By Shadd Maruna, and Marieke Liem

Over the past decade, a growing body of literature has emerged under the umbrella of narrative criminology. We trace the origins of this field to narrative scholarship in the social sciences more broadly and review the recent history of criminological engagement in this field. We then review contemporary developments, paying particular attention to research around desistance and victimology. Our review highlights the most important critiques and challenges for narrative criminology and suggests fruitful directions in moving forward. We conclude by making a case for the consolidation and integration of narrative criminology, in hopes that this movement becomes more than an isolated clique.

Annual Review of Criminology Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 125–146

By Christopher R. Browning, Nicolo P. Pinchak, and Catherine A. Calder

This review outlines approaches to explanations of crime that incorporate the concept of human mobility—or the patterns of movement throughout space of individuals or populations in the context of everyday routines—with a focus on novel strategies for the collection of geographically referenced data on mobility patterns. We identify three approaches to understanding mobility–crime linkages: (a) Place and neighborhood approaches characterize local spatial units of analysis of varying size concerning the intersection in space and time of potential offenders, victims, and guardians; (b) person-centered approaches emphasize the spatial trajectories of individuals and person–place interactions that influence crime risk; and (c) ecological network approaches consider links between persons or collectivities based on shared activity locations, capturing influences of broader systems of interconnection on spatial- and individual-level variation in crime. We review data collection strategies for the measurement of mobility across these approaches, considering both the challenges and promise of mobility-based research for criminology.

Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 99–123

By Susanne Karstedt, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Laura C. Frizzell

Surprisingly, scholars studying mass atrocity and genocide have frequently sidelined criminological theories and concepts. Other disciplines have addressed these crimes while mostly ignoring criminological insights and theories. In this review, we assess the potential of criminological theories to contribute to explaining and preventing mass atrocities and genocide, highlight criminological insights from the study of these crimes, and unlock the existing criminological knowledge base for application in the context of these crimes. We begin by outlining how mass atrocities and genocide are similar to other crimes that criminologists have routinely studied. We then turn toward frameworks of structural causation, focusing on the state and community levels. Subsequently, we address micro-level theories that inform why individuals commit such violence, ranging from theories of choice, the life course, and techniques of neutralization to social learning theory and theories of desistance from crime. Finally, we address the victims of genocide and mass atrocity, including the factors associated with victim labels and victimhood itself.

Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 75–97

By Europol

This intelligence notification is based on information contributed to Europol by national law enforcement authorities. This document aims to raise awareness of the ways criminal networks exploit minors, particularly through recruitment and tasking via social media. It highlights the use of targeted language, coded messaging, and "gamification" strategies in this process. The recruitment of minors into serious and organised crime and terrorism is not a new phenomenon; however, it has increasingly become a tactic used by criminal networks to avoid detection, capture, and prosecution. In recent years, this trend has expanded across more countries, with recruitment methods evolving and minors being tasked with violent acts such as extortion and killings  

Paris: Europol: 2024. 3p.

By Michael J. Lynch1, and Michael A. Long2

Green criminology has developed into a criminological subfield with a substantial literature. That literature is so vast that a single review cannot do it justice. This article examines the definition of green crime, the historical development of green criminology, some major areas of green criminological research, and potential future developments. Unlike traditional criminology with its focus on human victims, green criminology recognizes that various living entities can be victims of the ways in which humans harm ecosystems. Green research thus explores crime, victimization, and justice from several theoretical positions that acknowledge these unique victims. Although green criminology contains several approaches, this review primarily focuses on political economic green criminology. The section titled The Definition, Overview, and Historical Development of Green Criminology identifies, but does not review in depth, other forms of green criminology.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:255–76  

By Per-Olof H. Wikström, and Clemens Kroneberg

Criminology is a smorgasbord of disparate theory and poorly integrated research findings. Theories tend to focus either on people's crime propensity or the criminogenic inducements of environments; rarely are these two main approaches effectively combined in the analysis of crime and its causes. Criminological research often either avoids questions of causation and explanation (e.g., risk factor approach) or is based on research designs that yield highly partial accounts (e.g., place-oriented experimental work). To advance knowledge about crime and its causes and prevention, we argue that there is a need for an analytic criminology that allows key theoretical insights and central empirical findings about people's crime propensities and environments’ criminogenic inducements and their combination to be integrated based on an adequate action theory. In this review, we outline this approach and its main methodological implications and discuss

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:179–203  

By Asmita Mallick and Prithwish Ganguli

Toxic Panda is a sophisticated Android banking trojan that targets users in Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Using advanced techniques like account takeover (ATO) and on-device fraud (ODF), it bypasses security mechanisms, including multi-factor authentication, to steal sensitive data and conduct unauthorized transactions. The malware's ability to manipulate user inputs and intercept one-time passwords makes it a significant threat. This paper explores the implications of ToxicPanda, highlights the evolving landscape of cybercrime, and offers insights into preventive measures and legal frameworks to combat emerging threats.

Unpublished paper, 2024.

By The Children’s Commissioner for England

This is the second in a series of reports investigating the impact of pornography on young people, building upon the Children’s Commissioner’s report published in January 2023, “A lot of it is actually just abuse”, which set out findings from a survey of over a thousand 16-21-year-olds and focus groups with teenagers. This series of work shows the detrimental effect that pornography is having on children and young people. It adds weight to the Children’s Commissioner’s view that no child under the age of 18 should be able to access pornography. This report aimed to discover whether references to specific acts of sexual violence commonly seen in pornography could be found in official documents relating to the investigation of children who abused other children. It is not intended to be read by children, but by researchers and policy makers interested in making children safer. It makes frequent reference to sexual harassment and sexual violence, and includes descriptions of pornographic content, language, and discussion of sexual abuse. This content may be difficult to read, however, we think it is important to understand how pornography impacts children, in order that we may better protect all children from harm. The research contained within this report synthesises data from 502 documents of two types: 379 Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) transcripts of interviews with children who have been sexually harmed and children who have sexually harmed another child, from one police force, and 123 Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) documents concerning children who were sexually harmed by other children from one NHS foundation trust.   

London: Children's Commissioner for England, 2023. 58p.

By Birzhan Batkeyev David R. DeRemer

We find that air pollution increases crime in a city that ranks in the worst two percentiles worldwide for dirty winter air. Our identification strategy employs distinct geographic features of Almaty, Kazakhstan: cleaner mountain winds and frequent temperature inversions. Using these variables to instrument for PM2.5 air pollution, we estimate a PM2.5 elasticity of the expected crime rate more than four times as large as similar estimates from cleaner cities. Among crime types, we estimate statistically significant effects of air pollution on property crime, and we find no evidence of an effect on violent crime. These results are consistent with theory that air pollution induces higher discounting rather than aggression. We extend this theory and find that whether air pollution has distinct effects on crimes of varying severity depends on whether the population is more heterogenous in the outside option or in the discount factor. Using microdata on crime severity, we find statistically significant increases in both major and minor crime rates from air pollution, and we fail to reject common PM2.5 elasticities of minor and major crime rates. The greater scale of major crimes implies that they contribute more to the total crime rate increase from air pollution. 

Accepted manuscript for the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 2023.  

By Tatiana Zárate-Barrera

This paper estimates the non-monotonic effects of air pollution on criminal activity in a developing country setting and provides empirical evidence on the potential behavioral responses mediating this relationship. To do so, I combine daily administrative data on crime, air pollution, and sentiment polarity from millions of social media posts in Mexico City between January 2017 and March 2020. The identification strategy relies on highly dimensional fixed-effect models, non-parametric estimations of dose-response functions, and an instrumental variable approach that employs wind speed and wind direction as instruments for air pollution. My results suggest a causal and inverted U-shape relationship between air pollution and crime. Specifically, there is an inflection point after which marginal increases in air pollution negatively affect criminal activity. Exploring the mechanisms behind this relationship, I find that air pollution has the power to shape people’s emotional states and mobility patterns. These results provide important insights for developing countries where pollution levels are dangerously high, and crime is still one of the most pressing issues. In particular, under certain circumstances, environmental regulation tailored to reduce air pollution must consider the presence of behavioral responses and these non-linear interactions with criminal activity in their design. 

Unpublished paper, 2021. 48p.

By Kei Sakata, Rebecca Jenkinson, Brian Vandenberg

This summary explores a study of the social contexts, harms and predictors of co-consumption of gambling and alcohol in youths and young adults (aged 16–35 years) living in Australia.

Findings

• Around half of survey participants said they ‘often’, ‘very often/almost always’ or ‘always’ consumed alcohol when gambling.

• Licensed venues create an environment where gambling and alcohol are co-consumed.

• Socialising with friends or with a spouse/partner and other family member was often the motivation for the co-consumption of gambling and alcohol among youths and young adults.

• Initiation to gambling and alcohol use at the age of 18, or before reaching the age of 18, was often seen as a rite of passage for young people in Australia.

• Underage gambling and/or alcohol use was associated with greater gambling and/or alcohol related harms in the participant’s adult life.

• Despite the majority of the sample being at risk of gambling harm, most respondents did not seek help because they did not believe they needed help.

• For the small proportion who wanted to seek help but did not, the most common reason was embarrassment.

Recommendations

• Tougher compliance with laws around underage drinking and gambling in land-based facilities with improved identification processes prior to venue entry.

• Promoting awareness and education on the co-consumption of gambling and alcohol and possible related harms, which may be protective for young people, particularly as they approach the legal age in Australia.

• Gender-responsive gambling prevention and treatment approaches (e.g. messaging and taglines).

• Approaches aimed at de-stigmatising public discourse and awareness on harmful gambling to promote help-seeking behaviour by young people

Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2024.

By Matt Herbert and Emadeddin Badi

On 15 April 2023, Sudan erupted into war, pitting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Over the last year and a half, the fighting has proven to be tremendously destructive, devastating large swathes of Khartoum and other key economic hubs, displacing nearly 2 million refugees into neighbouring countries, displacing more than 2.2 million refugees into neighbouring countries, and leaving over 8 million people internally displaced within Sudan as of September 2024. There has been little pause in the destruction, and the conflict shows no signs of ending. The war has also started to shape broader patterns of human smuggling and mobility. Along the northern border, the Egyptian imposition of visa requirements on Sudanese refugees has driven a growing reliance on smuggling networks. This in turn has led to an expansion of smuggling operations, particularly through the Halayeb Triangle area. Along the border with Libya, there has been a gradual increase in arrivals over the past eight months. While control of the border area has shifted from the RSF to the SAF, this has not had a significant impact on smuggling dynamics, which remain robust. In western Sudan, the RSF’s seizure of large areas of territory has been accompanied by violent attacks on the civilian population, resulting in mass displacement into Chad. Most refugees travel autonomously, but smuggling networks along the Chad–Sudan border are becoming increasingly important, either to facilitate safe passage through RSF territory or as part of the long-distance movement of Sudanese refugees to northern Niger and southern Libya. Finally, there has been a limited resurgence of migrant and refugee arrivals from Ethiopia and Eritrea along Sudan’s south-eastern border. If these movements continue and expand, they could further shape human smuggling systems through eastern Sudan to Egypt. RSF advances in the south-east – such as the capture of the city of Wad Madani – may have an impact on smuggling networks, but are unlikely to disrupt their operations significantly  

Geneva:  Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime., 2024... 34p.

By Evany Anne Moses,  M. Brindha,  N. Sivaukumaran

In recent years, the demand for intelligent surveillance systems has grown significantly due to the increasing need for enhanced security in public and private spaces. This journal presents a comprehensive approach that integrates advanced deep learning techniques for anomaly detection, violence recognition, and person re-identification in surveillance videos. The proposed system leverages a hybrid model combining ResNet50 and 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to accurately detect violent activities in real time. Additionally, the system includes anomaly detection to identify unusual patterns in the video feed that may signal potential security threats. The system further incorporates YOLO for high-precision object detection, DeepSort for robust tracking, and OpenPose for pose estimation, enabling real-time monitoring and accurate identification of individuals across multiple frames. Experimental results demonstrate that the integrated system outperforms traditional methods in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and scalability, making it a powerful tool for modern surveillance applications. This work highlights the potential of combining multiple deep-learning approaches to create a more effective and reliable surveillance system capable of addressing diverse security challenges.

Unpublished paper, 2024. 34p.

By Elizabeth Repko, Derrick Collins

Ridesourcing and taxi services help meet the transportation needs of many people in the U.S. Advocacy groups and other stakeholders have raised questions about the safety of these services. Sami’s Law, enacted in January 2023, provides for GAO to conduct a study on background check requirements for prospective ridesourcing and taxi drivers, and safety steps taken by ridesourcing and taxi companies. This report describes background checks of prospective ridesourcing and taxi drivers and safety features for drivers and passengers, among other objectives. GAO searched state statutes and regulations to identify states with statewide background check requirements for prospective ridesourcing and taxi drivers. GAO reviewed documents and interviewed officials from five federal agencies, six selected states, and four selected localities. GAO also interviewed representatives from five selected ridesourcing and five taxi companies. GAO selected states and localities based on their oversight of ridesourcing and taxi services, and selected ridesourcing and taxi companies to obtain variation in size and location, among other things. GAO also conducted nongeneralizable intercept surveys to examine if passengers were aware of and used selected safety features. An intercept survey is an in-person data collection method conducted in a public place (such as an airport), where a specific targeted population is asked a series of questions.

GAO-24-107093 2024. 89p.

By  Maree Crabbe, Michael Flood,,  Kelsey Adams

This article aims to explore the extent and nature of Australian young people’s pornography exposure and access.

Methods

Cross-sectional online survey of 1,985 young Australians aged 15–20 years, nationally representative of a range of demographics.

Results

Exposure to pornography was reported by 86% of male and 69% of female participants. Most exposure occurred when participants were alone and at home, regardless of gender. Young men were more likely than young women to seek pornography out and to view it frequently, with over half (54%) of male participants reporting weekly use compared with 14% of female participants. On average, boys and young men saw pornography 3.2 years before their first partnered sexual experience, and girls and young women saw it 2.0 years before theirs.

Conclusions

It is common for young people to see pornography years before their first partnered sexual experience.

Implications for public health

Unintentional and deliberate exposure to pornography is common and frequent among young people. Public health strategies among young people are necessary to address the potential harms associated with pornography use, including gender-based violence and risky sexual practices.

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Volume 48, Issue 3, June 2024, 100135

By Aili Malm, Nicholas Perez, Michael D. White

This publication represents the final research report of California State University, Long Beach’s (CSULB) evaluation of an intelligence-led problem-oriented policing (POP) project to better understand and address illicit fentanyl distribution networks in Long Beach, CA. The goals of this study were to: (1) employ problem-oriented policing to drive efforts to identify and disrupt fentanyl distribution networks in Long Beach, CA, and (2) use intelligence analysis to identify high-level distributors for investigation. To achieve these goals, researchers worked with a newly hired intelligence analyst and Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) Drug Investigation Section (DIS) detectives to improve their fentanyl distribution network investigations. The intervention included POP training, intelligence analyst support [cellular phone extractions, open-source intelligence (OSINT), social network analysis (SNA), etc.], and weekly interactions between the analyst and the research team. To assess the effectiveness of the project, we conducted both process and outcome evaluations. Primary data sources include: (1) interviews of detectives and the analyst; (2) DIS administrative data; (3) network data from three fentanyl distribution cases; and (4) fentanyl-related overdose data from the LBPD and the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard. We identified findings across multiple analyses that, when taken together, represent a persuasive collection of circumstantial evidence regarding the positive effects of the project on two important outcomes: increased DIS activity and efficiency and effective fentanyl distribution network disruption. While fentanyl-related overdose rates did decrease substantially over the course of the project, there is no conclusive evidence that the project led to the reduction. The effects of COVID-19, the defund movement following George Floyd’s death, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney policy limiting the prosecution of drug offenses confounded our ability to draw a stronger connection between the project and enhanced DIS activity and efficiency, fentanyl distribution network disruption, and overdose rates.   

California State University, Long Beach; School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management; 2024 77p. 

By Christopher Blattman, Benjamin Lessing, and Santiago Tobón

Organised crime poses one of the greatest threats to national security and development in the 21st century. Despite this, most policy, data collection, and scholarly research focuses on individuals and disorganised violence. Our work addresses several critical gaps in knowledge:

• What are the incentives for gangs to engage in violence and socially costly behaviour?

• Which are the trade-offs that practitioners face when deciding how to engage with organised violence?

• What type of information do relevant decision-makers need to inform their policies?

• Which are the most relevant tools for tracking down gang behaviour and use of violence?

We address these questions in the context of Medellín, Colombia’s second largest and most important city. Over the past six years, our work has covered a broad methodological spectrum, including:

• qualitative data collection through interviews with dozens of criminals and criminal justice experts;

• quantitative data collection from thousands of citizens in surveys representative at highly localised levels;

• active collaboration with local relevant stakeholders such as the city administration and the local police department;

• quasi-experimental evaluations of long-running policies dating back to the 1980s; and

• experimental evaluations of marginal improvements in state presence in violent and gang controlled areas.

Our preliminary findings point to terrible trade-offs, where authorities face plausibly impossible questions when balancing short-term gains in violence reduction and sacrifices in state legitimacy, with long-term uncertainty concerning both violence and state legitimacy. We highlight preliminary recommendations for guiding policy decisions.

Birmingham, UK: The Serious Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Evidence (SOC ACE) 2022. 9p.

By Jacqueline Allen, Ross Homel, Daniela Vasco, Kate Freiberg

  In this report, we investigate the effects of the Pathways to Prevention Project on the onset of youth offending. We find persuasive evidence for the impact of an enriched preschool program, the communication program, in reducing by more than 50 percent the number of young people becoming involved in court-adjudicated youth crime by age 17. We find equally strong evidence that comprehensive family support increased the efficacy and sense of empowerment of parents receiving family support. No children offended in the communication program if their parents also received family support, but family support on its own did not reduce youth crime. The rate of youth offending between 2008 and 2016 in the Pathways region was at least 20 percent lower than in other Queensland regions at the same low socio‑economic level, consistent with (but not proving) the hypothesis that the Pathways Project reduced youth crime at the aggregate community level.

 Report to the Criminology Research Advisory Council Canberra:  Australian Institute of Criminology 2024 , 86p.

By Bàrbara Molas and Heron Lopes

This research report illustrates how far-right users have accelerated the spread of harmful content by successfully exploiting AI tools and platforms. In doing so, it contributes to improving our understanding of the misuse of AI through new data and evidence-based insights that may inform action against the dissemination of hate culture through the latest technologies.  

  The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), 2024. 27p.

By Julia H. Littell, Therese D. Pigott, Karianne H. Nilsen, Stacy J. Green, Olga L. K. Montgomery

Background

Lack of access to and use of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) cause 1.6 million deaths every year, of which 1.2 million are due to gastrointestinal illnesses like diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections like pneumonia. Poor WASH access and use also diminish nutrition and educational attainment, and cause danger and stress for vulnerable populations, especially for women and girls. The hardest hit regions are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 calls for the end of open defecation, and universal access to safely managed water and sanitation facilities, and basic hand hygiene, by 2030. WASH access and use also underpin progress in other areas such as SDG1 poverty targets, SDG3 health and SDG4 education targets. Meeting the SDG equity agenda to “leave none behind” will require WASH providers prioritise the hardest to reach including those living remotely and people who are disadvantaged.

Objectives

Decision makers need access to high-quality evidence on what works in WASH promotion in different contexts, and for different groups of people, to reach the most disadvantaged populations and thereby achieve universal targets. The WASH evidence map is envisioned as a tool for commissioners and researchers to identify existing studies to fill synthesis gaps, as well as helping to prioritise new studies where there are gaps in knowledge. It also supports policymakers and practitioners to navigate the evidence base, including presenting critically appraised findings from existing systematic reviews.

Methods

This evidence map presents impact evaluations and systematic reviews from the WASH sector, organised according to the types of intervention mechanisms, WASH technologies promoted, and outcomes measured. It is based on a framework of intervention mechanisms (e.g., behaviour change triggering or microloans) and outcomes along the causal pathway, specifically behavioural outcomes (e.g., handwashing and food hygiene practices), ill-health outcomes (e.g., diarrhoeal morbidity and mortality), nutrition and socioeconomic outcomes (e.g., school absenteeism and household income). The map also provides filters to examine the evidence for a particular WASH technology (e.g., latrines), place of use (e.g., home, school or health facility), location (e.g., global region, country, rural and urban) and group (e.g., people living with disability). Systematic searches for published and unpublished literature and trial registries were conducted of studies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Searches were conducted in March 2018, and searches for completed trials were done in May 2020. Coding of information for the map was done by two authors working independently. Impact evaluations were critically appraised according to methods of conduct and reporting. Systematic reviews were critically appraised using a new approach to assess theory-based, mixed-methods evidence synthesis.

Results

There has been an enormous growth in impact evaluations and systematic reviews of WASH interventions since the International Year of Sanitation, 2008. There are now at least 367 completed or ongoing rigorous impact evaluations in LMICs, nearly three-quarters of which have been conducted since 2008, plus 43 systematic reviews. Studies have been done in 83 LMICs, with a high concentration in Bangladesh, India, and Kenya. WASH sector programming has increasingly shifted in focus from what technology to supply (e.g., a handwashing station or child's potty), to the best way in which to do so to promote demand. Research also covers a broader set of intervention mechanisms. For example, there has been increased interest in behaviour change communication using psychosocial “triggering”, such as social marketing and community-led total sanitation. These studies report primarily on behavioural outcomes. With the advent of large-scale funding, in particular by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there has been a substantial increase in the number of studies on sanitation technologies, particularly latrines. Sustaining behaviour is fundamental for sustaining health and other quality of life improvements. However, few studies have been done of intervention mechanisms for, or measuring outcomes on sustained adoption of latrines to stop open defaecation. There has also been some increase in the number of studies looking at outcomes and interventions that disproportionately affect women and girls, who quite literally carry most of the burden of poor water and sanitation access. However, most studies do not report sex disaggregated outcomes, let alone integrate gender analysis into their framework. Other vulnerable populations are even less addressed; no studies eligible for inclusion in the map were done of interventions targeting, or reporting on outcomes for, people living with disabilities. We were only able to find a single controlled evaluation of WASH interventions in a health care facility, in spite of the importance of WASH in health facilities in global policy debates. The quality of impact evaluations has improved, such as the use of controlled designs as standard, attention to addressing reporting biases, and adequate cluster sample size. However, there remain important concerns about quality of reporting. The quality and usefulness of systematic reviews for policy is also improving, which draw clearer distinctions between intervention mechanisms and synthesise the evidence on outcomes along the causal pathway. Adopting mixed-methods approaches also provides information for programmes on barriers and enablers affecting implementation.

Conclusion

Ensuring everyone has access to appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities is one of the most fundamental of challenges for poverty elimination. Researchers and funders need to consider carefully where there is the need for new primary evidence, and new syntheses of that evidence. This study suggests the following priority areas:

Impact evaluations incorporating understudied outcomes, such as sustainability and slippage, of WASH provision in understudied places of use, such as health care facilities, and of interventions targeting, or presenting disaggregated data for, vulnerable populations, particularly over the life-course and for people living with a disability;

Improved reporting in impact evaluations, including presentation of participant flow diagrams; and

Synthesis studies and updates in areas with sufficient existing and planned impact evaluations, such as for diarrhoea mortality, ARIs, WASH in schools and decentralisation. These studies will preferably be conducted as mixed-methods systematic reviews that are able to answer questions about programme targeting, implementation, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, and compare alternative intervention mechanisms to achieve and sustain outcomes in particular contexts, preferably using network meta-analysis.

Campbell Systematic Reviews, 17(4) 2021.