Participation in Fraud/Cheat in the Buying and Selling of Meats Without Legal Metrology: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigations

Fraud/cheat in the buying and selling of commodities is part and parcel of modern businesses worldwide, and a common phenomenon in Nigeria. Personal purchases of meats using a measurement scale and others without measurement scale were made in Abakiliki and Calabar meat markets. Empirically, holding the quality of meats constant, a paired t-test analytical tool shows significant difference in the weight of meats bought and sold by non-measurement scale and those with measurement scale. Theoretically, perspectives from rational choice, fraud triangle, economic, social learning/contagious, anomie theories and political economy are drawn on to suggest an integrated multiple reinforcing-social-forces theory of fraud in the sale of meats. Results confirm that consumers receive less value for their money when they purchase meats without metrology. Cheat is conceived as a product of individual, structural variables and process that interact at different levels to produce negative consequences. An EpiCrim approach which, include strategies to promote consumers’ rights awareness, impose sanctions with certainty, celerity and pains, and other measures to assist helpless victims of cheat is advocated.