Abstract
The advent of the Internet has expanded opportunities to commit fraud and millions regularly fall victim. Fraud victims in general have been largely neglected by researchers in comparison with other crimes. There has also been very little research on issues related to the sentencing of fraudsters. This article offers some of the first insights on what individual online fraud victims actually want regarding the sentencing of the scammers who target them. It explores their views on aggravating and mitigating factors as well as the different types of sanction which can be used. The article particularly highlights the opportunities and attraction of restorative justice-based approaches to victims. It uses data from in-depth interviews with 15 online fraud victims, six focus groups with a further 48 online fraud victims and interviews with nine professional stakeholders involved in combating this problem.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 193-211 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 11 Feb 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Apr 2015 |
Keywords
- Online Fraud
- victime
- impact
- sentencing
- restorative justice
Access to Document
- Button_et_al_2015_AAM
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Button, M., McNaughton Nicholls, C., Kerr, J. and Owen, R. (2015), Online Fraud Victims in England and Wales: Victims' Views on Sentencing and the Opportunity for Restorative Justice?. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 54: 193–211, which has been published in final form at 10.1111/hojo.12123. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.