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Therapeutic but toxic spaces: Romance fraud victimization from a psychosocial perspective

Yutaka Yoshida (2025) — Journal of Economic Criminology

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DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100168 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   United Kingdom
Tags:   Connected Independence, Gender Norms, Intimacy Norms, Japan, Neoliberalism, Psychosocial Criminology, Romance Scams, Victimization
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Synopsis

            
This qualitative psychosocial study used two rounds of in-depth interviews with 13 women who had experienced romance fraud in Japan. It situated their accounts within individual life histories and Japanese norms concerning intimacy, gender, work, and self-reliance. The analysis describes fraud communication as "therapeutic but toxic": it could seem to provide attention, affirmation, or an imagined route to independence while also enabling manipulation and severe financial and emotional harm. The findings challenge explanations that place responsibility solely on individual targets by showing how personal distress and wider social expectations can reinforce the appeal of fraudulent relationships. Recruitment through one support organization and the women-only qualitative sample limit statistical generalization.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Prior scholarship has insufficiently examined the wider social and cultural contexts of romance fraud, sociological questions of intimacy and romance, and victims’ life trajectories. The paper also identifies limited evidence on how offenders develop and circulate knowledge about target-country cultures, and calls for broader examination of victimization mechanisms across population groups.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
A qualitative psychosocial case study used in-depth, two-round interviews with 13 women victimized by romance fraud in Japan. Participants were recruited through a victim-support nonprofit and interviewed online or offline using the Free Association Narrative Interview Method. Analysis contextualized narratives about fraudsters within participants’ life histories and Japanese intimacy, gender, neoliberal, and globalization-related norms.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The support-organization recruitment may have shaped participants’ accounts because familiarity with counseling can affect understandings of fraud and recovery. The sample focused exclusively on heterosexual women, despite interviews with some men, and is not statistically generalizable to Japanese romance-fraud victims or other settings. The study does not establish broader applicability or causal associations between fraud victimization and other experiences.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Study therapeutic and supportive spaces across settings in Japan and other contexts; examine how fraudsters acquire and share cultural knowledge of target countries; and use broader quantitative research to assess links between romance-fraud victimization, domestic violence, childhood trauma, and related experiences.

          

              

    
    

        
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