Abstract

In 2007, a stratified random sample of 1,338 Jamaicans revealed that 11 out of every 27 indicated that crime and violence was the leading problem of the nation. The Lottery Scam, a growing financial crime, is widely practiced in many developing nations, inclusive of Jamaica, where the matter has got the attention of public security management. The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF, Year) formed a task force in 2012 to critically investigate this phenomenon which has been plaguing private businesses for more than a decade. This study will, examine the Lottery Scam Business from an empirical perspective and provide invaluable insights into its operations, politics and economics. A 2-dimensional epistemological framework is used in this study, objectivism and constructionist. The theoretical framework employed is interpreted by positivism and interpretive hence, the use of survey research, documentary analysis, focus group and elite interviews with participants. The participants were purposively drawn because there is no population register of lottery matters. It follows, therefore, that the study used a snow balling approach to allot participants, those incarcerated, awaiting time for trial, police officers, private investigators and participants introducing the researchers to others involved in different aspect of scamming activities. The development and continuation of the lottery scam is primarily because of the general decay in the economy. People's involvement in lottery scamming and by extension related criminal activities such as murders is substantially an economics issue. The lottery scam and its relationship with increased murder is again another subset of the general worsening in the state of the Jamaican economy and why this illegal activity continues to pull people to such actions. Hence, murders associated with the lottery scam cannot be simply solved by way of police or judiciary intervention as their cause is an economic one and can only be effectively addressed as such.

Keywords:

Crime, Jamaica, lottery scam, money embezzlement, murder, security management,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.