By Whitney Bragagnolo, Yanei Lezama

Sextortion, a distinct form of sexual misconduct intersects with both sexual violence and corruption. Within the sphere of sport, marked by inherent power diferentials and hierarchical structures, cases of sexual abuse and corruption persist, with sextortion emerging as a concerning manifestation of these pervasive issues. While sextortion shares commonalities with other forms of sexual abuse, such as harassment and assault, a distinguishing feature lies in how coercion is leveraged through authority or power imbalances. Unlike more overt forms of abuse, sextortion often involves subtle or implicit threats, where compliance is sought in exchange for perceived privileges or opportunities within the sporting environment. Leveraging Institutional Theory and Applied Ethics, this study aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of sextortion in sport. Despite increasing awareness, research on sextortion in sport remains limited. Previous studies lack data specifc to this elusive misconduct, primarily relying on empirical data related to sexual abuse. This study represents the first empirical investigation into sextortion in sport, drawing on data collected from 49 countries and endeavours to quantifiably communicate the scale of sextortion. Through data analysis of over 500 elite athletes, community sport practitioners, and sport industry professionals aged 17 and above, the research sheds light on experiences related to abuses of entrusted power for sexual gain. Results found 20% (n=96) of global respondents experienced sextortion, including 37 minors at the time of the incident, encompassing diverse genders, abilities, and identities. Sextortion was identified across 41 of the 49 surveyed nationalities and within 19 of 26 sport categories from grassroots to elite levels. This research deepens the understanding of sport-related sextortion and underscores the importance of addressing this pervasive issue through further theoretical and empirical inquiry. It emphasises the critical role of good governance, clear safeguarding protocols, increased awareness of power dynamics, consent, and the importance of diverse regional data in effectively combating sextortion in the sporting domain.     

  Crime, Law and Social Change (2025) 83:13  

By Catherine Schittenhelm , .  Christine Weber , Maxime Kops , Sebastian Wachs 

The ubiquitous use of information and communication technologies among adolescents carries the risk of exposure to online victimization during this vulnerable stage of development, including cybergrooming as a form of sexual victimization. Although established in traditional abuse research, studies on disclosure processes in the specific context of cybergrooming victimization are still pending. The present study exploratively investigated reasons for and against disclosure following cybergrooming victimization in the subsample of n = 400 victims (44.1%; Mage = 15.48 years, girls: 57.5%) from N = 908 adolescent participants. Most victims disclosed to someone (86%), with peer disclosure being more frequent (73%) than disclosure to adults (55%). Findings indicated differences of small effect sizes in reasons for and against disclosure depending on the confidant (peers vs. adults; for example, the reporting of similar experiences by others was more relevant in peer disclosure). However, gender had almost no influence on the assessed reasons. In structural equation models, latent factors of reasons against, and intra- and interindividual reasons for disclosure predicted peer and adult disclosure to varying degrees, with reasons against disclosure being the most predictive in both cases. Disclosure to adults could be better explained than disclosure to peers (R2 peers = 28.6%, R2 adults = 46.9%). In open-ended items, participants provided further reasons, which were grouped into categories (e.g., help-seeking, warning/prevention, fear of bullying/social exclusion). Practical implications like the aspired congruence between reasons for disclosure and confidants’ reactions, and limitations such as the neglect of the processual character of disclosure are outlined.  

Youth Adolescence (2025).

By Anamika Madhuraj, Francesca Batault, and Sofia Rivas 

Sexual violence in conflict settings is often framed in narrow terms—strategically deployed, militarized, and perpetrated by armed actors. Yet, this framing can obscure more complex realities. Drawing on the Managing Exits from Armed Conflict (MEAC) Project’s evidence from the North West of Nigeria, the Lake Chad Basin (LCB), and Colombia, this brief interrogates and expands upon six common assumptions about conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). It assesses whether these assumptions hold in the settings where MEAC conducts studies, or whether the reality is more nuanced and varied than often understood. In fast-moving humanitarian and policy environments, simplified narratives about CRSV may take hold out of necessity. But when these narratives become entrenched, they risk obscuring survivor experiences and misdirecting support. By critically examining these common conceptions, this brief surfaces key tensions, contradictions, and overlooked dynamics that challenge some dominant understandings of CRSV. Rather than reinforcing a singular narrative, the findings point to the need for more contextualized and survivor-informed responses. Effective prevention and response efforts must grapple with the full complexity of CRSV—the diversity of perpetrators, hidden forms, and lasting consequences—in order to prevent CRSV and meaningfully support those affected. 

Geneva, SWIT: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research UNIDIR, 2025. 25p.

By Alishya Dhir

In this paper, I argue that a new term, ‘thematic discretion’, can help us understand police decision-making in cases of youth image-basedsexual abuse (YIBSA). YIBSA can be defined as harmful image-sharing practices amongst young people, inclusive of the non-consensual sharing of private sexual images, upskirting and cyberflashing,alongside other actions. I will be drawing on findings from a doctoral research project investigating YIBSA, which utilised a mixed methods approach, comprising of quantitative analysis of freedom of information requests from 40 police forces in England and Wales, as well as 26qualitative interviews with police and non-police practitioners, also based within England and Wales. Research findings established thatYIBSA is highly complicated, and as a result, police officers utilised discretion at a considerable rate, alongside crafting their own guidelines to direct their decision-making, which is argued to be steeped in sexistand victim-blaming narratives

Policing and Society, An International Journal of Research and Policy, Volume 35, 2025 - Issue 2

By Elia Acciai, Michele Belloni, Marina Della Giusta

This paper provides evidence of a consistent gap in the value of cultural goods exported from Italy and the value declared by its trading partners in official trade statistics for the period 1994-2021 and discusses it in the context of the literature on illicit trafficking in cultural property, a phenomenon that plights a number of both developing and developed countries rich in cultural heritage. Differences between the four categories of cultural goods recorded (archaeological goods, antiquities, paintings, and sculptures) are exploited to highlight potential areas where trafficking might be expected to be larger. We construct a panel dataset to estimate a gravity model of the gap including market size, extent of trade, level of corruption and adoption of protective legislation (UNESCO and UNIDROIT) and discuss results indicating further questions to be investigated in this important and to date under researched policy area.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16282

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics . 2023. 18p.

By Rigissa Megalokonomou and Chrysovalantis Vasilakis

Recent political instability in the Middle East has triggered one of the largest influxes of refugees into Europe. The different departure points along the Turkish coast generate exogenous variation in refugee arrivals across Greek islands. We construct a new dataset on the number and nature of crime incidents and arrested offenders at island level using official police records and newspaper reports. Instrumental variables and difference-in-differences are employed to study the causal relationship between immigration and crime. We find that a 1-percentage-point increase in the share of refugees on destination islands increases crime incidents by 1.7-2.5 percentage points compared with neighboring unexposed islands. This is driven by crime incidents committed by refugees; there is no change in crimes committed by natives on those islands. We find a significant rise in property crime, knife attacks, and rape, but no increase in drug crimes. Results based on reported crimes exhibit a similar pattern. Our findings highlight the need for government provision in terms of infrastructure, social benefits, quicker evaluation for asylum, and social security.

IZA DP No. 16502

Bonn:  IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2023. 66p.

By Matthew T King-Parke, Ross M Bartels, Tochukwu Onwuegbusi

Burglary is a high-volume and frequently repeated offense. However, little is known about the cognitive scripts that may facilitate first-time burglaries. Thus, this paper reports three studies that examined burglary scripts within community participants. Study 1 (N = 113) involved developing two versions of a Burglary Script Assessment; one that assesses burglary scripts with different motivations and one that does not stipulate a specific motivation. Despite having never committed a burglary, many participants were found to hold a burglary script containing expert-like knowledge. Also, more detailed scripts were associated with a proclivity to enact the script. Study 2 (N = 44) examined whether the four motivated scripts correlated with a relevant construct (i.e. burglary-specific distortions, sensation-seeking, anger rumination). Burglary scripts motivated by desperation and thrill were correlated with burglary distortions and sensation-seeking, respectively. Using an experimental design, Study 3 (N = 146) showed that engaging in mental imagery about burglary increased script detail, relative to a no imagery group. However, phenomenological characteristics of the imagery and criminal attitudes were unrelated to script scores. Collectively, the findings offer new insights into burglary scripts, offering implications for understanding the risk of committing burglary. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Deviant Behavior Volume 45, 2024 - Issue 11

By Benjamin Ang and Muhammad Faizal

AI-generated disinformation in the form of deepfakes, comprising digitally manipulated video, audio, or images, has hit the headlines in Singapore. Cases from around the world demonstrate that AI-generated deepfakes combined with cyberattacks are not only a threat to the integrity of elections and scam victims but are also a threat to national security and defence. COMMENTARY Deepfake videos of Singapore’s political leaders have been circulating since at least last year, when manipulated video and audio impersonating Senior Minister (then Prime Minister) Lee Hsien Loong circulated online, appearing to promote a cryptocurrency scheme in a TV news interview. Similar videos impersonating Prime Minister (then Deputy Prime Minister) Lawrence Wong were also circulated. This year, more deepfake videos of Senior Minister (SM) Lee have been circulating online, this time showing him commenting on international relations. SM Lee described them as having “malicious intent” and was “dangerous and potentially harmful to our national interests”. To deal with this problem of deepfake videos, the Minister for Digital Development and Information, Ms Josephine Teo, is considering ways to regulate it by proposing a labelling scheme for tools and contents and even discussing a temporary ban to counter such videos, which are anticipated ahead of future Singapore general elections. The earlier cases were commercially motivated scams, but the recent ones have severe national security and defence implications. In SM Lee’s case, the deepfake made it look as if he was commenting on foreign policy, and foreigners unfamiliar with him could be misled, thereby sowing distrust. There is evidence that hostile information campaigns are used to weaken national cohesion or disrupt society in the lead-up to hostilities or as part of geopolitical contestation. 

S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU Singapore , 2024. 4p.

By Cassandra Cross, Thomas Holt 

Data breaches, or the unauthorized access of personal information, are increasing globally as are the number of victims affected. Existing studies restrict their focus on fraud and identity theft as principal consequences of data breaches for individuals, limiting our knowledge of the extent of other harms associated with victimisation. This article assesses the impacts of third-party data breaches within a sample of 552 Australian victims. The findings note specific behavioural factors and data losses were associated with emotional, health, relationship, and financial harms. This article advocates recognition of data breach impacts beyond the financial losses of fraud and identity crime, and expanding support offered to victims in response to such incidents.

Journal of Crime and Justice, 1–24

By Gianluca Cafiso and Marco Ferdinando Martorana

We investigate the extent to which crime, and the inability to effectively suppress it, affect the performance of local banks in terms of credit extension, asset quality, and profitability. The analysis focuses on cooperative banks in Italy, typically small institutions with strong ties to their local communities, over the period 2013–2023. The findings suggest that both crime and judicial inefficiency, even when considered separately and after controlling for banks’ operational efficiency, significantly influence credit extension and the incidence of non-performing loans. While their impact on overall profitability appears limited, non-interest income is significantly reduced.

Working Paper No. 12025, 

Munich:  Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH, 2025. 37p.

By Manotar Tampubolon

The rapid advancement of technology has significantly changed the banking industry, allowing for quicker transactions, improved customer experiences, and worldwide connectivity. However, this technological progress has also opened the door to complex banking crimes, including cyberattacks, data breaches, and identity theft. This research examines the intricate challenges that come with integrating technology in banking, focusing on how financial institutions manage the delicate balance between innovation and security. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the study incorporates case studies, regulatory frameworks, and technological safeguards to identify vulnerabilities in digital banking systems. It also evaluates the effectiveness of current legal and institutional measures in tackling emerging threats. The findings indicate that while technology-driven solutions can provide potential defenses, shortcomings in cross-border collaboration and adaptive regulation impede effective crime prevention. Recommendations stress the importance of  unified global policies, advanced threat detection systems, and ongoing staff training to address these evolving challenge

International Journal of Social Science and Human Research ISSN (print): 2644-0679, ISSN (online): 2644-0695 Volume 08 Issue 05 May 2025 

By Sally Crosland, Calli Tzani & Maria Ioannou

When considering intimate partner homicide (IPH), there is a comparative lack of recent research focusing on the specific stereotypes relating to female perpetrators, although recent findings suggest that there is a marked gender difference in instances of IPH perpetration. The current systematic review explored stereotyping of female IPH defendants between 2003 and 2023. Findings suggest stereotypes regarding female IPH perpetrators have a marked effect across several areas. Existence and extent of courtroom and media stereotyping are identified, and factors influencing jury verdicts are considered. Research limitations, implications of findings and directions for further research are specified.

Deviant Behavior, May 2025.

By Yasmin Ibrahim

2023, Liberty Investigates (LI) released a report which reveals that Black girls are three times more likely to be subjected to the most invasive strip search with Black people making up nearly half of all Metropolitan Police (Met) strip searches of female children and teenagers. In the UK, the Met faces long-standing accusations of institutional racism. The recent report re-invokes the plight of Blackness, particularly the underage fungible subjecthood of Black girls and their plight within the institutional culture of the Met. This paper, delving critically into the LI report and the unfortunate Child Q incident, reviews the bodies of Black female children and teenagers as sites of unmitigated transgression, disciplining and violence symbolizing the ‘spirit-murder’ of the child’s psyche and its relationality to Afro- pessimism.

Social Identities, July 2025.

By Cassandra Cross

Romance fraud uses the guise of a genuine relationship to deceive a victim into transferring often large amounts of money to an offender/s. Romance fraud has been in the top three categories of financial loss for Australian victims over the past decade, and this is a trend mirrored internationally. However, in recent years there has been a convergence of romance fraud and investment fraud approaches. Terms such as romance baiting, cryptorom and ‘pig butchering' have all emerged to describe how offenders are evolving in their attempts to defraud victims through offering fake cryptocurrency investment opportunities, using a relationship as the mechanism. This article analyses this shift in romance fraud offending and its embracing of investment scheme opportunities. It highlights the underlying reasons for the success of this amalgamated approach and further demonstrates how it potentially distorts the reporting of fraud as well as prevention messaging targeting these incidents.

Current Issues Criminal Justice Volume 36, 2024 - Issue 3

By Bing Han and Mark Button

Fraud against individuals has become one of the most common crimes in many countries throughout the world. China, like many other nations, has experienced significant increases in the volume of fraud. One type of scam that has become prevalent there is the “pig butchering scam” which is a form of hybrid romance-investment fraud, where the scammers establish relationships, build trust and gradually escalate to a significant fraud. This scam also differs from other romance frauds with the involvement of organized crime groups on a significant scale, often utilizing forced and trafficked labor. This paper offers insights from Chinese victims and police officers of the characteristics and anatomy of this scam.

Deviant Behavior, January 2025

By Hany Farid 

The ability to distort the visual record is not new. Airbrushed images attempted to alter the historical archives in the early 1900s. Today, digitally manipulated cheapfakes and deepfakes supercharge the spread of lies and conspiracies. While not fundamentally new, today's enhanced ability to easily create, distribute, and amplify manipulated media has heightened the risks. Reasonable and proportional interventions can and should be adopted that would allow for the creative uses of these powerful new technologies while mitigating the risk they pose to individuals, societies, and democracies.

PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2025, pgaf194,

By Jason Eligh

The countries of Eastern and Southern Africa have a long history of illicit drug cultivation, production, consumption and trade. Khat, a crop that is indigenous to the Horn and coastal East Africa, has been used as a stimulant since the 12th century. Cannabis, originally imported from Asia, has a history of several hundred years of production and use in the region.

Initially, the informal policies surrounding the control of these drugs had been driven by traditional social networks, and cultural beliefs and practices. Today, however, it is the more recent large-scale trade in and widespread use of opiates, stimulants and other synthetic substances that has become recognized as a harmful phenomenon and risk to the region. As container and intermodal shipping grew rapidly through the 1970s, along with new long-haul mass transport and passenger aircraft, the global economic landscape in general, and illicit drug marketplaces in particular, were reshaped. The development of the region’s air and seaports, and their integration into global transport and communication networks, saw the emergence of new entrepôt trade, and hubs of commerce became networked across the continent. Meanwhile, technological innovations designed to increase the volume of drug commodity movement and decrease the risk of seizure began to emerge. With these developments, many nascent networks of African drug traders began to consolidate their positions in the drug economies of Eastern and Southern Africa.

As international drug control measures began to restrict supply chains from South Asian and Latin American source points, new trafficking routes evolved in Eastern and Southern African states to circumvent these measures, thus opening new supply channels and, consequently, new markets. From the 1980s, the continental consumption, production and distribution of substances such as heroin, cocaine, cannabis and synthetic drugs grew notably, and the impact of this expanding illicit market on development was significant, and paradoxically symbiotic. The emerging illicit drug markets were both a threat to development and security in the region and at the same time a new source of economic livelihood for populations of poor and vulnerable communities.

The 1990s saw significant, rapid drug trade expansion across the continent as Afghan heroin began to emerge in volume in East Africa. Shipped by dhow to Kenyan and Tanzanian ports from Pakistan and Iranian departure points, initially to be repackaged and trans-shipped to European and US markets, local heroin use began to grow. Heroin use spread along the eastern coast and to South Africa, as well as to some island states, such as Mauritius and the Seychelles. Across the region these heroin users tended to be among the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. Injection drug use soon emerged in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eSwatini, Namibia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Cocaine, methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs soon followed.

Today, Eastern and Southern African countries have become significant illicit drug transit hubs and destination markets for a diversity of illicit drugs. Growing consumer demand and improved infrastructure have shaped and facilitated the availability and accessibility of illicit drugs across the region. As a consequence, domestic and regional drug trade flows and user markets have become embedded features of the region’s domestic illicit economies.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime 2021. 28p.

By Federico Bertola

Drug trafficking on darknet based marketplaces has become a highly concerning topic in law enforcement activities, recently. Even though Dark Markets represent only a tiny fraction of the global drug trade, they are changing the drug markets' social networks, introducing a new paradigm of the link between vendors and buyers of drugs. The aim of this study is to critically review the dark markets' ecosystem and the previous literature regarding these new marketplaces, trying to investigate how the drug trade is changing with these new technologies, and the role of organised crime (OC) in these new illegal markets. And trying to understand how and whether it involved OC on these cyber drug markets and the chain behind them. Despite opinions of part of the academy, the results show that there are no empirical evidences of direct involvement of OC as vendors in dark markets. However, there is evidence of an indirect role of OC in darknet drug trafficking, as supplier of illegal drugs to the online-vendors. 

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Special Issue), pp. 27-34

By Jakob Demant, Kristoffer Magnus Bjerre Aagesen

This study investigated the current state of social media drug dealing. The main objective was to understand how contemporary hybrid digital social media markets have evolved since previous research was undertaken in 2017-18. This was achieved by conducting netnography in online spaces, with a particular focus on Danish sites. The netnography data collection in Denmark has since been rolled out in Norway, Sweden and Germany. The most significant findings are as follows.

• Our netnography found no access to drug dealing in Danish spaces through searching on the Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Although there may be some limited groups on Facebook, the findings suggest that there has been a successful implementation of increased moderation protocols on both Instagram and Facebook.

• On Snapchat, we identified easy and quick access to many active drug dealers in all major Danish cities. These dealers were identified by searching for common Danish drug slang in the search field and through suggestions from the app’s network-expanding features. We found similar ready access to drug dealers in Norway and Sweden. However, we did not identify drug dealer activity on the German Snapchat.

• We also found a vast amount of Danish and Swedish drug dealing on forums in the social networking site Reddit. Here, dealers created and moderated forums dedicated to selling drugs. The forums functioned as open markets with high levels of competition and a degree of specialisation in offering all types of drugs. No Norwegian and German dealers was found on these sites.

In summary, we identified easily accessible drug dealing on surface-level social media amounting to a large potential drift among social media users. Snapchat and Reddit each host active digital drug markets well suited to taking advantage of the platforms’ features while avoiding effective moderation. It was not possible to reach either platform to inform them

Lisbon:  European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) , 2022. 29p.

By Nacer Lalam

Money laundering is practised exclusively by criminal organisations that have attained a proven level of professionalism. It occurs at a certain point in the criminal cycle because it enables an illicit enterprise to legitimise the origin of their funds and benefit from their gains while remaining unpunished. Nonetheless, most professional traffickers think in a sequential manner, that is, first they are interested in how to set up their activity (purchase, logistics, distribution) and only much later in how they are going to hide the origin of the profits they make.

However, the money-laundering phase is crucial for those involved in the criminal world. Moreover, public authorities have been working to combat money laundering for more than thirty years, with, of course, varying degrees of success, depending on the relevant legal provisions, their application and preventive effects.

In the context of the European drug market, this paper provides an exploratory analysis of a method of laundering drug money that law enforcement agencies (LEAs) identify through the use of ‘cash collectors’. We first highlight the main actors of cash collecting linked to drug trafficking, then we discuss its organisation, especially the interpenetration of networks, and, finally, we highlight some salient elements of public responses to the problem in a number of European countries.

Lisbon:  European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) , 2022. 25p.