Investigation of financial crimes within the framework of behavioral finance

In this study, the impact of various factors such as population density, inflation, GDP, average household size, the ratio of rural population to total population and education rates on financial crimes are analyzed. The aim of this study is to reveal the financial and social effects of financial crimes or economic crimes. For this purpose, a data set including those convicted of financial crimes committed in Turkey between 2008 and 2020 and other factors has been prepared. In the data set, data from 81 provinces were brought together. The share of financial crimes in total crimes was calculated and the factors considered to be related were analyzed using Panel Data. Econometric methods such as Pooled Least Squares, Fixed Effects, Random Effects and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), time-dependent changes and individual variables have provided a better understanding of the purpose of the research in line with the results obtained from the factors analyzed in this study. The findings show that there is a relationship between financial crimes and population density, inflation, GDP, average household size, rural population to total population ratio and education rates. The crimes of opposition to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law, which is one of the types of financial crimes, were also tested and it was concluded that there is a relationship between population density, inflation, average household size, the ratio of rural population in total population and education rates. The most striking finding among these results is that as inflation increases, the likelihood of committing crimes against the Bankruptcy and Execution Law decreases. This result is an interesting finding since it is contrary to our expectation that people are more likely to face legal problems due to financial pressure in a high inflation environment. In this thesis, the motives for committing financial crimes or economic crimes have been tried to be determined with the help of behavioral finance and suggestions have been made to prevent these motives. The study also makes suggestions on preventing the loss of tax revenues, which are among the most important sources of income of countries, and preventing other economic damages, and policy recommendations that may be useful are presented. Keywords: Behavioral Finance, Financial Crime, Economic Crime, Execution and Bankruptcy Law.