The Fraud Triangle: The Role and Analysis of Pressure, Opportunity, and Rationalizatıon ın White-Collar Frauds

Financial fraud and white-collar crime seriously impact businesses and the overall economic environment. These crimes can erode businesses’ finances and lead to legal penalties and erroneous business decisions. Also, given the potential for financial frauds to cause a wide-ranging economic crisis, combatting and preventing these crimes is essential. Auditing is considered an important tool in this process and plays a critical role in protecting the financial resources of businesses, avoiding legal sanctions, and ensuring overall economic stability. In this context, the cheating triangle provides essential clues in understanding financial fraud and white-collar crimes. The cheating triangle consists of pressure, opportunity, and rationalization. Pressure represents internal or external factors that lead to fraudulent acts, while option refers to situations in which fraudulent acts can be committed. Conversely, rationalization reflects the tendency of cheating individuals to justify their actions to themselves. In this context, the conceptual analysis focused on white-collar crimes, especially the cheating triangle theory. The reasons behind an individual’s decision to commit fraud are explained, and extensive information is given about the fraud triangle’s advantages, development, criticisms, and derivatives. JEL Classification: M40, M41 Cite this article as: Yalçın, H. (2023). Hile Üçgeni: baskı, fırsat ve rasyonalizasyonun beyaz yakalı hilelerindeki rolü ve analizi. Journal of Business Administration and Social Studies, 7(2), 133-138.