Exploring the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and intentions to commit financial statement fraud: A general deterrence perspective

Fraudulent financial reporting has cost investors hundreds of billions of dollars over the past decade, and due to the degree of malfeasance, regulators have responded with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). SOX contains mechanisms that are designed to reduce the occurrence of financial statement fraud by strengthening potential sanctions through increased sentencing guidelines and by increasing the certainty of sanctions through the promotion of stronger internal controls. However, little research has been conducted to determine whether the deterrence mechanisms inherent in SOX are effective for reducing an individual's propensity to fraudulently report financial data. This study utilizes General Deterrence Theory (GDT)--a utility-based criminological theory that suggests the threat of punishment will deter illicit behavior--as a theoretical base to examine how individual attitudes about fraudulent reporting, and intentions to commit such acts, are affected by SOX-based deterrence mechanisms. Specifically, the study uses an experiment to examine how threats of longer jail time relate to individual attitudes and perceptions of subjective norms about financial statement fraud. In addition, the study examines how internal controls enhance those relationships. The findings reveal that participants' intentions to commit financial statement fraud are significantly related to their attitudes and perceptions of subjective norms and jail time. The results also show that the influence of jail time has a diminishing incremental effect and is enhanced by strong internal controls and a variety of other factors. This study contributes to the accounting and ethics literatures by assessing the effectiveness of SOX-based deterrence mechanisms. It also contributes to criminological literature by investigating the boundary conditions of GDT.;Keywords: Financial statement fraud, fraudulent financial reporting, general deterrence theory, Sarbanes-Oxley, jail time, internal controls, enforcement, stigmas...