Crime Signal Detection Theory: Two Case Studies of the Five-Stage Model from Observer to Whistleblower

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present a study of two observers turning into whistleblowers through stages of crime signal detection, registration, interpretation, reception, and knowledge. The study applies signal detection theory emphasizing signal alertness, signal reflection, pattern recognition, and personal knowledge. The research method applied is personal interviews with the whistleblowers who noticed deviant behavior, one of which blew the whistle on corruption that later led to the incarceration of several corporate executives. Results indicate that the whistleblowers became more certain of their information as they could discuss their observations with others. An important human factor in whistleblowing is thus the ability to discuss initial observations with people that one can trust, which can lead to documented allegations against suspected individuals. The case studies illustrate experience from troublesome whistleblowing on top executives, where the second whistleblower was less successful.

Are Crime and Collective Emotion Interrelated? A “Broken Emotion” Conjecture from Community Twitter Posts

“…Such results suggest that the impact of compound emotion on crime is mainly contributed by negative emotions, while positive emotions do not play a significant role. These findings correspond well with signal detection theory in psychology (Gottschalk & Asting, 2020). Therefore, we recommend the use of the negative emotion score in future crime analysis.…”

“…On the contrary, the positive emotion score does not show any statistically significant association with any type of crime (models 5-8 in Table 3). One possible reason is that people may be more sensitive to detecting negative emotions and information in an area, as argued by signal detection theory (Gottschalk & Asting, 2020). Additionally, negative emotions calculated from tweets may be more representative than the positive emotions because people tend to use Twitter to express more negative emotions than other social media platforms (Panger, 2017).…”

“…The decision to keep all geocoded tweets was based on the following considerations: (1) keeping the largest possible number of geotagged tweets should increase the representativeness of data, as argued in Ristea and colleagues’ study in 2018 and Hipp and colleagues’ study in 2019; (2) as argued by Roberts and colleagues in their 2019 study, the tweet dataset as a whole is a viable source of information for people’s interactions and emotional responses to the environment in cities. Situational choice theory and signal detection theory suggest that people may respond to clues from both physical and social environments and make decisions based on such information (Coyne & Eck, 2015; Gottschalk & Asting, 2020). For example, tweets at restaurants may suggest whether the food is tasty, but they can also suggest whether the atmosphere and environment where the restaurants locate are peaceful, which may be related to the collective efficacy and potential crime opportunities in the area.…”

“…We conjecture that negative emotion in a community may have a similar effect as an unrepaired window. Additionally, as argued by signal detection theory, because people more frequently and incorrectly notice negative signals and information (Gottschalk, 2018;Gottschalk & Asting, 2020;Liu et al, 2010), if a community's collective emotion is negative, the social cohesion may be weakened, if not damaged. Consequently, disorder and crime increase, and this increase is likely to exacerbate the fear of crime, which in turn, further worsens the collective emotion of the community.…”

Whistleblowing in small and large accounting firms in Brazil

“…Whistleblowing behavior can be defined as the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral, and illegitimate practices under the control of their employers to parties and organizations that may be able to effect action (Near & Miceli, 1985), revealing unauthorized information that provides evidence of the violation (Vinten, 1992), of which the whistleblower is neither a direct participant nor a direct victim (Gottschalk & Asting, 2022). Whistleblowing is an action based on a highly complex psychological process and depends on the trust or the belief that wrongdoings will be corrected (Gundlach et al, 2003;Soni et al, 2015).…”