Course

Criminal Fraud and Dishonesty - JURD7378

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Pre-requisite: Criminal Laws (LAWS1022/JURD7122) OR Criminal Law 2 (JURD7111/LAWS1011); Co-requisite: Resolving Civil Disputes (LAWS2371/JURD7271) OR Litigation (JURD7211/LAWS2311). Excluded: LAWS8994 & JURD7594.

Excluded: JURD7594, LAWS3478, LAWS8994

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Are identity fraud and illegal music downloading merely modern versions of the core criminal offences of theft and fraud? This course examines the law of fraud in Australia (including theft, forgery, dishonest deception and defrauding) from legal, historical and sociological perspectives and evaluates whether the law appropriately deals with modern forms of fraud, including digital forms of fraud and theft.  It considers the impact of fraud on business and the way in which legal responses to fraud have effects on the wider community.  NSW and Commonwealth offences are considered in detail with comparative analysis of approaches in other jurisdictions.


Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

The specific aims of the course are:
  • To analyse the elements of the theft and fraud offences in Australia, with an emphasis on NSW and Commonwealth offences - in particular those not discussed in general criminal courses
  • To examine these laws in light of new forms of intellectual property theft and identity frauds To examine the historical development of property and dishonesty offences in order to develop a framework in which to explain the contours of the current law and the significance of any breaks from the historical model of criminalisation
  • To consider the factors that contribute to the forms and prevalence of fraud from industry, social and psychological perspectives

Main Topics

  • Forms of theft, involving both tangible and intangible property
  • Forms of fraud and the various approaches to defining fraud
  • The usefulness of dishonesty as a unifying concept in this area
  • Forgery and false instrument offences
  • Computer-based offences
  • Historical and sociological approaches to understanding fraud
  • Motivations of fraud perpetrators and methods for fraud prevention

Assessment

Class participation - 25%

Problem assignment - 25%

Research Essay - 50%

Course Texts

Prescribed

  • Course materials
Law Books

Study Levels

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