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The essential quality of man which distinguishes him in the animal kingdom is his ability to reason and derive truth. But that same ability can be used by man to distort the truth as he knows it, or to contort it for his own economic, social and political advantage if he wills to do so. While man can reason, man can also rationalize. Therefore, the possibility of fraud or deception exists in all human interactions and will no doubt continue for some time to come.6
It is when “man” chooses to use these distortions of the truth to commit or cover up criminal activity that a serious crisis occurs. Born from these fabrications is the criminal hoax. The impish, even silly, prank type hoaxes are dramatically different from those to be studied here because many contemporary hoaxes of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries are a different sort: much worse, more harmfully vicious, and far more outrageous than the traditional practical joke. These contemporary exploits involve illegal activities. They consist of an original perpetrator of the crime, the actual criminal, who poses as the victim of the said crime, creating the hoax. Hoaxes are perpetrated for a wide variety of reasons including escaping detection for having committed the crime and getting attention from a family member or loved one. Many may be classified as “vindictive self-servers,” or those who believe: their
life experiences entitle them to some compensation for their childhood deprivation or adult hardships (“the world owes me a better life than I have had”); and the acquisition of money or goods by illegal means is therefore a defensible actor method of earning a livelihood.7
In an attempt to eliminate the extensive damage caused, these modern criminal hoaxes need to be better understood so that law enforcement is fully equipped to
6 Jack Bologna, Corporate Fraud, The Basics of Prevention and Detection, Butterworth Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts, 1984.
7 Dorothy Zietz, Women Who Embezzle or Defraud, A Story of Convicted Felons, Praeger Special Studies, Praeger Scientific, Praeger Publishing, a Division of CBS, New York, 1981.
Object Description
| Title | An argument for the criminal hoax |
| Author | Pellegrini, Laura A. |
| Author email | user1963@yahoo.com; teachpolsci@yahoo.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Political Science |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-20 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-10-13 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Renteln, Alison Dundes |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Wong, Janelle S. Newland, Chester A. |
| Abstract | Hoaxes are part of the fabric of history. While many provide humor and lighthearted joy, the criminal hoax does not. To date, researchers have included aspects of the criminal hoax in larger academic works. This is an original typology that sets forth the criminal hoax as a distinct part of the larger field of law and public policy. This work provides newly created definitions including four distinct categories of hoaxes: the monetary hoax, the attention getter hoax, the hate crime hoax and the racial hoax. It further illustrates these types with actual detailed accounts of hoaxes and provides insights to each one. It makes policy recommendations concerning the four categories of needs: 1. legislative action, 2. a nationwide statistical database of hoax events, 3. media involvement, and 4. law enforcement training and action to deal with criminal hoaxes. Finally, it recommends further research to identify the causes and motivations of vipers. The ultimate goal of this project is to find ways to eliminate criminal hoaxes. |
| Keyword | criminal hoax; hoax categories |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1659 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Pellegrini, Laura A. |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Pellegrini-2397 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Pellegrini-2397.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 9 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 3 The essential quality of man which distinguishes him in the animal kingdom is his ability to reason and derive truth. But that same ability can be used by man to distort the truth as he knows it, or to contort it for his own economic, social and political advantage if he wills to do so. While man can reason, man can also rationalize. Therefore, the possibility of fraud or deception exists in all human interactions and will no doubt continue for some time to come.6 It is when “man” chooses to use these distortions of the truth to commit or cover up criminal activity that a serious crisis occurs. Born from these fabrications is the criminal hoax. The impish, even silly, prank type hoaxes are dramatically different from those to be studied here because many contemporary hoaxes of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries are a different sort: much worse, more harmfully vicious, and far more outrageous than the traditional practical joke. These contemporary exploits involve illegal activities. They consist of an original perpetrator of the crime, the actual criminal, who poses as the victim of the said crime, creating the hoax. Hoaxes are perpetrated for a wide variety of reasons including escaping detection for having committed the crime and getting attention from a family member or loved one. Many may be classified as “vindictive self-servers,” or those who believe: their life experiences entitle them to some compensation for their childhood deprivation or adult hardships (“the world owes me a better life than I have had”); and the acquisition of money or goods by illegal means is therefore a defensible actor method of earning a livelihood.7 In an attempt to eliminate the extensive damage caused, these modern criminal hoaxes need to be better understood so that law enforcement is fully equipped to 6 Jack Bologna, Corporate Fraud, The Basics of Prevention and Detection, Butterworth Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts, 1984. 7 Dorothy Zietz, Women Who Embezzle or Defraud, A Story of Convicted Felons, Praeger Special Studies, Praeger Scientific, Praeger Publishing, a Division of CBS, New York, 1981. |
