Research led by the University of Portsmouth has explored how attitudes towards crimes, including fraud, have changed over time.
- Findings suggest more than a quarter of UK adults commit at least one economic crime a year
- Young people were more dishonest than older people, and men were more dishonest than females
- 50 per cent of young men (18 to 40-years-old) believe drink-driving is sometimes justified
A study from the University of Portsmouth suggests 26 per cent of adults in the UK (14 million) commit at least one economic crime a year.
The research, which was cited in The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) annual report last month (pg 104), explored how attitudes towards certain ‘deviant acts’ have changed over time by comparing the results of a 2011 study of 2,000 adults, with a 2023 study of 1,000 adults.
Changes in attitudes towards economic crime over 12 years
The latest questionnaire revealed 17 per cent of respondents commit more than one type of economic crime every year; an average of four crimes per offender. This implies UK adults annually engage in at least 57 million economic crime acts.
Compared to 2011, more people now view the five most disapproved acts as justifiable, including three economic crimes: buying stolen property, bribery and welfare benefit fraud.
Falsely claiming benefits was the largest change out of all 15 acts studied across the two periods. The proportion of those who thought scamming the system was never justified had fallen from 85 per cent in 2011 to 67 per cent in 2023 - in other words, a third of adults see benefit fraud as justifiable.
The relationship between dishonest disposition and economic crime
The study, published in the Journal of Economic Criminology, also calculated ‘Integrity Scores’ for participants based on their responses. Those with the most dishonest disposition are about five times more likely to offend than those with the most honest disposition.
The results showed that in 2011, roughly 7 per cent of respondents had a low integrity score, but this increased to over 20 per cent in 2023.
Young people more dishonest than older generations
When analysing characteristics, the team discovered younger people were more dishonest than older people. The offender rate in the 2023 sample starts at 45 per cent of the 18-25y group and falls to 7 per cent of the 66y+ group.
A lack of positive role models in the world’s leadership who often set the tone for society. We’ve seen no shortage of authority figures implying it is perfectly acceptable to lie and cheat.
Lead author, Dr David Shepherd from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth, said: “While we only looked at the data and not the reasons behind these changes, we can speculate why we may be seeing lower integrity scores among young people. Social media could play a significant role as behaviour is often peer-led.
“Also, a lack of positive role models in the world’s leadership who often set the tone for society. We’ve seen no shortage of authority figures implying it is perfectly acceptable to lie and cheat. One example being Donald Trump, who is a habitual liar but a popular politician in the US. Excluding the lies he told in private, he publicly lied on average 20.9 times a day during the course of his presidency.”
Women more honest and less likely to commit economic crime
Meanwhile, men were more dishonest than females, with 65 per cent of the offenders in the study being male. The paper says the higher levels of dishonesty in males and younger adults helps to explain their more prolific offending.
One example is the number of people who believe drink-driving is never justified. Only 50 per cent of young men (18 to 40-years-old) agree with this statement, while 100 per cent of older females (aged 61 and over) feel that way.
“Although the research does not explain why women and older people are more honest, it does point to a significant delay in males maturing”, added Dr Shepherd.
“Previous research has found that the development of honesty for males is delayed by about 15 years compared to females, and the process of stopping antisocial behaviour is around ten years slower. We also found that, for males, the development of honesty and the corresponding decline in economic criminality is delayed by about a decade.
“It also appears that generational social influences have resulted in younger people, especially males, having a steeper moral hill to climb.”
The role of technology
The Crime survey of England Wales (CSEW) provides powerful evidence that the level of traditional crimes of theft and violence against individuals has fallen continuously over the past three decades from 19.8 million incidents in 1995 to 4.3 million in 2023. The paper says this 78 per cent fall in physical crime implies a huge change in integrity attitudes.
However, it also coincides with the emergence of the digital era and the rise in online crime. Fraud and computer misuse accounted for nearly half (49 per cent) of the 8.5 million crimes experienced by UK adults in 2023.
The study’s co-author, Professor Mark Button, Director of the Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime at the University of Portsmouth, explained: “The decline in honesty amongst the younger generation in our study could be explained by a growing attitude that online fraud is a victimless crime, because the offender can’t physically see a victim.
“Further research is certainly needed to understand the digital era’s impact on dishonest disposition and dishonest behaviours.”
The bigger economic picture
It is estimated the UK economy is losing as much £219 billion to fraud a year. This figure is one of the key findings of the 2023 Annual Fraud Indicator (AFI), a round-up of the cost of fraud in the UK published by Peters & Peters Solicitors in conjunction with national audit, tax, advisory and risk firm Crowe and the University of Portsmouth Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime.
“Fraud is one of several crimes of dishonesty that collectively cause huge damage”, added Professor Button.
“Efforts to suppress the problem have so far substantially failed due, in part, to a lack of understanding of what causes it. As far as we are aware, our study is the first to examine the relationship between dishonest disposition and everyday economic crimes. We hope it stimulates further research and policy ideas that may help tackle the problem.”
The paper concludes by recommending future research involving a larger number of participants. It also hints at other factors that may influence economic crime-offending - including life circumstance, motivation, opportunity, perceptions of seriousness, and psychology - which should be explored.
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