Term describing self-detriment for personal gain
What is a word that describes harming or reducing oneself in order to achieve financial or social gain?
Examples
A man purposely jumps in front of a relatively slow-moving car in order to eventually sue the driver and gain a significant amount of money.
A business owner is doing poorly in sales and burns down his building in order to collect the insurance money.
A man purposely falls off of a bridge with a low railing and sues the construction company for lack of the implementation of safeguards.
In all of the examples above, a person induces self-harm or risks their social standing in order to gain money (but social power could be something they could also attempt to achieve). Is there a singular term (preferably a legal term) that best describes this sort of behavior?
The idiomatic expression to stoop to is used to convey the idea of doing something below one's dignity for some personal advantage:
- stoop to something
- to do something that makes your moral standards lower. - They have stooped to using threats of violence in order to get their way.
The Free Dictionary
In law it is called OBTAINING BY FALSE PRETENCE. If the act does not sail through or if it falls through, it is called ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN WITH FRAUDULENT INTENT OR ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN BY FALSE PRETENCE. Depending on the facts, it could give rise to a civil or criminal litigation process
All the acts you've described are frauds. I don't think there is a specific word in English for self-injury with intent to defraud. In fact, I've probably just given a reasonable legal definition!
The previous suggestions revolve around moral debasement. It's unclear whether this is your main consideration - if so, self-injurious would cover both the moral and physical aspects of the act (but not the financial, unless your man was caught out.)
I don't think there is any single word that covers every aspect of your question ("self-detriment for personal gain").
The acts described in your examples illustrate dishonest behaviour intended to deliver personal gain. These would generally be considered to be fraud:
deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.
any deception, trickery, or humbug:
A more specific definition that might be relevant is insurance fraud:
Insurance fraud is any act committed with the intent to obtain a fraudulent outcome from an insurance process. This may occur when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage to which they are not otherwise entitled...
For more examples, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Fraud
Your question also covers social gain. Fraud would also cover this. For example, a person who pretends to know famous people he doesn't know, or to have a job he hasn't got, would be a fraud without necessarily doing anything illegal.
Finally, the effect on the person committing the acts -- there is 'stoop to', as already mentioned, but also demeaning:
Causing someone to lose their dignity and the respect of others.
From which it could be said that doing it to oneself is self-demeaning (Ngram).
However, it might not be self-demeaning if the person committing the fraud managed to avoid getting caught :-)