Online Fraud Victims in England and Wales: Victims' Views on Sentencing and the Opportunity for Restorative Justice?

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.

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