Criminological Indicators of Credit Fraud

Abstract

The spread of such crimes as illegal obtaining of a loan and malicious evasion of settling accounts payable is one of the factors contributing to the growth of credit fraud that considerably worsens the current criminogenic situation and poses a real danger to the economic security of the state. Statistical data characterizing crime fraud have decreasing since 2009, which does not, however, mean that the sphere of lending has become criminologically free, as the above-mentioned crimes are long-term and are uncovered only two or three years after they were committed. This, in its turn, affects the latency level of credit fraud in general. A reduction in the number of registered credit frauds is also influenced by the fact that it is becoming more and more common that the banks turn down practically all types of retail loan applications. Main grounds for refusals are credit history of consumers and their debt burden. Another common ground for refusals is a discrepancy between the data declared by the applicant and the information possessed by the creditor. In a systemic connection with the generally known negative phenomena accompanying social development, these circumstances have a powerful criminogenic potential. An unfavorable trend is also observed for one of the key indicators of the work of law enforcement bodies - that of the share of solved crimes of this type. The analysis of criminotropic risks showed that the possibility of being sentenced to incarceration for credit fraud is, on average, 2,1 %. It testifies to the absence of a real possibility of being punished for such crimes.