By Michael Skidmore and Beth Aikenhead

This study aims to improve our understanding of the most serious fraud offences perpetrated in the UK, specifically the diversity of methods for committing these crimes, the characteristics and pathways of offenders involved and where applicable, how the groups or networks of offenders operate. This is an exploratory study which used qualitative data taken from the documents compiled by police practitioners in 25 separate criminal investigations. The cases included in this analysis do not constitute a representative sample of frauds in England and Wales during this period. The selection of cases reflects the choices made by the research team to incorporate a diversity of methods, offenders and settings to capture the breadth of fraud. Furthermore, the sampling frame is the product of practitioner choices over which crimes to assign investigation by specialist teams; these are a limited resource and due to the challenges of international investigation, will likely prioritise offending that has a footprint in the UK. Furthermore, in focusing on frauds that were perpetrated (at least in part) from within England and Wales it does not represent fraud offending that emanates from other countries. The specific fraud cases were serious for different reasons; high financial losses (£100,000 or more), high volume offending (50 or more known victims) and high victim impact (assessed by the victim and/or police practitioner). These dimensions of harm reflect those used in practitioner assessments for deciding which frauds are high harm and a priority for intervention. Only three cases satisfied all three harm criteria, all of which involved the mis-selling of investments. Twelve cases satisfied only one criterion and those linked to each dimension of harm were associated with different methods and victims; all cases that fulfilled the high financial loss criterion had defrauded businesses, and two out of three that fulfilled the high-volume criterion involved taking advance payment from consumers In five cases the scale of victimisation and impact was hidden, but they were included because they involved high-risk offenders suspected of being engaged in serious and complex offending. There was considerable diversity in the methods for perpetrating serious fraud and this study borrows from a typology of acquisitive crime developed in a previous study (Naylor, 2002). This model provided a good fit for distinguishing serious frauds on the basis of two overarching models of offending, and this delineation simultaneously revealed distinctions in the situational context, victim and offender profiles: • Commercial frauds: perpetrated from within a legitimate or pseudo-legitimate business setting and included the sale of investments or the mis-selling of products or services online or face-to-face, and nearly all had victimised individual members of the public. • Predatory frauds: involved theft by impersonating legitimate individuals or organisations, mostly by offenders operating from outside of a business setting and without the pretence of a legitimate commercial exchange. The victim profile was more varied, and over half had victimised businesses (for example, payment diversion fraud). There was divergence in the types of fraud offence encompassed by each category of fraud.

London: Police Foundation 2023. 39p.

By William P. McClanahan, Daniel S. Nagin, Marco Otte, Peter Wozniak, Jean-Louis van Gelder

A central tenet of the criminal decision-making literature is that perceptions of the environment shape decisions. Yet the underlying mechanisms linking environmental features to perception remain mostly untested. Those that have been tested have relied on methods that are either correlational or have limited generalizability. We aimed to fill this gap by harnessing the power of virtual reality. Using burglary as a case study, incarcerated residential burglars with varying degrees of proficiency (N = 160) explored a virtual neighborhood with houses that differed in features related to the risks and rewards of burglary. In support of our preregistered hypotheses, offenders adjust their perceptions in response to environmental features related to risks and rewards. Moreover, proficiency modifies these perceptions, with more proficient offenders believing they are less likely to get caught and seen and, as a result, more likely to break into a house. We support our statistical findings with rich data from qualitative interviews.

Criminology, Volume 63, Issue 1, February 2025, Pages 155-182

By Sjoukje van Deuren

Although Dutch Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) have been around since the late nineteen seventies, it was not until the turn of the century that Dutch OMCGs increasingly started to attract attention from both the authorities and the general public. In 1996, a report on Dutch organized crime provided a starting point for the government’s view that OMCGs in general and the Hells Angels in particular, are hotbeds for serious and organized crime that need to be addressed. In the report, members of the Amsterdam Hells Angels were accused of being involved in serious and organized crime, such as the trade, import, and transit of synthetic drugs (Bovenkerk & Fijnaut, 1996). In 2012, the presumption that members of at least some OMCGs were involved in organized crime, a growing fear of inter-club feuds, and the feeling that Dutch OMCGs were exhibiting themselves as untouchable and above the law, spurred the minister of Security and Justice to announce a multi-pronged, whole-of-government approach (Van Ruitenburg, 2020). This integrated approach was aimed at combating criminal OMCGs via all legal options available, including criminal, civil, and administrative means. Initially all OMCGs of the former Dutch Council of Eight – a consultative body established in 1996 by the Hells Angels and seven other motorcycle clubs to avoid turmoil and inter-club rivalry – were subjected to the integrated approach. In the context of the integrated approach, various actors, such as the police, local governments, and tax authorities closely work together to raise barriers against the OMCG subculture.1 The approach aims to hinder the criminal opportunities of OMCG members, reduce the popularity of the OMCG subculture, and target the untouchable image of OMCGs by addressing the OMCGs on the individual and on the club level. On the individual level, focal points of the approach are prioritizing the criminal prosecution of individual OMCG members, and reducing the number of OMCG members working for the private security sector or the government. Criminal prosecution is specifically targeted at OMCG board members in an effort to rid the clubs of their management. On the club level, club houses are closed down and OMCG-related events are prohibited. Clubhouses are believed to be important locations for the planning and execution of (organized) crime, while OMCGrelated events provide opportunity for the escalation of conflict. More recently, the Dutch Public Prosecution Office successfully filed petitions to the civil court to ban those Dutch OMCGs deemed to be most heavily involved in crime. Overall, the integrated approach is much more focused on the structural aspects of OMCGs as collectives, rather than on specific forms of (organized) crime committed by individual members. Importantly, when the integrated approach was implemented in 2012, there was scant knowledge on the crimes of the various Dutch OMCGs, and on whether and in which (continued)

Amsterdam: Free University of Amsterdam, 2023. 175p.

By Daniel Birks, Elizabeth R. Groff, and Nick Malleson

An agent-based model is a form of complex systems model that is capable of simulating how the micro-level behavior of individual system entities contributes to macro-level system outcomes. Researchers draw on theory and evidence to identify the key elements of a given system and specify behaviors of agents that simulate the individual entities of that system—be they cells, animals, or people. The model is then used to run simulations in which agents interact with one another and the resulting outcomes are observed. These models enable researchers to explore proposed causal explanations of real-world outcomes, experiment with the impacts that potential interventions might have on system behavior, or generate counterfactual scenarios against which real-world events can be compared. In this review, we discuss the application of agent-based modeling within the field of criminology as well as key challenges and future directions for research.

Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 8:75-95 January 2025)

By Wim Bernasco*, Marre Lammers, Barbara Menting, Stijn Ruiter

The interpretation of research findings based on self-reported delinquency requires knowledge of how response rates depend on the attributes of potential respondents, including their prior offending. The purpose of the present study was to quantify the extent to which, in a sample of offenders, the two main determinants of non-response – non-contact and refusal – depend on prior offending frequency. We used binomial and multinomial regression models to assess whether frequent offenders are more difficult to contact and less willing to participate in online surveys. These hypotheses are tested on a sample of offenders who were invited by regular mail to participate in the Online Activity Space Inventory Survey (OASIS), an online survey on mobility and safety. Controlling for gender and age as potential confounders, our findings do not confirm that frequent offenders are less likely to be successfully contacted, but they do confirm that, if contacted, they are less likely to participate. Response rates in offender-based research are selective and thus potentially biased towards infrequent offenders. They generally favour conservative estimates and conclusions, implying that any associations found between crime and its predictors are likely stronger in reality.

European Journal of Criminology, Volume 19, Issue 6, November 2022, Pages 1403-1420

By Nils Braakmann, Arnaud Chevalier, Tanya Wilson

We provide first evidence that temporal variations in the expected returns to crime affect the location of property crime. Our identification strategy relies on the widely-held perception in the UK that households of South Asian descent store gold jewellery at home. Price movements on the international market for gold exogenously affect the expected gains from burgling these households, which become relatively more lucrative targets as the gold price increases. Using a neighbourhood-level panel on reported crime and difference-in-differences, we find that burglaries in South Asian neighbourhoods are more sensitive to variations in the gold price than other neighbourhoods in the same municipality, confirming that burglars react rationally to variations in the expected returns to their activities. We conduct a battery of tests on neighbourhood and individual data to eliminate alternative explanations.

IZA DP No. 15520

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2022. 48p.

By Volkan Topalli, Timothy Dickinson, and Scott Jacques

Active offender research relies on the collection of data from noninstitutionalized criminals and has made significant contributions to our understanding of the etiology of serious crime. This review covers its history as well as its methodological, scientific, and ethical pitfalls and advantages. Because study subjects are currently and freely engaging in crime at the time of data collection, their memories, attitudes, and feelings about their criminality and specific criminal events are rich, detailed, and accurate. Contemporary approaches to active offender research employ systematized formats for data collection and analysis that improve the validity of findings and help illuminate the foreground of crime. Although active offender research has traditionally relied on qualitative techniques, we outline the potential for it to make contributions via mixed methods, experiments, and emerging computational and technological approaches, such as virtual reality simulation studies and agent-based modeling.  

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2020. 3:189–215   

By Volkan Topalli, Timothy Dickinson, and Scott Jacques

Active offender research relies on the collection of data from noninstitutionalized criminals and has made significant contributions to our understanding of the etiology of serious crime. This review covers its history as well as its methodological, scientific, and ethical pitfalls and advantages. Because study subjects are currently and freely engaging in crime at the time of data collection, their memories, attitudes, and feelings about their criminality and specific criminal events are rich, detailed, and accurate. Contemporary approaches to active offender research employ systematized formats for data collection and analysis that improve the validity of findings and help illuminate the foreground of crime. Although active offender research has traditionally relied on qualitative techniques, we outline the potential for it to make contributions via mixed methods, experiments, and emerging computational and technological approaches, such as virtual reality simulation studies and agent-based modeling.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2020. 3:189–215

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

JACK KATZ

SEDUCTIONS OF CRIME delves into the complex and intriguing world where moral boundaries blur and the allure of transgression thrives. In this thought-provoking exploration, the author examines the seductive nature of crime, shedding light on the moral and sensual attractions that accompany acts of wrongdoing. Through insightful analysis and compelling narratives, SEDUCTIONS OF CRIME challenges readers to confront their perceptions of good and evil, inviting them to ponder the intricate forces that drive individuals towards illicit behaviors. A captivating read that resonates long after the final page is turned, SEDUCTIONS OF CRIME offers a unique perspective on the darker facets of human nature and the enigmatic pull of the forbidden.

Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. New York. 1988. 376p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

EDITORS Michael R. Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi

The philosophy of positivism in criminology -- the belief in a scientific approach to the study of crime -- has been widely challenged. In Positive Criminology leading proponents respond to the criticisms and assert the validity and value of the positivist paradigm. The contributors define modern positive criminology and discuss important criminological issues from a positivistic perspective. They demonstrate the value of this paradigm for understanding crime and solving the many problems it presents.

CA. Sage. 1987, 189p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By Vincent F. Sacco and Leslie W. Kennedy

Sacco/Kennedy is a concise, economical text that offers a unifying element to aid student understanding of the material presented. The organizing tool ('the criminal event') presents crime as consisting of many facets, and it shows the relationships between the various facets of crime. With an emphasis on spatial analysis, the authors examine crime from all sides, what motivates people to commit crime, who suffers and how, and how society should respond.

Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002, 180 pages

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By Paul F. Angiolillo

In the world of crime and deception, Angelo Duca stands out as a notorious figure with a mysterious allure. Known for his daring heists and cunning tactics, Angelo has built a reputation as a skilled criminal mastermind. Despite his illegal activities, there are those who see him as a hero - a modern-day Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to the poor. But beneath the surface of his charming facade lies a complex individual driven by his own code of honor and morality. As Angelo navigates the dangerous underworld, he must constantly confront the blurred line between right and wrong, challenging our perception of what it means to be a hero. Join Angelo Duca on a thrilling journey through the shadows where the line between criminal and hero is razor-thin.

Regents Press of Kansas, 1979, 211 pages

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By Pat O'Malley

Over recent years, the governance of crime - from policing and crime prevention to sentencing and prison organization - has moved away from a focus on reforming offenders toward preventing crime and managing behaviour using predictive and distributional (such as risk) techniques.

Crime and Risk presents an engaging discussion of risk strategies and risk-taking in the domain of crime and criminal justice. It outlines the broad theoretical issues and political approaches involved, relating risk in contemporary crime governance to risk in criminal activity. Taking a broad and discursive approach, it covers:

- Risk-taking and contemporary culture

- The excitement associated with risk-taking and the impact of criminal activity

- The application of risk-oriented developments in crime prevention and control

- The use of genetic and related biotechnologies to assess and react to perceived threats

- The conceptualization of risk in relation to race and gender

- The influence of excitement upon criminal activity

- Evidence and accountability.

SAGE Publications, May 5, 2010, 112 pages

may contain markup

By M. David Ermann and Richard J. Lundman

Corporate and Governmental Deviance is the most complete and accessible treatment and exploration of the deviant behavior of big business and big government. Now in its fifth edition, this popular collection has been thoroughly updated to include an expanded introductory essay by the editors, new selections on corporate cover-ups, including such controversial issues as the Pinto fire hazards, the health risks associated with Rely tampons, as well as the current debates on excessive force by police and price-fixing. Moral issues within government, such as the rationalization of the use of genocide during the Nazi Holocaust, along with an essay of the media coverage and the public reactions to such crimes are covered as well. The new edition also retains the familiar classic essays by major scholars featured in previous editions. Intended for use in sociology and criminology courses, this book provides readers with an even clearer appreciation of the fact that organizations, and not just individuals, commit acts of deviance.

Oxford University Press, 1996, 331 pages

may contain markup

By Kenneth D. Tunnell

The major issues explored through this study were the motivation to commit property crimes, alternatives to crime commission, neutralization of fears during criminal decision making, and decision making processes. During the analysis of the data, five basic themes emerged. Offenders typically decided to commit crimes by using one or more neutralization techniques, most frequently alcohol or drugs, that aided them in the decision making and in the actual crime commission. Persistent criminals did not give any thought to the potentially negative consequences of their actions. The decision making types explicated in this study characterize individuals who are problematic for society, the judicial system, and the other people whose lives they disrupt. The study found that offenders typically specialized in one type of crime for a period of time, then moved on to another specialty area. Finally, the results indicated that these offenders committed a disproportionate number of crimes because they lacked other alternatives. The author maintains that these findings dispute the generally accepted view of the effectiveness of deterrence and instead point to needed policy changes in the areas of wealth redistribution, educational reform, and structural changes in the criminal justice system.

Nelson-Hall Publishers / Chicago, 1992, 191p

may contain markup

Translated from the Italian in the Author's Original Order With Notes and Introduction by David Young

On Crimes and Punishments is a seminal treatise on legal reform written by the Italian philosopher and thinker Cesare Beccaria between 1763 and 1764. The essays proposed many reforms for the criminal justice system, including prompt administration of clearly prescribed and consistent punishments, well-publicized laws made by the legislature rather than individual courts or judges, the abolition of torture in prisons and the use of the penal system to deter would-be offenders, rather than simply punishing those convicted. It is also one of the earlier, and most famous, works against death penalty. The main reason put forward against that measure is that the State, by putting people to death, was committing a crime to punish another one.On Crimes and Punishments is widely considered one of the founding texts of Classical Criminology.

Indiana. Hackett Publishing. 1986.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By Cesare Beccaria. Edited and with an Introduction by Adolph Caso

The first systematic study of the principles of crime and punishment. Originally published: London: Printed for E. Newberry, 1775. viii, [iv], 179, lxxix pp. Infused with the spirit of the Enlightenment, its advocacy of crime prevention and the abolition of torture and capital punishment marked a significant advance in criminological thought, which had changed little since the Middle Ages. It had a profound influence on the development of criminal law in Europe and the United States, especially among the founding fathers. Originally published anonymously in 1764.

Kessinger Publishing, January 17, 2007, ‎244 pages

By Matt DeLisi, John Paul Wright, Rafael A. Mangual

Among many criminologists, advocates, and policymakers, it is an article of faith that the socioeconomic “root causes” of serious crime must be addressed in order to reduce lawbreaking. However, the enormous crime declines over the course of the late 1990s and early 2000s occurred without significant improvements in socioeconomic conditions. Even so, academics, policymakers, and criminal-justice advocates continue to insist that poverty drives offending rates and that it is thus essential for society to target poverty through increased social and capital investments. This paper explores a phenomenon that contradicts that claim—and, in fact, indicates that creating a system with enforced rules and consequences for lawbreaking is key to reducing crime. We call this: “crime as entitlement.” In the psychological literature, “entitlement” is a term that essentially refers to a frame of mind that prioritizes the whims, wants, and needs of the individual above the rights, desires, and needs of others. Entitlement thinking goes beyond normal selfishness because it elevates the belief that one is deserving of special treatment, unearned privileges, and respect—independent of effort. The consequences of entitlement thinking are devastating. Entitlement thinking divorces individuals from personal responsibility; it impedes recognition of the consequences that stem from the individual’s behavior; and it leads the individual to view wants and desires as rights whose pursuit is beyond reproach. The manifestation of entitlement in individual behavior is common—indeed, nearly universal— across humanity in early childhood. This is something to which anyone who has witnessed a toddler’s temper tantrum can attest. For most of us, entitlement is resolved early on in life, as the result of parenting, discipline, and the internalization of behavioral consequences. But for those whose self-absorption and self-centeredness remain unchecked, entitlement metastasizes, which can lead to imprudent and antisocial behavior. Over time, unchecked entitlement can breed arrogant self-indulgence and become foundational to conduct and personality disorders. The psychiatric and psychological science of entitlement is well established and far-reaching in its application. In the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, entitlement is defined as “unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations” and is one of the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder—a condition involving pervasive grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. Entitlement is an active ingredient in personality pathology where the exploitation and victimization of others are as essential to one’s daily needs as food and shelter. While entitlement does not always present itself in the form of criminal conduct, many criminal offenders—whose offending behavior ranges from disorderly conduct and confidence scheming to sexual predation and homicide—share commonalities in their mind-sets, their behavioral expectations, and their preferred responses to their own behavior. Those mind-sets and expectations, which are expounded on below, reveal entitlement as an important, yet underexplored, driver of a significant amount of criminal behavior. In his book Inside the Criminal Mind, Dr. Stanton Samenow argues: “Behavior is a product of thinking, and so it is incumbent upon anyone formulating policy or working with offenders to understand how criminals think.” To that end, we first explain the role of entitlement in criminal thinking patterns and, by extension, criminal behavior; and, second, we explore the policy implications of crime as entitlement.

New York: Manhattan Institute, 2022.  9p.

By Thomas G. Blomberg, Jennifer E. Copp, and Jillian J. Turanovic

The relevance of criminology to matters of public policy has been hotly debated throughout the history of the discipline. Yet time and again, we have borne witness to the consequences of harmful criminal justice practices that do little to reduce crime or improve the lives of our most vulnerable populations. Given the urgent need for evidence-informed responses to the problems that face our society, we argue here that criminologists can and should have a voice in the process. Accordingly, this review describes challenges and prospects for evidence-informed policymaking on matters of crime and justice. In terms of challenges, we review discourse on what constitutes evidence, issues with providing guidance under conditions of causal uncertainty, and practical constraints on evidence-informed policymaking. For prospects, we consider the important roles of institutional support, graduate training, and multiple translational strategies for the evidence-informed movement. Finally, we end with several considerations for advancing translational criminology through expanded promotion and tenure criteria, curricula revision, and prioritizing the organization of knowledge. More broadly, our goals are to stimulate disciplinary thinking regarding the ways in which criminology may play a more meaningful role in effectively confronting the ongoing challenges of crime in society.

Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7, Page 143 - 162

By Lynn S. Chancer

This review looks at the main ideas that have animated cultural criminology in the past while suggesting new directions the perspective might follow going forward. It discusses early definitions and subject matters; the historical contexts within which cultural criminology was initially welcomed; and cultural criminology's special emphasis on the importance of studying emotions as well as rationality to fully comprehend crime and criminality. Three older critiques of cultural criminology and one lesser known one are also outlined: theoretical vagueness; under-emphases on class, structural factors, and conjunctural analyses; insufficient attention to gender and intersectionality; and, a relatively less discussed concern, prioritizing symbolic interactionism rather than sometimes tapping Freudian psychosocial concepts when investigating matters of individual agency. I argue that cultural criminology distinctively recommends multidimensional analyses as called for by the complex character of crime itself. Finally, drawing on and in agreement with Jonathan Ilin's work, I suggest that cultural criminology should routinely consider three levels both theoretically and methodologically: the macro (structural); the meso (cultural); and the micro (individual). The review concludes with examples that, if taken up in future research, would further widen cultural criminological interests, associations, and commitments to multidimensionality.

Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7, Page 129 - 142