Maureen Mascha, Ph.D., is teaching students to steal. While this may sound incredulous, in a world where financial scandals have destroyed companies, it is necessary.
Mascha, who researches fraud, teaches her accounting students how fraud may happen so that they are better prepared to identify it when they are hired as auditors.
“There is criminal liability for auditors who miss or overlook fraud,” says Mascha, an assistant professor of accounting.
Mascha’s research is partially supported by a grant from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the world’s largest accounting firm. She is studying the issue of general versus application controls, which determine who has access to a company’s systems. General controls manage all of a company’s information technology systems and are essential to ensuring the integrity, reliability and quality of the internal control system. Application controls, which companies have focused on more than general controls, deal with the underlying transactions. While both contribute to the overall internal control environment, general controls are often harder to test and evaluate given their pervasive nature.
“The collapse of Enron was a breach of general controls,” says Mascha.
Along with a colleague from DePaul University in Chicago, Mascha is examining internal auditors and external auditors and how well both are able to recognize the difference between general and application controls since each type serves a distinctly different purpose. Their hope is that the findings will determine what auditors know and identify how to strengthen the audit process.
Life Cycle: From Birth to Death
- Unraveling the mysteries of proteins
- Protecting brittle bones
- Understanding the damaged brain
- The lungs: more than gas exchange
- The mind-body connection
- Preserving family peace
- Bringing clarity to delirium
- Protecting muscles on and off Earth
Improving the Human Condition
Studying Our World
Ethics & social justice
- Keeping business honest
- Of humans and cyborgs
- Journalism, ethics and the law
- Punishing corporate crime
- Dissecting financial fraud
- Scrutinizing elder law
Student Research
Interdisciplinary Research
Quick Facts About Marquette
| Identity: | Catholic, Jesuit, private |
| Established: | 1881 |
| Location: | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Undergraduate: | 8,048 |
| Postgraduate: | 3,500 |
| Campus: | Urban, 80 acres |
| Athletics: | 14 NCAA Division I teams (Big East Conference) |
| Colors: | Blue and Gold |
