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“Opportunist” Insurance Fraud Under Different Political Economies: Taiwan (Asia) and Europe Compared

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Handbook of Asian Criminology

Abstract

Whereas “organized” insurance fraud is well described in the existing criminological literature, far less attention has been devoted to “opportunist” insurance fraud. This paper considers the limitations of current theoretical frameworks for understanding the phenomenon of “opportunist” insurance fraud; it analyzes the existing literature and describes how a political economy perspective can assist our understanding of complex “problem” formation and reaction in this field. A heuristic ideal-type comparison of insurance-taking and fraud is undertaken across three countries (Finland, the UK, and Taiwan) and the findings related to our explanatory framework.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of Gloria Laycock and others at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science (University College London) at a seminar presentation of this research; John Braithwaite (Australian National University), Peter Grabosky (Australian National University), Adam Graycar (Rutgers University), and Bill Hebenton (University of Manchester) also gave time to comment on a previous draft. The normal authorial caveat remains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Criminology, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Susyan Jou Ph.D.

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  1. Susyan Jou Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Susyan Jou Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, Macao

    Jianhong Liu

  2. Centre for Criminology and Criminal Just, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Bill Hebenton

  3. School of Criminology, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.

    Susyan Jou

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Jou, S. (2013). “Opportunist” Insurance Fraud Under Different Political Economies: Taiwan (Asia) and Europe Compared. In: Liu, J., Hebenton, B., Jou, S. (eds) Handbook of Asian Criminology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5218-8_7

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