By Elizabeth Simpson

Technology-facilitated violence (TFV) such as doxing, swatting, or cyberstalking is a cybercrime that harms victims via use of the internet and mobile technology. This publication is a resource that will assist state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) agencies in addressing these issues. It begins with an overview of TFV crimes, including definitions and examples of offenses. It also presents tools to identify and measure the problem at a local level, as well as strategies for crime prevention and crime investigation. Finally, it includes data and resources to illustrate the complexity of cybercrimes and violence against vulnerable populations, with a focus on victim-centered response.Washington DC: Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services, 2024. 40p.

By Jack Mark Whittaker, Matthew Edwards, Cassandra Cross & Mark Button

  Online shopping has now become very common, with consumers increasingly opting to purchase products on the World Wide Web instead of visiting traditional “bricks and mortar” stores, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has, however, also provided significant opportunities for offenders to abuse the inherent trust- based nature of online shopping, whereby consumers typically do not see the products physically prior to purchasing them. As such, this article sets out to examine the actions and behaviors that individuals take to prevent online shopping fraud and what, if any, discrepancy exists between prevention messaging and consumer behavior. To accomplish this, the study utilizes secondary survey data (n = 3478 respondents) obtained from a private-sector initiative called ScamAdviser. The results find that many respondents do not use appropriate behaviors to reduce their risk when shopping online and that furthermore there is reason to believe that consumers are not served well by the online safety advice that they are given. The paper argues that there is scope to increase guardianship through better prevention advice being communicated to online shoppers.
Victims & Offenders 

An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice

Volume 18, 2023 - Issue 7: Special Thematic Issue: Scams, Cons, Frauds, and Deceptions; Guest Editors: Sean Byrne and James Byrne

By Steven Kemp, David Buil-Gil, Asier Moneva, Fernando Miró-Llinares, and Nacho Díaz-Castaño

  The unprecedented changes in routine activities brought about by COVID-19 and the associated lockdown measures contributed to a reduction in opportunities for predatory crimes in outdoor physical spaces, while people spent more time connected to the internet, and opportunities for cybercrime and fraud increased. This article applies time-series analysis to historical data on cybercrime and fraud reported to Action Fraud in the United Kingdom to examine whether any potential increases are beyond normal crime variability. Furthermore, the discrepancies between fraud types and individual and organizational victims are analyzed. The results show that while both total cybercrime and total fraud increased beyond predicted levels, the changes in victimization were not homogeneous across fraud types and victims. The implications of these findings on how changes in routine activities during COVID-19 influenced cybercrime and fraud opportunities are discussed in relation to policy, practice, and academic de  

 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2021, Vol. 37(4) 480 –501

By Europol

  Due to their intrusive nature, financial and economic crimes are among the most challenging criminal activities to investigate and tackle. A fragmented landscape sees different criminal actors interact with one another, making criminal operations more complex and tangled. Key players typically remain anonymous and operate independently from established criminal structures, often from criminal safe havens. Meanwhile, their techniques and tools advance rapidly. Some recent investigations, including those exploring encrypted communications among criminals, gave unprecedented insight into the system that sustains the finances of organised crime. While law enforcement is untangling the complexity of this underground financial ecosystem, information sharing, investigative focus on key criminal actors, development of technical knowledge and expertise, and public-private partnerships are essential tools for winning the fight against financial and economic crimes. The European Financial and Economic Crime Threat Assessment describes the complexities of financial and economic crimes, and the criminal ecosystem that virtually sustains and links all other criminal activities. The report analyses all financial and economic crimes affecting the EU, such as money laundering, corruption, fraud, intellectual property crime, and commodity and currency counterfeiting. It also illustrates the power of asset recovery in the fight against financial and economic crimes. The analytical findings of this report rely on a combination of operational insights and strategic intelligence contributed to Europol by EU Member States and Europol’s partners, who provided crucial information regarding the criminals’ business models. The report is intended to capture the pervasiveness and destructiveness of financial and economic crimes affecting the EU, and to support all relevant stakeholders in untangling the large variety of financial and economic crimes.   

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg., 2023. 58p.

By Cassandra Cross ,  Matthew Edwards , Mark Button , Jack Whittaker

Online fraud includes dating or romance scams, deceptive sales of products and services, dishonest investment schemes, lottery or inheritance scams, working from home scams or lottery fraud involving false prize draws or sweepstakes. These frauds are costly not only in their financial impact on business and government, but also because of the detrimental impact they have on victims. To gain a better understanding of online consumer fraud, the Australian Institute of Criminology worked with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to compare a matched sample of victims and non-victims. This study aimed to identify and quantify the factors that make some individuals more vulnerable to consumer fraud than others. It was found that greater familiarity with online activities resulted in a reduced likelihood of victimisation and that victims were more likely to have used money wire transfers and electronic funds transfers to send money in response to scam invitations than other forms of payment. These findings support the development of targeted awareness-raising campaigns focusing on the online behaviour most likely to lead to fraud victimisation. It offers policymakers and consumer affairs organisations opportunities to better target fraud prevention and education initiatives.

Research Report no. 16. 

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2019. 98p.

By Lynn Langton; Edward Preble; Daniel Brannock; Erin Kennedy

To address gaps in intervention research, RTI International and the University of Minnesota conducted the Mass Marketing Elder Fraud Intervention (MMEFI) Study with collaboration and support from the USPIS. This study found that the ways in which victims begin responding to scams and their reasons for stopping (or not stopping) their involvement are quite varied. As such, there is likely no one intervention that would work for every type of victim. Thus, the MMEFI team will use findings from these interviews to create intervention materials that target the problem in various ways. This multiphase research project included a secondary analysis of USPIS administrative data on prior scams and a randomized controlled trial test of the efficacy of two variations of a mailed intervention for preventing revictimization by mail fraud. The overall objective was to provide specific policy recommendations to the USPIS and other consumer protection agencies regarding the effectiveness of a mailed intervention. 

Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI, 2023. 145p.

By: Felix Soldner, Bennett Kleinberg, and Shane D Johnson

Counterfeits harm consumers, governments, and intellectual property holders. They accounted for 3.3% of worldwide trades in 2016, having an estimated value of $509 billion in the same year. While estimations are mostly based on border seizures, we examined openly labeled counterfeits on darknet markets, which allowed us to gather and analyze information from a different perspective. Here, we analyzed data from 11 darknet markets for the period Jan-2014 and Sep-2015. The findings suggest that darknet markets harbor similar counterfeit product types as found in seizures but that the share of watches is higher and lower for electronics, clothes, shoes, and Tobacco on darknet markets. Also, darknet market counterfeits seem to have similar shipping origins as seized goods, with some exceptions, such as a relatively high share (5%) of dark market counterfeits originating from the US. Lastly, counterfeits on dark markets tend to have a relatively low price and sales volume. However, based on preliminary estimations, the original products on the surface web seem to be worth a multiple of the prices of the counterfeit counterparts on darknet markets. Gathering insights about counterfeits from darknet markets can be valuable for businesses and authorities and be cost-effective compared to border seizures. Thus, monitoring darknet markets can help us understand the counterfeit landscape better.

Crime Science (2023) 12:18

By Coen Teunissen and Sarah Napier

We analysed the chat logs of seven Australia-based men who had committed 145 child sexual abuse (CSA) live streaming offences, to examine the overlap between this offending, contact sexual offending and engagement with child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Four CSA live streaming offenders attempted to travel to offend against victims in person, in that they discussed travelling or actually booked flights in order to meet these children. Offenders also requested or received images and videos of victims they had viewed over live stream, and recorded live streams to produce CSAM.

Travelling to offend against children, use of CSAM and CSA live streaming appear to be interrelated and should be considered by law enforcement as potential risk factors for one another. Further, detection and removal of new CSAM, and scanning of live streams for abusive content, should be a priority for all electronic service providers.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 671. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 16p.

By Charlotte Hunn, Paul Watters, Jeremy Prichard, Richard Wortley, Joel Scanlan, Caroline Spiranovic and Tony Krone

Online CSAM offending is a challenge for law enforcement, policymakers and child welfare organisations alike. The use of online warning messages to prevent or deter an individual when they actively search for CSAM is gaining traction as a response to some types of CSAM offending. Yet, to date, the technical question of how warning messages can be implemented, and who can implement them, has been largely unexplored. To address this, we use a case study to analyse the actions individuals and organisations within the technology, government, non-government and private sectors could take to implement warning messages. We find that, from a technical perspective, there is considerable opportunity to implement warning messages, although further research into efficacy and cost is needed.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 669. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 14p.

By Isabella Voce and Anthony Morgan

This study analyses data from a survey of Australian adult computer users conducted in June 2021 to examine the influence of online routine activities and life stressors on the likelihood of profit-motivated cybercrime victimisation.

Compared with non-victims, victims spent more time online, more frequently engaged in recreational online activities and were more likely to employ higher-risk online practices. Small-to-medium enterprise owners working from home were more likely to be victims. Respondents who had experienced recent increases in financial stress and gambling and negative impacts on interpersonal relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic were also more likely to be a victim of cybercrime.

Being accessible online and a lack of personal and physical guardianship are associated with an increased risk of being a victim, but other factors may influence the susceptibility of computer users to cybercrime victimisation. This has important implications for cybercrime responses

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 675. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 18p.

By Danni Zhang, Regina Frei, P.K. Senyo, Steffen Bayer, Enrico Gerding, Gary Wills and Adrian Beck

The growth of online retailing has exceeded expectations over the last few years. This has resulted in high product return rates, which retailers are struggling with due to complex and costly returns processing, logistics, and financial implications. Additionally, online returns come with increased opportunities for returns fraud. During the pandemic, new types of returns fraud have emerged and returns fraud rates have increased across all channels. Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with retailers and retail experts, we investigate factors that enable fraudulent returns from consumers' and retailers’ perspectives and outline strategies for retailers to combat product returns fraud in a multichannel environment, leading to a framework for retail fraud. We contribute critical insights to research and practices on understanding and addressing a growing problem that has economic, social and environmental implications.

Journal of retailing and consumer services, Vol.70, 2023. 103145

by David M. Adamson, Annie Brothers, Sasha Romanosky, Marjory S. Blumenthal, Douglas C. Ligor, Karlyn D. Stanley, Peter Schirmer, Julia Vidal Verástegui

Social media and other sophisticated communications technology have enabled a new kind of crime: cyberstalking. Cyberstalking involves using communications technology in threatening ways to stalk, harass, or share embarrassing information about victims, and it often involves the threat of intimate partner violence. As online platforms and messaging technologies have multiplied, cyberstalking has become more prevalent. Yet the problem has been understudied, and its dynamics are not well known.

In this report, the authors enhance the understanding of cyberstalking by offering the first empirical analysis on federal cyberstalking cases: In particular, they analyze the number of federal cyberstalking cases filed over time, the characteristics of these cases, and the outcomes of these cases. The results of in-depth interviews with prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and victims' advocacy representatives are also presented.

Key Findings

• The number of federally prosecuted cyberstalking cases has grown steadily since 2014, reaching a peak of 80 cases filed in 2019 (then falling slightly in 2020), with 412 total cases filed between 2010 and 2020.

• In the majority of federally prosecuted cyberstalking cases, the victim knew the offender.

• The legal system is underprepared to handle cyberstalking cases: Law enforcement is seldom able to prioritize or allot substantial resources to cyberstalking, and many agents and officers lack training in how to investigate the crime or help victims.

• A major challenge in prosecuting cyberstalking cases involves tying the digital evidence to the offending individual or group because tech-savvy offenders can be sophisticated at hiding digital tracks.

Recommendations

• Update awareness campaigns regarding online safety beyond antiquated notions of "stranger danger," and develop better warnings and indicators of potentially harmful online activities.

• Clarify cyberstalking legal statutes by removing the "intent to harm" clause from the federal cyberstalking law because it unintentionally protects some harmful behaviors.

• Recognize the complicated nature of working with victims and promote ways of improving trust between victims and the criminal justice system.

• Increase resources and information on emerging technology and investigative strategies available to law enforcement.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2023.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

EDIYED BY TED ROBERT GURR

VIIOLENCE IN AMERICA VOL.2. PROTEST, REBELLION, REFORM dives deep into the complex tapestry of societal upheaval within the United States. This compelling volume explores the multifaceted nature of violence in various forms, from protests to rebellions, and the calls for reform that echo through the nation. Through a collection of thought-provoking essays and analytical pieces, this book sheds light on the struggles, triumphs, and challenges that define contemporary American society. A must-read for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape of dissent and transformation in the United States.

NEWBURY PARK. SAGE. 1989. 372p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Edited by Ted Robert Gurr

VIOLENCE IN AMERICA Vol. 1 explores the intricate tapestry of crime throughout the nation's history, shedding light on the various facets of violence that have shaped American society. From notorious outlaws of the Wild West to the rise of organized crime during Prohibition, this volume delves into the darker chapters of the past, offering a compelling narrative that examines the root causes and consequences of criminal activities. Through meticulous research and insightful analysis, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the history of crime in America, inviting readers to reflect on the enduring legacy of violence in a nation built on conflicting ideals.

Newbury Park. Sage. 1989. 281p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Carl. B. Klockars

Step into the shadowy world of crime with "The Professional Thief", a gripping memoir detailing three decades of cunning thievery, intricate heists, and narrow escapes. In this riveting account, the author takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through the underbelly of society, offering a rare glimpse into the mind of a masterful criminal.

From the adrenaline-fueled world of high-stakes robberies to the intricate art of deception, "The Professional Thief" unveils the intricate techniques and strategies employed by a seasoned practitioner of the illicit trade. Through captivating storytelling and vivid anecdotes, the author paints a vivid picture of a life lived on the edge, where every job is a high-wire act and every score a gamble with fate.

As the pages unfold, readers are drawn into a world where loyalty is a luxury and betrayal lurks around every corner. With a keen eye for detail and a razor-sharp wit, the author navigates the treacherous waters of the criminal underworld, forging alliances, dodging police dragnets, and outsmarting rival thieves in a relentless pursuit of the next big score.

"The Professional Thief" is a compelling testament to the ingenuity, audacity, and sheer grit of those who make their living outside the law. An enthralling journey through the highs and lows of a life lived on the fringes of society, this book offers a rare insider's perspective on the dark and dangerous world of professional thievery.

NY. Macmillan. 1974. 251p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

SANYIKA SHAKUR, AKA MONSTER KODY SCOTT

After pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members, twelve-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured into one of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name “Monster” for committing acts of brutal violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members.

When the inevitable jail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, a complete political and personal transformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, black nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism. In a work that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America’s inner cities and gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the black ghetto experience.

NY. Penguin. 1993. . 389p.

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By MARTÍN SÁNCHEZ JANKOWSKI

The overall goal of the research in this book was to understand gang phenomenon in the United States. In order to accomplish this goal, the author investigated gangs in different cities in order to understand what was similar in the way all gangs behaved and what was idiosyncratic to certain gangs. The research for this book took place over ten years and five months from 1978 to 1989 and will give the reader a comprehensive overview of gang behavior in the United States in that time period. 

Berkeley. U.C. Press. 1991. 388p.

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BY FRANK GRAZIANO

Providing an account of political repression in Argentina, this book takes as its theme the intersection of religion, violence and psychosexuality as they relate to the desire for power and to the myths and rituals manifesting that desire.

Avalon Publishing, Jun 4, 1992 , 328 pages

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BY DAVID S. WALL

Looking at the full range of cybercrime, and computer security he shows how the increase in personal computing power available within a globalized communications network has affected the nature of and response to criminal activities. We have now entered the world of low impact, multiple victim crimes in which bank robbers, for example, no longer have to meticulously plan the theft of millions of dollars. New technological capabilities at their disposal now mean that one person can effectively commit millions of robberies of one dollar each. Against this background, David Wall scrutinizes the regulatory challenges that cybercrime poses for the criminal (and civil) justice processes, at both the national and the international levels.

Polity, 2007, 276 pages

MAY CONTAN MARKUP

By Marcus Felson

Entertainingly written and a model for how theory develops from empirical evidence, the Second Edition of this popular book is the perfect supplementary text for introductory criminology courses. The book provides an insightful analysis of the "other side" of crime causation, examining how society encourages or inhibits crime in the routine activities of everyday life.

SAGE Publications, Apr 13, 1998, 240 pages