Gender and Involvement in Financial Fraud: Evidence from Two FBI Data Sources
Open Access
- Author:
- Staley, Katherine
- Area of Honors:
- Criminology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Darrell J Steffensmeier, Thesis Supervisor
Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- financial fraud
fraud
FBI
embezzlement
UCR
gender
gender gap
gender profile
crime
Criminology
gender differences - Abstract:
- This thesis contributes to research on gender differences in fraud in the United States. As researchers have begun to note the importance and prevalence of fraud in the United States, a shift toward researching patterns in this area is increasingly important. This thesis aims to compare gender similarities and differences in the commission of financial fraud across two major data sources, between the years of 2007 and 2012. The first data source is national arrest statistics on fraud compiled by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Most of the offenders represented in this data source have committed low-level or ordinary types of fraud such as check fraud, credit card fraud, or government benefit fraud. The second source is information on fraud offenders represented in the FBI Weekly Top Ten Press Releases (FBITT). The offenders described in these press releases were involved in the commission of more serious fraud, often in the course of their occupation or business. The FBITT data source includes more detailed information on the fraud offense, including the ‘organization’ of the fraud. This organizational information, such as sex composition of defendants, allow researchers to distinguish whether the fraud was committed by a solo individual or by several co-offenders. FBITT is the primary source of data for this analysis. Using these two sources of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I examine gender similarities and differences in patterns of fraud and attempt to answer the following research questions: (1) Who commits more fraud, men or women? (2) How might men and women’s involvement in fraud differ across these two sources of FBI data—national arrest statistics and a compilation of serious FBI fraud offenses? (3) How does an analysis of FBITT data contribute to a better understanding of gender differences/similarities in the commission and organization of fraud? Analysis of the data contributed the following key findings. Like most crimes, men account for the majority of fraud arrests. Female crime involvement occurs less frequently all around, with the occasional exception of embezzlement. However, the results show a much larger gender gap in the FBITT dataset than in the UCR dataset. In contrast to differences in the magnitude of male and female fraud, there is much overlap in the types of male and female fraud involvement. This is partly a result of the prevalence of mixed sex groups of co-defendants, which account for a sizable portion of female fraud. Also, we might expect considerable overlap in the types of fraud committed by men and women because the social and economic factors affecting the criminality of one sex/gender also affect the other. Finally, a brief qualitative discussion contributes illustrative examples of female fraud involvement to supplement the quantitative analysis.