CAN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DETER FINANCIAL REPORTING FRAUD?

10.6292/AFPF.2016.07.02

Mahmud Hossain；Santanu Mitra；Zabihollah Rezaee

White-Collar Crimes ； Financial Reporting Fraud ； Accountability ； Capital Punishment ； Islamic Law

Advances in Financial Planning and Forecasting

7期（2016 / 10 / 01）

15 - 25

英文

Financial reporting fraud (FRF) has a significant detrimental impact on society. Though extant literature examines various attributes of FRF, little research has been done on the deterrent factors of FRF. Recently, four perpetrators of a major FRF were sentenced to death by the Sharia (Islamic) court of Iran. This study examines whether or not capital punishment for FRF is relevant and applicable to Sharia-based Islamic societies. After analyzing the efficacy of the death penalty in light of the Quran and Sunnah (the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed), we infer that imposing the death penalty for committing white-collar crimes such as FRF is permissible in Islamic society if such punishment contributes toward maximizing the social welfare of the society by deterring people from committing such crimes in the future. While this article sheds light on the rationale for imposing capital punishment in an Islamic society, we contend that future research should extrapolate the relevance of the death penalty for perpetrators of high-profile FRF in non-Islamic secular countries.

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