 Policing fraud in the automated stateScarlet Wilcock Chapter 18 in Research Handbook on Fraud and Society, 2026, pp 338-357 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Governments around the world are rapidly adopting new and sophisticated information and communication technologies, including automation and machine learning technologies, to facilitate government functions, including the delivery of benefits and services to citizens. The emergence of this ‘automated state’ presents new opportunities and risks in relation to public sector fraud. On the one hand, it provides new opportunities for fraudsters to gain unlawful access to government payments and benefits. Whereas for governments, it presents new opportunities for the development of more sophisticated fraud prevention and detection strategies. However, a series of high-profile scandals involving governments’ misuse of technologies to wrongfully accuse citizens of fraud and non-compliance have raised serious questions about how governments design and deploy technologies to police fraud and non-compliance. Drawing on the Australian case of Robodebt and the UK's Post Office Horizon scandal, this chapter critically examines key patterns, concerns and the possible limits of technology-enabled fraud detection in the automated state. Keywords: Public sector fraud; Technology-enabled fraud; Welfare fraud; Automated state; Digital government (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24044_18 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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