Acute and diffuse impacts of fraud: A victim-centred teleology for a wicked problem

Fraud is the most frequently experienced crime in the UK, yet significantly underreported. Despite its prevalence, understanding and addressing fraud remains challenging. This paper applies the interdisciplinary framework of ‘wicked problems’ to fraud, proposing a novel approach to categorise fraud based on its impact on victims rather than the intent of perpetrators. The article introduces new categories: Acute Impact Fraud (AIF) and Diffuse Impact Fraud (DIF). In AIF the impacts of fraud falls on an individual or a small number of victims, while DIF describes fraud affecting large entities like governments or large businesses, where the impact is shared among many, often resulting in less noticeable individual harm but significant collective loss. A third category, Hybrid Impact Fraud (HIF), is also proposed, where fraud has both acute and diffuse impacts, affecting some victims significantly while spreading minor effects across a larger group. This new approach seeks to enhance the understanding and management of fraud, emphasising victim impact over perpetrator intent, and contributing to the nascent field of economic criminology.