Resumen de Fraud against individuals in the internet era: trends, victimisation, impact and reporting
There is general consensus that a growing fraud problem exists in the digital era, but while some academic research has suggested it is the most prevalent property crime today, Spanish criminal justice statistics indicate fraud is still less frequent than theft and robbery. Research has examined how technological and societal changes could explain recent rises, and some qualitative studies have begun to explore the impact of fraud on individuals and other factors related to reporting that, in turn, may explain these inconsistencies in the estimates of its prevalence. As one of the volume crimes of the twenty-first century, many fraud research gaps still exist, especially in the Spanish context and in relation to quantitative studies. This thesis seeks to analyse the intertwined issues of trends, victimisation, impact and reporting with respect to fraud against individuals in the Internet era. Ultimately, the main objective is to produce academic knowledge that can help build an evidence base for prevention and response strategies. In addition, it is hoped that the data, methods and conclusions can provide a blueprint for future research on fraud.
The first chapters present an overview of existing fraud literature and introduce the data and methods used in this thesis. Subsequently, hypotheses regarding the interrelated issues of macro trends and individual victimisation, impact and reporting are then tested in three empirical papers that form the main body of this thesis by compendium of publications. The first of these explores macro trends and the extent of fraud underreporting to police, tying this into the extensive crime drop literature. The second study contrasts online and offline fraud in terms of victimisation correlates, impact and the factors that may predict whether the person who suffers the fraud considers it a crime. The third study focusses on the reporting of online and offline fraud to identify and compare socio-demographic, context and crime event predictors, as well as the reasons for not reporting.
The general results show that fraud that exploits the criminogenic opportunities of digital technology is rising and that reporting is considerably lower in comparison to other property crimes in many European countries. This raises salient questions regarding policing and criminal policy. At a micro level, some contrasting predictors are found in relation to victimisation and the impact of online and offline fraud, which can extend beyond financial losses to psychological harm. Fraud reporting and the motives for not reporting are also associated with certain socio-demographic, context and crime event factors. These findings interconnect with the criminogenic characteristics of the Internet era and can help understand the previously identified macro trends as well as inform policy and practice.
