Help with my dissertation on banknote counterfeiting: anyone been in jail or some policemen out there?

Question

Hello!

I am in my final year of studying Printing and writing my dissertation on the counterfeiting of banknotes in Europe.
I must include primary research (ie:interviews, questionnaires) which is hard to get.
Basically i want to get in touch which someone who can give me information on banknote counterfeiters.
It could be someone who has been in jail or know someone who is and might have an inmate in for forging banknotes. Or a security staff or a policeman... Any information welcome.

I just need to ask a few questions on their activity, whether they were ex-printers, opportunists desktop forgers etc.

I would include any name in my acknowledgment part and could provide a copy.

I don't believe i will get much response (if any?!) but thought it's worth a try. Thank you for reading anyway.

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Answer 1

Hi there!

No this is a tough question and a tough topin you've picked for your dissertation. I'm in research myself and know it is a pain to gather primary data.

Since what you're looking for is difficult and you'll need special authorisation to talk with people involved in counterfeiting (particularly in the case of inmates etc), you can go for what is called document (or secondary) analysis.

This means reading articles, publicly available documentation of cases etc. This is a tried and tested, valid research method in case you're worried about it. My first step would be to contact a newspaper or visit and check their archive. In some cases, you can find it online. If you have problems, then just contact them.

In many cases, the names you find in such articles and dicumentation can give you a starting point. For instance, the name of an officer mentioned in the text might become a good contact that you can find.

However, I need to turn your attention to the ethical considerations of collecting primary data. You should check the ethics policies of your University when it comes to involving human subjects in your research.

Lastly, you should definitely discuss the issue with your supervisors; they will definitely know a lot more anout the subject and maybe point you to other academics that have studied such cases.

Good luck with the project, hope you get an A1 and a distinction :)

Answer 2

I don't know if this will help, but I recently watched a good movie about counterfeiting money in my economics class, it included 1 on 1 interviews with numerous individuals that have committed the crime. If you don't have to conduct the interviews yourself, then I would suggest finding this movie on counterfeiting, or another like it. I don't remember the name of the movie, but it was about 30+ minutes long... If you want the title email me at [e-mail], and I'll get it asap from my school.

Hope this helped, I know the feeling of asking a question and not expecting many answers.

And on a side note, there are a lot of people out there who have gotten in trouble for counterfeiting, 3 people that went to my school passed fake 20's at lunch for a bag of $.50 chips and kept the real change. They of course got caught, but there was no federal imprisionment, or heavy fines.

Keep asking around, I'm sure if you try hard enough you can find someone willing to talk to you about their obsession.