The Dark Number of Insurance Crimes

Abstract

Insurance crime makes is difficult to interpret and measure the scale of undisclosed crime. In the insurance industry, the perpetrator can easily craft a false claim by simulating, for example a traffic accident, injury, or property damage. This causes difficulties in the evidential process and measuring the scale of the phenomenon. The aim of the article is to analyse the phenomenon of the dark number of insurance crimes. This paper includes the analysis of the definition of the term ‘dark number’ and other factors, such the degree of market development, the effectiveness of detection, the level of insurance awareness, and the dimension of social consent in Poland and selected European countries. Defeating the problem of insurance crime and estimating the dark number of insurance crimes requires taking into account the specificity of individual markets and types of insurance. We prove that effective measurement and reduction of a dark number of insurance crime is not possible without the constant updating of knowledge about the phenomenon of insurance crime and the use of advanced IT tools.