Social Acceptance for Insurance Fraud In the Context of Other Types of Crime

Economic crime is gaining on popularity. The perpetrators of this type of crime expect substantial financial gain by taking inconsiderable risk of being penalized. Additionally, economic crime is perceived by the society as one that causes low social harm. This factor may encourage criminals to commit economic crime. Insurance crime is one of the most complicated among economic crimes. It results in serious financial losses for the insurance industry. Furthermore, effectiveness of the claim verification process and customer trust are affected as well. The research motivation was to study the differences in social perception of different types of crimes. The aim of the paper is to show a connection between the level of social acceptance for committing insurance fraud and characteristic features of the respondents. The research was carried out using a survey on a representative random group of 1000 Polish citizens. According to the results, all crimes against financial institutions are also perceived as easy to commit. Moreover, the level of education is the key factor which affects the perception of social harm and inclination towards informing law enforcement authorities. Higher education enables to understand negative consequences of crime and helps to induce an appropriate action against fraud. This conclusion can be used for creating preventive programs against the phenomenon of crime and the development of prevention methods.