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Abstract

Fraud is the biggest cost to the United Kingdom [UK] of all crime types (Barret et al., 2018, p. 7). With crime increasing and prosecutions falling (Ministry of Justice [MOJ], 2019b, p. 2), Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service [HMICFRS] (2019a, p. 7) have been critical of the police approach to fraud. Secondary data analysis of national crime statistics and police workforce was used to identify the trends and commonalities over time. This enabled the correlation of workforce and recorded crime, and prosecutions and convictions by offence category. A review of the literature relating to crime trends, legislation and police workforce was then considered in the context of the insight from the secondary data analysis to understand why some offence types have increasing crime rates and increasing or falling prosecutions.
The secondary data analysis showed that fraud is increasing at a rate greater than any other offence, and whilst other offences such as sexual assault and violence against the person have also increased, this has been translated into increased convictions. For fraud however, prosecutions have dropped. Increased demand on the police, a lack of suitable training and digital capability will be contributing to overall increased crime rates and falling prosecutions, although are insufficient to explain why fraud has been impacted so significantly. The transition to Action Fraud for the recording of offences has resulted in a significant increase in recorded fraud. However, this has also brought about challenges. The perception that local forces have no responsibility for fraud, coupled with the misbelief that fraud has no victims, results in the police prioritising offences which cause more physical harm. The growth of the internet and the dependencies society now places on technology has created an opportunity to commit crimes at a much faster rate with a lower risk of getting caught than any other offence. This has perhaps resulted in a displacement from more traditional crimes to fraud, as offenders balance the risk of getting caught against the reward.

Course: Counter Fraud and Criminal Justice Studies - BSc (Hons) - C1592

Date Deposited: 2021-11-05

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13719.html