anthropology and fraud
Once, I was contracted to find fraud among welfare recipients. I failed because there was little evidence of any. My fellow researchers and the principal investigator were satisfied with my report; the funding agency chief was displeased and supposedly cut the investigator from future funding (one of the dangers of contract work).
Fraud and fibbing fascinate me and they’ve come up often within my ethnographic observations and interviews in different parts of the world. Even yesterday, when I was called for jury duty (see 31 Aug post), I mused on the appropriateness of peer judgement about crime as I watched almost all of us waiting to serve break one rule or another (do not eat in this area, no cell phone use, etc.).
Anthropologist Gerald Mars has done extensive research specifically on fraud and corruption within organizations and at workplaces: http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/06/british-mps-public-fiddling
Note: one thing I’ve not yet learned to do is get photos to link with my posts. That gesture seems easier with facebook or perhaps I just don’t understand the wordpress system yet.
