of the gut microbiome on aggressive behavior, while adhering to the high ethical standards and modern research requirements. Implications of this research for criminal justice policy and practice are essential: not only can it help determine whether the improved gut microbiome functioning moderates aggressive and violent behavior but also provide ways to prevent and reduce such behavior, alone or in combination with other crime prevention programs.
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