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Purpose <p>This study applies crime script analysis (CSA) to a complex economic crime: donation-based tax evasion schemes and evaluates how actors involved in the scheme engage with crime opportunities. To do so, the study introduces a crime opportunity engagement framework drawing on business and white-collar crime scholarship. By combining CSA and the framework, the study identifies how different actors initiate, shape, and exploit crime opportunities across the crime commission process.</p> Methods <p>Drawing on court files from 36 donation-based tax evasion schemes in Canada, a deductive thematic analysis was conducted to reconstruct a crime script and identify key scenes associated with donation-based tax evasion schemes. The analysis was then guided by the novel crime opportunity engagement framework, distinguishing opportunity takers, seekers and creators. Errors, that is, actions that lead to unexpected outcomes, committed by various actors throughout the script were also identified.</p> Results <p>The analysis revealed a donation-based tax evasion script composed of seven scenes organized into two tracks: a scheme relying on falsified donation receipts and a sophisticated scheme involving the creation of tax shelters and affiliated organizations. When looking at how actors engaged with crime opportunities across the script, most of them (investors, advisors and charitable organizations) acted either as opportunity takers or seekers. Only promoters in the more complex scheme acted as opportunity creators, assembling the organizational, legal, and procedural conditions necessary for the scheme to operate. Also, all promoters acted as opportunity brokers, enabling other actors to access and benefit from the schemes. Various situational prevention measures inspired by the crime script are discussed, many of which are related to errors committed by the involved actors.</p> Conclusion <p>The findings show that crime opportunities in complex economic crimes are not only discovered or sought for. They can also be actively created and expanded by offenders. By combining CSA with an opportunity engagement framework, this study advances criminological theory by shifting the analytical focus from the mere presence of opportunities to how they are dynamically engaged with across crime scripts.</p>

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Crime opportunity engagement in complex tax evasion: a crime script analysis

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月2日

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  • Mylène Mailhot,
  • Étienne Blais,
  • Masarah Paquet-Clouston,
  • Benoit Leclerc

摘要

Purpose

This study applies crime script analysis (CSA) to a complex economic crime: donation-based tax evasion schemes and evaluates how actors involved in the scheme engage with crime opportunities. To do so, the study introduces a crime opportunity engagement framework drawing on business and white-collar crime scholarship. By combining CSA and the framework, the study identifies how different actors initiate, shape, and exploit crime opportunities across the crime commission process.

Methods

Drawing on court files from 36 donation-based tax evasion schemes in Canada, a deductive thematic analysis was conducted to reconstruct a crime script and identify key scenes associated with donation-based tax evasion schemes. The analysis was then guided by the novel crime opportunity engagement framework, distinguishing opportunity takers, seekers and creators. Errors, that is, actions that lead to unexpected outcomes, committed by various actors throughout the script were also identified.

Results

The analysis revealed a donation-based tax evasion script composed of seven scenes organized into two tracks: a scheme relying on falsified donation receipts and a sophisticated scheme involving the creation of tax shelters and affiliated organizations. When looking at how actors engaged with crime opportunities across the script, most of them (investors, advisors and charitable organizations) acted either as opportunity takers or seekers. Only promoters in the more complex scheme acted as opportunity creators, assembling the organizational, legal, and procedural conditions necessary for the scheme to operate. Also, all promoters acted as opportunity brokers, enabling other actors to access and benefit from the schemes. Various situational prevention measures inspired by the crime script are discussed, many of which are related to errors committed by the involved actors.

Conclusion

The findings show that crime opportunities in complex economic crimes are not only discovered or sought for. They can also be actively created and expanded by offenders. By combining CSA with an opportunity engagement framework, this study advances criminological theory by shifting the analytical focus from the mere presence of opportunities to how they are dynamically engaged with across crime scripts.