By Ian Tennant, Simone Haysom, Tiphaine Chapeau

In October 2024, Brazil, France, and Peru tabled a resolution at the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) for a new intergovernmental process to take stock of how the convention addresses crimes that affect the environment. In addition, the resolution called for possible gaps to be identified in the current international legal framework to prevent and combat these crimes, and to discuss whether any additional protocol should be developed. The work of the new intergovernmental expert group (IEG) will therefore become a key focus of multilateral discussions on environmental crimes in the future. The first meeting of this group will take place in Vienna from 30 June to 2 July 2025, and may be followed by a second meeting in early 2026, ahead of the 15th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the United Arab Emirates in April. The group will be expected to report on its work at the 13th UNTOC COP in October 2026. This new process is the culmination of a long-brewing movement towards addressing environmental crimes beyond what can be controlled through CITES. For example, it builds on progress made at France’s initiative to push forward resolutions on environmental crime that are within the scope of existing UN instruments. In 2022, Resolution 31/1 of the UN Commission of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) called for views on a potential new protocol on wildlife trafficking to be collected, following a campaign led by the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime consortium, which had high-profile government support from countries such as Angola, Kenya, Peru and Gabon, but for which consensus could not be reached as part of UN General Assembly Resolution 75/311 on wildlife trafficking. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has published several analyses of what it calls the ‘patchwork’ of existing legislation, and documented member states’ views on the topic through questionnaires coming out of the latest CCPCJ and UNTOC resolutions. Calls for discussions on updating the international legal framework on environmental crimes, including potentially a new protocol, date back even further. For example, a joint paper by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and the World Wildlife Fund was launched at the 13th UN Crime Congress in Doha in 2015, and the UN system itself has adopted calls for further action since 2014, primarily with regard to the illegal wildlife trade. Environmental criminal markets have changed considerably since, increasing the need for the urgent updating of the existing multilateral response. Crimes that affect the environment are deeply globalized and require diverse action across value chains, including in transit countries, to be successfully combatted. Moreover, incentives for actions and consequences for inaction are grossly skewed across the globe, and preventive and remedial measures, convictions and recovery of proceeds from these crimes often lag behind. Despite some progress – notably on trafficking in wildlife, and especially in some iconic species – it has not been enough. It has never been clearer that more internationally coordinated action and globally funded and resourced responses are needed.

Geneva: ECO-SOLVE Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2024. 30p.

By Tim Dekkers

As migration is increasingly seen as a matter of security, migration control and crime control seem to be merging, a process also referred to as crimmigration. To distinguish between migrants that are wanted and those who are not, new technologies are introduced regularly and existing technologies are increasingly interconnected. This could lead to what is called function creep: technology developed for a specific purpose over time being used for other purposes as well. This article aims to explore the relation between crimmigration and function creep by examining a case study of a smart camera system called Amigo-boras used by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. While originally designed to assist in enforcing migration law, recent developments allow the RNM to use Amigo-boras for crime control purposes as well. This article will uncover what the rationales behind this function creep in the use of the Amigo-Boras system are/were – both from a street-level and policy-level perspective – and how these relate to crimmigration. The data shows that concerns of cross-border crime are an important reason to use Amigo-boras for more than just migration control. As a result, a significant element of crime control is introduced in Dutch migration control, pushing the crimmigration process further.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Volume 46, 2020 - Issue 9

By Christopher Inkpen, Jonathan Holt, John Bollenbacher, Heather Deforge, Lilly Yu, Pranav Athimuthu, Nicole Jasperson, Renata Zablocka, Nick Kruskamp

This report, funded by the National Institute of Justice (award #: 2020-R2-CX-0027) and prepared by RTI International, describes the results of a National Institute of Justice-funded research study that uses advanced analytical methods and novel datasets to explore the complex relationship between immigration, crime, and crime reporting at the neighborhood level. The study, which employs crime and crime reporting data from ten jurisdictions across the United States paired with a synthetic population that estimates the unauthorized immigrant population, aims to provide an in-depth analysis at the Census tract level. Analyses focus on unauthorized immigration and its correlation with drug, property, and violent crime rates, while accounting for crime reporting in traditional and emerging immigrant destinations along with sites with low foreign populations. BackgroundL  Despite persistent political discourse linking immigration and increases in crime, most academic research contradicts this notion, showing either a negative or null relationship between immigration and crime. At the individual level, first-generation immigrants tend to have lower arrest rates than native-born citizens. Yet this trend diminishes with subsequent generations, as the children of first-generation immigrants (i.e., second generation immigrants) are often arrested at similar rates to children of native-born citizens. However, few studies assess the relationship between documentation status and offending. Macro-level analyses that focus on crime and immigration in specific areas reveal that areas with higher immigrant populations often experience lower crime rates or that the prevalence of immigrants in an area is not associated with an increase in arrests. Yet these studies frequently omit distinctions in documentation status, as these data are often unavailable. Further, many macro-level analyses are conducted at the county, state, or city level, which may obscure relationships observed at local levels. This study also attempts to control for the nuances of crime reporting among immigrant populations. Immigrant neighborhoods, especially those in emerging destinations, show lower rates of crime reporting. Trust in the police and fear of deportation are potentially significant factors influencing the likelihood of underreporting crimes. highlighting the importance of community-police relations. Strong police-community relations are crucial for public safety as they foster trust and cooperation, leading to more accurate crime reporting, effective law enforcement, and safer spaces. Methodology and Data Sources This study uses a variety of data sources to analyze the relationship between the presence of unauthorized immigrants in a Census tract and corresponding crime rates. Synthetic Population Development Traditional methods for estimating the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States rely on either demographic accounting or model-based survey imputation techniques. Defined simply, demographic accounting involves subtracting the estimated number of legally present immigrants from the total foreign-born population recorded in U.S. Census Bureau surveys. These techniques may also employ logical edits to large survey datasets that use characteristics like age, education, and place of birth to infer unauthorized status. Model-based survey imputation techniques combine data from different survey datasets to estimate unauthorized status in nationally representative surveys, using statistical techniques to merge information from surveys with immigration queries and those with extensive geographic detail. This study builds on the work of model-based imputation methods by developing models that predict unauthorized status in a survey dataset and applying them to a synthetic population of the United States, based on U.S. Census Bureau survey datasets. This approach allows for granular estimates of unauthorized immigrant populations at the Census tract level. By combining data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the American Community Survey (ACS), the study developed a robust model to predict unauthorized status and produced Census tract-level estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population for 2019. Validation efforts for these estimates included comparisons with county- and state-level estimates from sources like the Migration Policy Institute and Pew Research Center along with scaling local estimates to meet state-level figures 

Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2024. 53p.

By Mia-Maria Magnusson

The well-being of neighbourhoods in terms of socioeconomic conditions constitutes an important element in analyses focused on the explanation of crime trends and public safety. Recent developments in Sweden concerning gun violence and open drug scenes are worrying and the police are under a great deal of pressure to resolve the situation in many neighbourhoods, which is in turn affecting Swedish society as a whole. This study focuses on micro areas in terms of sociodemographic factors and the presence of drug markets and gun violence. The aim is to explore the relationship between these factors and what characterises areas that are experiencing the greatest difficulties. The study develops an index for the prediction of gun violence in micro areas, in this study portrayed by vector grids. The findings show an overlap between gun violence and drug markets and that micro areas in that overlap share harsh sociodemographic conditions. The study produces an index indicating the probability that a grid cell would experience gun violence. The index was then validated using recent gun incidents, and was found to have high accuracy. The resulting grids constitute a suitable target for resource allocation by police and other actors. This could facilitate a more accurate and precise focus for measures to prevent areas from becoming—or to disrupt already existing—hot spots for gun violence.

Eur J Crim Policy Res 31, 151–172 (2025)

By Chiara Redaelli, and Carlos Arévalo 

 This article aims to clarify how international humanitarian law (IHL) rules on targeting apply when drug cartels are party to a non-international armed conflict. The question of distinguishing between a cartel’s armed forces and the rest of the cartel members is a pertinent matter. It is crucial to avoid considering every drug dealer a legitimate target, just as we do not consider that everyone working for the government is a legitimate target. Nevertheless, it is unclear at what point a member of a cartel would change from being a criminal to being a member of the armed wing of the cartel, hence becoming a legitimate target. The present article will suggest a teleological approach to solving this conundrum. 

International Review of the Red Cross (2023), 105 (923), 652–673. 

By Martina Baradel & Niles Breuer

This paper addresses a significant gap in drug market literature by examining high-level drug trafficking networks in Japan. We focus on three aspects: the structure of drug importation networks, the impact of transport methods on these structures, and the role of Japan’s mafia, the yakuza. Using novel statistical techniques that extend exponential random graph models (ERGMs) to multi-network samples, we analyse 573 Japanese trial documents on wholesale drug importation. We test the theory that trafficking operations with higher information-processing demands exhibit more efficiency-oriented network structures, while governance-type groups avoid expanding into trade activities. Our findings support these theories, showing that networks with higher information-processing demands are more efficiency-oriented but maintain security. Conversely, smaller networks with simpler transport methods prioritise security and concealment. Additionally, the yakuza do not organisationally engage in drug trafficking; when involved, yakuza members act as independent entrepreneurs.

Global Crime Volume 25, 2024 - Issue 3-4

By Thomas Joyce

While existing research has readily applied perspectives garnered from open and closed market dealing to conceptualise darknet drug vending, this has been done without clear empirical consideration of the applicability of traditional market dealing to darknet drug vending. This research addresses this gap by considering these three forms of drug dealing in light of key typological features: motivation, environment, methods, business model, and offender profile. These features are then applied to 80 arrest cases of high-level darknet vendors to determine their applicability in understanding vendor behaviour. The results show that high-level darknet drug vendors reflect the characteristics of their highly anonymised, libertarian market, distinguishing them from traditional drug sellers.

Trends Organ Crim (2025)

By Manuel Sánchez-Pérez, María Belén Marín-Carrillo, María Dolores Illescas-Manzano & Zohair Souilim 

Despite the social, health, law enforcement, and economic importance of illegal drug supply, the lack of information and understanding regarding these supply chains stands out. This paper carries out a disaggregated analysis of the structure of the hashish supply chain from Morocco to Europe to explain the value contributions at each level, the end-price formation, and the supply chain management practices. The methodology adopted is based on a mixed method of data collection where the primary data are gathered from field interviews with cannabis producers and dealers and secondary information is obtained from official statistics, research papers, informational reports, and documentaries. We review supply and value chain frameworks through the lens of cost–benefit analysis. Our main findings show an unequal contribution on the part of the different levels of distribution, with end-user prices increasing by 7000% of the cost of production during the supply chain. The chain also has high variable costs but limited fixed ones, exacerbating the lack of stability and fostering continuous adaptation. We also detect a reluctance to raise end-user prices but a great propensity to change quality. This research may have implications for several stakeholders. In the case of dealers, we find that they have created a supply-push system thanks to their dominant power, leaning on information sharing as a source of resilience. In the case of law enforcement, we delve into the operational functioning of the drug chain and the reasons for its survival. For financial investigation operations, unknown or unrealized economic parameters are quantified. For development agencies, the need to implement alternative development programs for producers is evidenced. Finally, for health authorities, we highlight the consequences of seizures and prohibitions of hashish trafficking on the deterioration of the quality of hashish and the subsequently added health hazards for end-users.

Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10, 276 (2023)

By Plan International

The result of collaboration between Plan International and CNN As Equals to hear directly from young women and girls about the harms they face online, how they protect themselves and how tech companies, governments, local communities and their own families should play their part in keeping them safe.1 The intention was to give young women and girls an opportunity to not only talk about their digital lives but also share what they believe is needed for a safer digital future. The research built upon the insights gained from previous Plan International and CNN As Equals work in this area. This includes Plan’s ‘The Truth Gap’ in 2021 which explored misinformation online and ‘Free to be Online' in 2020 which investigated the online harassment girls have faced, as well as the CNN As Equals series ‘Systems Error’.   

Surrey, UK: Plan International 2024. 46p.p.

By Anthony Morgan and Alexandra Voce

Espionage has become one of the most significant national security threats to Australia, impacting government, businesses and the university sector. The highly secretive nature of espionage makes it extremely difficult to measure. In this study we estimated, for the first time, the actual and prevented costs of espionage. Building on the Australian Institute of Criminology’s method for measuring the costs of serious and organised crime, we estimated the mitigation and response costs and the direct costs of espionage impacting Australia. We also estimated the preventable costs associated with a number of possible scenarios. The numbers are conservative and an underestimate of the true cost, given the challenges in identifying and measuring espionage activity and its consequences.

In 2023–24, espionage cost Australia at least $12.5 billion. This includes the direct costs of the consequences of known or probable espionage activity – primarily losses due to state or state-sponsored cyber attacks, insider threats and intellectual property theft – as well as the public and private sector response, remediation and mitigation costs. There are also tens of billions in additional costs that Australia may have prevented by countering potential espionage. For example, in just one week, a single incident of espionage-enabled sabotage from a large-scale cyber attack could cost the Australian economy nearly $6 billion. These prevented costs are significant, and highlight the importance and benefit of investing in efforts to reduce the threat of espionage and minimise the harm in high-risk settings.

Special reports. Bi, 21

Canberra: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. 2025. 52p.

By Bridget Harris and Delanie Woodlock

This research explores experiences of technology-facilitated abuse among women living with intellectual or cognitive disability. The findings are based on interviews with women with intellectual or cognitive disability and frontline workers who provide support services.

This research was commissioned to address major gaps in the evidence about technology-facilitated abuse against women with intellectual or cognitive disability.

The report reveals that the tactics used for technology-facilitated abuse of women with intellectual or cognitive disability are like those faced by all women, but there are some unique differences.

Key recommendations:

• The research participants were eager to learn about safer ways to use technology and would like accessible information to be available, such as visual guides and documents in Easy Read formats.

• The frontline workers recommended an integrated approach between the domestic and family violence sector, the disability sector and the justice system, to improve service provision.

Canberra; Office of the eSafety Commissioner, 2021. 61p.

In 2024, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner gave their first periodic notices on child sexual exploitation and abuse material and activity (CSEA) to eight online service providers: Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snap and WhatsApp.

These providers are required to respond to the questions in eSafety’s notice every six months commencing 15 June 2024 for a total period of 24 months. This report contains a summary of each of the providers' responses and shines a light on online industry action against child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Key findings

• Despite the availability of technology to help detect child sexual exploitation and abuse livestreaming or video calls, no providers were using it on all parts of their service(s).

• While most services were using tools to detect new CSEA, some were not.

• While most services provided user reporting options and stated they responded to user reports in a reasonable amount of time, there were some providers who took much longer.

• While most providers were using hash-matching on their services (other than end-to-end encrypted services or parts of services) not all services were using this tool.

• There are tools, such as language analysis tools, that services can use to detect sexual extortion and stop this criminal activity, but not all of them were using these tools and not all tools were calibrated to keep users of all ages safe.

Canberra: Office of the eSafety Commissioner, 2025. 156p.

By Peta Malins and Lauren Caulfield

Harm in the Name of Safety is a damning research report into the harms enacted in the course of  family violence policing, released today by the Beyond Survival Project, Flat Out and RMIT University.

The research documents evidence from 225 Victorian frontline workers about their experiences of police responses to family violence. It finds that harmful family violence policing practices are extremely frequent and widespread across the state, and that alternative community-based response pathways for victim-survivors are urgently needed.

The report details extensive examples of police minimising and dismissing family violence, engaging in racially targeted, sexist and discriminatory police practices, colluding with perpetrators in ways that extend violence and abuse, and misidentifying victim-survivors as perpetrators.

Melbourne: Flat Out Inc.2025. 111p.

By Isabella Voce Anthony Morgan

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released the Cybercrime in Australia 2024 Statistical Report. This latest report outlines the results from the second annual Australian Cybercrime Survey, which is the largest regular survey of the Australian community about different forms of cybercrime and provides important data on cybercrime victimisation, help-seeking and harms among Australian computer users.Nearly half of all respondents to the survey were a victim of at least one type of cybercrime in the 12 months prior to the survey. Twenty-seven percent of respondents had been a victim of online abuse and harassment, 20.6 percent had been a victim of malware, 21.9 percent had been a victim of identity crime and misuse, and 9.5 percent had been a victim of fraud and scams.The prevalence of online abuse and harassment, malware and fraud and scams victimisation was lower among 2024 respondents than in the previous survey. There was also a significant decrease in data breaches. Respondents were less likely in 2024 than in 2023 to say they were using various online safety strategies, and there was little change in the prevalence of high-risk online behaviours. And more victims were negatively impacted by cybercrime, particularly for social and health related harms. The report provides important evidence of the scale and impact of cybercrime on Australian computer users and where to target efforts to help build community resilience to cybercrime. 

 Statistical Report no. 53. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2025. 118p

By John G. Russell

Seventeen investigations in and an undissipated miasma of suspicion continues to envelop Donald J. Trump. And yet, if his defenders are to be believed, the actions which prompted those investigations are neither technically crimes nor even impeachable offenses. Meanwhile, a U.S. district judge has condemned Michael Flynn’s behavior as “treasonous” and Michael Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison, but their boss remains free to stalk the halls of power unimpeded, as America hurtles from one “constitutional crisis” to another.

January 3, 2019 In articles 2015,Leading Article |, 4p.

By Jack Kelly 

The aim of this research is to inform crime prevention and planning policy development by using an institutional perspective to understand why and how local governments in New South Wales have adopted Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles into their local planning policies. By both reviewing the literature on the effectiveness of CPTED in reducing crime and the current crop of Development Control Plans (DCP) in New South Wales which have incorporated CPTED, the research will reveal that there is limited empirical evidence to support the assertion that CPTED reduces crime, and that local government needs to adopt a more integrated and contextual approach to embedding CPTED into their policies. From this perspective, the inclusion of CPTED principles in local planning is argued to be counterproductive to a more comprehensive and effective response and eventually results in additional time and cost to the decision. This is in the context that assessment decisions are now being made within tighter approval times. It will be argued that the planning system has a stog tede to adopt ookook o uik fies to poles ithout osideig the overall effectiveness of the philosophy.

The University of Sydney, 13/11/2015, 87p.

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