The Changing Face of Fraud Offences in Türkiye An Examination in the Context of Social Change and Judicial Processes

Official crime statistics reflect social events as well as the workings of the institutions that define and record them. From this perspective, this study examines fraud-related judicial indicators in Türkiye between 2016 and 2025, analysing the investigation and prosecution stages separately and interpreting the findings in the context of social transformation, judicial processes and selected international indicators. This descriptive secondary analysis uses Ministry of Justice data on new fraud cases (Turkish Penal Code, Articles 157–159) at public prosecutors’ offices and criminal courts, population-adjusted rates and case-processing indicators. New cases rose 2.7-fold at prosecutors’ offices and 5.4-fold at criminal courts, and the increase persisted after population adjustment. The divergence between the stages became pronounced after 2021, with the ratio of court cases to prosecution cases rising from 19.0% in 2020 to 37.2% in 2025. Pending caseloads grew in criminal courts, while in 2025 new cases at prosecutors’ offices levelled off and their clearance rate rose to 105.2%. Complaint records in the United States and police records in Spain rose faster than victimisation survey estimates in England and Wales. Although the digitalisation of everyday life provides the social context of the long-term increase, the divergence between the two stages is more consistent with judicial practices, such as the exclusion of qualified fraud from victim–offender mediation, the prosecution of individuals who lend their bank accounts and the clearance of accumulated cases by prosecutors. That these individuals may regard themselves as defrauded also shows that victims and offenders are not always easily distinguished. The findings suggest that the rise in recorded fraud is shaped both by changes in social life and by judicial practices concerning this offence. The study highlights the need for fraud statistics disaggregated by legal sub-type and decision type, and for a national victimisation survey.