The perception of insurance crime held by students

Theoretical background: Researching insurance crime in terms of its perception by students makes it possible to gain knowledge about their interpretation skills, as well as identify attitudes towards insurance frauds. This article supplements the Polish literature on the phenomenon which is a significant dysfunction in the insurance sector.

Purpose of the article: The main aim of this article is to analyse the perception of insurance crime according to research conducted among students. Moreover, additional auxiliary goals were formulated: 1. Determining the level of knowledge of the respondents about insurance crime. 2. Analysing the attitudes of the respondents towards the phenomenon of insurance crime.

Research methods: The paper presents the results of a preliminary study in which a survey was conducted in the form of a questionnaire. In order to verify the posed research question and to achieve the aims defined in this article, a survey was conducted among students at the University of Szczecin. An original questionnaire was used for the study, which was distributed to 11,000 university students. The research was conducted in the period from January to February 2022. The questionnaire was completed by 416 respondents, which makes it possible to conclude that the survey is representative. The questions in the questionnaire concerned students’ knowledge of the phenomenon of insurance crime and its perception by the surveyed group of respondents. The survey results were analysed as a whole, and then presented and described.

Main findings: The research results presented in the article show that the surveyed group of respondents was mostly characterized by an average level of awareness of the phenomenon of insurance crime. In this context, it seems necessary that all insurance entities and institutions make constant efforts to raise the level of insurance awareness of the society about the phenomenon of insurance crime. A significant role in shaping and developing awareness in this area is played by insurance education, which should take place on several levels (didactic, social, institutional).