U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Fraud and the Insurance Industry: Why Don't They Do Something About It, Then?

NCJ Number
178125
Journal
International Journal of Risk, Security and Crime Prevention Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: July 1998 Pages: 193-205
Author(s)
R. Litton
Date Published
1998
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a limited number of British studies of insurance fraud and presents the results of surveys conducted by and of the British insurance industry to identify the extent of the problem; also reported are a range of insurance industry initiatives designed to address insurance fraud.
Abstract
This review shows that what little research there is on insurance fraud in the United Kingdom is survey-based, supplemented by anecdotal evidence. Although insurers' claims departments are well aware of the impact of insurance fraud on their own companies, little effort is made to either collate or publicize the nature and extent of the problem. Only a small proportion of the claims in which the insurer detects or suspects fraud are reported to the police. There is little research data on which cases are referred to the police and the reasons for referral or nonreferral. If insurers can establish that insurance fraud is a significant problem, then they should target more resources on detecting and reducing it. Some significant steps have been taken in the United Kingdom, notably the establishment of the fraud registers. If the insurance industry expands and maintains its efforts to counter fraud, the results could reduce the amount of insurance claim payments and thus mitigate the premium burden of honest policyholders. 2 tables and 35 notes