Strain, coping and sustained fraud offending

Abstract

Research across a range of disciplines has generally focused on the decision to commit fraud rather than how fraud is sustained over time. This study uses interviews with serious workplace fraudsters to examine enablers of sustained offending. We present coping strategies offenders use to manage strain and sustain offending. We highlight that while rationalisation is germane for first-time offending, coping may be a more useful construct for understanding how offending is sustained over time.