By Joseph. P. Chris Charley and Freida Ibiduni McCormack.

The Sierra Leone Police Force has its origins in the British colonial administration of the country. After Independence and with the consolidation of one-party rule the force slid into disrepute. The outbreak of civil conflict in 1991 largely decimated the force but the gradual restoration of peace provided an opportunity for police reform. This research report covers the aspects of the political and institutional environment that helped engender change, as well as constraints faced by the reform agenda. It considers how the officers actually carried out the task at hand, and shares lessons as to what reform tactics worked and which were less successful. While several challenges remain, the reform programme, centred around local needs policing has been largely successful, hinging on – among other factors – the appointment of a British Inspector General of Police, perceived to be neutral and above political machinations, supported by a core of reform minded officers; long-term external technical and financial assistance; and a conducive political environment for change.

Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2011. 48p.

By A. Ojebode; B.R. Ojebuyi; N.J. Onyechi; O. Oladapo; O.J. Oyedele and I.A. Fadipe

The problem of ineffective policing still persists in post-colonial Africa and as a result, both donors and governments are seeking non-state alternatives or complements to the state apparatuses. These alternatives include private sector provision, donor-driven interventions and community-based or community-driven crime prevention practices. There is no shortage of community-based crime prevention (CBCP) practices in Africa and they come in a variety of forms and models: neighbourhood watches, vigilantes, religious and ethnic militias, and neighbourhood guards. However, the effectiveness of CBCP practices is still a subject of controversy despite the widespread prevalence of these practices. This study looks at the effectiveness of CBCP practices, considers possible reasons for their effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and on the basis of the research, makes some policy recommendations.

Brighton UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2016. 59p.

By Max G. Manwaring.

This monograph is intended to help political, military, policy, opinion, and academic leaders think strategically about explanations, consequences, and responses that might apply to the volatile and dangerous new dynamic that has inserted itself into the already crowded Mexican and hemispheric security arena, that is, the privatized Zeta military organization. In Mexico, this new dynamic involves the migration of traditional hard-power national security and sovereignty threats from traditional state and nonstate adversaries to hard and soft power threats from professional private nonstate military organizations. This dynamic also involves a more powerful and ambiguous mix of terrorism, crime, and conventional war tactics, operations, and strategies than experienced in the past. Moreover, this violence and its perpetrators tend to create and consolidate semi-autonomous enclaves (criminal free-states) that develop in to quasi-states—and what the Mexican government calls “Zones of Impunity.” All together, these dynamics not only challenge Mexican security, stability, and sovereignty, but, if left improperly understood and improperly countered, also challenge the security and stability of the United States and Mexico’s other neighbors..

Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College Press, 2009. 53p.

By T. W. Hanshew.

Being the and adventures of that "The remarkable detective genius, Man of the Forty Faces," once known to the police as "The Vanishing Cracksman.”

Toronto Thomas Langton (1914) 394 pages.

By Michael Jones, Claudia Wallner and Emily Winterbotham

This occasional paper is part of RUSI’s Prevention Project, a multi-year effort to collate, assess and strengthen the existing knowledge base for preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) interventions across different thematic and geographic areas. The research for this project found that the evidence base for programme efficacy remains limited, with little information sharing, weak monitoring and evaluation regimes, a reliance on the same relatively small cluster of case studies, and a general lack of longitudinal analysis hampering collective understandings of P/CVE outcomes. As the conclusion to the Prevention Project series, the paper identifies cross-cutting findings and recommendations, highlighting key lessons and themes reflected in both the available literature and data collected from the research team’s fieldwork in Kenya and Lebanon

London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, 2021. 32p.

Edited by Myriam Dunn Cavelty and Andreas Wenger.

Socio-Technological Transformations and Political Fragmentation. This book examines new and challenging political aspects of cyber security and presents it as an issue defined by socio-technological uncertainty and political fragmentation. Structured along two broad themes and providing empirical examples for how socio-technical changes and political responses interact, the first part of the book looks at the current use of cyber space in conflictual settings, while the second focuses on political responses by state and non-state actors in an environment defined by uncertainties. Within this, it highlights four key debates that encapsulate the complexities and paradoxes of cyber security politics from a Western perspective – how much political influence states can achieve via cyber operations and what context factors condition the (limited) strategic utility of such operations; the role of emerging digital technologies and how the dynamics of the tech innovation process reinforce the fragmentation of the governance space; how states attempt to uphold stability in cyberspace and, more generally, in their strategic relations; and how the shared responsibility of state, economy, and society for cyber security continues to be re-negotiated in an increasingly trans-sectoral and transnational governance space. This book will be of much interest to students of cyber security, global governance, technology studies, and international relations.

Abingdon, Oxon, UK; New York: Routledge, 2022. 2187p.

Edited by Michael Friedewald, J. Peter Burgess, Johann Čas, Rocco Bellanova and Walter Peissl.

This volume examines the relationship between privacy, surveillance and security, and the alleged privacy–security trade-off, focusing on the citizen’s perspective. Recent revelations of mass surveillance programmes clearly demonstrate the ever-increasing capabilities of surveillance technologies. The lack of serious reactions to these activities shows that the political will to implement them appears to be an unbroken trend. The resulting move into a surveillance society is, however, contested for many reasons. Are the resulting infringements of privacy and other human rights compatible with democratic societies? Is security necessarily depending on surveillance? Are there alternative ways to frame security? Is it possible to gain in security by giving up civil liberties, or is it even necessary to do so, and do citizens adopt this trade-off? This volume contributes to a better and deeper understanding of the relation between privacy, surveillance and security, comprising in-depth investigations and studies of the common narrative that more security can only come at the expense of sacrifice of privacy. The book combines theoretical research with a wide range of empirical studies focusing on the citizen’s perspective. It presents empirical research exploring factors and criteria relevant for the assessment of surveillance technologies. The book also deals with the governance of surveillance technologies. New approaches and instruments for the regulation of security technologies and measures are presented, and recommendations for security policies in line with ethics and fundamental rights are discussed.

London; New York: Routledge, 2017. 310p.

By Markus Christen (Author, Editor), Bert Gordijn (Author, Editor), Michele Loi .

This open access book provides the first comprehensive collection of papers that provide an integrative view on cybersecurity. It discusses theories, problems and solutions on the relevant ethical issues involved. This work is sorely needed in a world where cybersecurity has become indispensable to protect trust and confidence in the digital infrastructure whilst respecting fundamental values like equality, fairness, freedom, or privacy. The book has a strong practical focus as it includes case studies outlining ethical issues in cybersecurity and presenting guidelines and other measures to tackle those issues. It is thus not only relevant for academics but also for practitioners in cybersecurity such as providers of security software, governmental CERTs or Chief Security Officers in companies.

The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology Book 21 (2020) 388 pages.

By Anton Moiseienko, Alexandria Reid and Isabella Chase

This paper identifies factors that render free-trade zones vulnerable to illicit trade and financial crime and proposes measures to detect and prevent it. Free-trade zones (FTZs) are designed to attract trade by suspending the collection of customs duties. These incentives are frequently coupled with advantages such as simplified customs inspection procedures, liberalised incorporation regimes and physical infrastructure superior to that available elsewhere in the same country. These features can be attractive to legitimate businesses and criminal groups alike. International organisations such as the OECD, the World Customs Organization, the Financial Action Task Force and the EU have all highlighted criminal risks related to FTZs. This paper identifies factors that render FTZs vulnerable to illicit trade and financial crime and proposes measures to detect and prevent it. To explore common challenges and responses that transcend countries’ individual circumstances, it examines four country case studies: Morocco, Panama, Singapore and the UAE. Based on 74 interviews, two research workshops and an analysis of publicly available literature, this paper identifies key challenges faced by the case study countries, which are also likely to apply to other countries that host FTZs:

London: Royal United Services Institute, 2020. 62p.

By Ardi Janjeva, Alexandria Reid and Anton Moiseienko.

The distribution of copyright-infringing audio-visual content, also known as ‘piracy’, is a major profit-generating crime that offers significant opportunities for criminal gain. The idea that piracy is solely carried out by otherwise law-abiding, opportunistic individuals is no longer tenable. Piracy is an increasingly professionalised crime, yet the current response lacks the required urgency on numerous levels, from an incomplete understanding of pirate business models to the often low priority attached to tackling it by law enforcement agencies, regulators and online service providers and the limited awareness in the financial sector about intellectual property crime. This report explores how criminals make money from piracy and provides recommendations for how the UK government, law enforcement and private sector stakeholders can decrease the profitability of doing so. Its recommendations are addressed to UK audiences, but almost all of them are internationally applicable. This is particularly true of those aimed at rights holders, the financial sector and online service providers working across multiple geographies.

London: Royal United Services Institute, 2021. 84p.

By Sebastian Blesse and André Diegmann.

Does the administrative organization of police affect crime? In answering this question, we focus on the reorganization of local police agencies. Specifically, we study the effects police force reallocation via station closures has on local crime. We do this by exploiting a quasi-experiment where a reform substantially reduced the number of police stations. Combining a matching strategy with an event-study design, we find no effects on total theft. Police station closures, however, open up tempting opportunities for criminals in car theft and burglary in residential properties. We can rule out that our effects arise from incapacitation, crime displacement, or changes in employment of local police forces. Our results suggest that criminals are less deterred after police station closures and use the opportunity to steal more costly goods.

Mannheim: ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, 2018. 55p.

By Teresa Silva and Mia Lind.

The evaluation of crime prevention interventions involves the systematic collection and analysis of information about the changes that occur in the different components of a criminal problem produced by the activities of the intervention. The principal objective of analyzing such information is to determine at what level the goals were achieved, and at what cost. Different groups benefit from the results of the evaluations, including those who design and implement the intervention, managers, stakeholders, sponsors, policy advisors, target groups, etc. The information produced by the evaluation is useful for guiding decisions about how to redesign the intervention, how to orient the future allocation of resources, and how to advise on policy directions. Whether or not to use the results of the evaluation is ultimately a management decision, but professionals and evaluators are reinforced when they see that the effort they put in to evaluating the interventions is useful to introducing improvements. Evaluation entails important methodological aspects, and evaluation must be planned at the same time that the intervention is planned in order to ensure the intervention’s evaluability (i.e., the capacity to be evaluated in a reliable and credible manner). Misalignments between the crime problem, the objectives, and the activities that the intervention comprises result in low evaluability and might seriously compromise the quality of the evaluation. In this sense, evaluation is a tool that contributes to the design of the intervention.

Brussels: European Crime Prevention Network, 2020. 98p.

Edited by Judith Andersen, Eamonn Patrick Arble and Peter Ian Collins.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Thus, from theoretical and empirical perspectives, the research within this special edition will consider how the functioning of the bidirectional signals between the brain and the central and peripheral nervous systems relate to police decision making in order to inform police training, policy, and legal judgements regarding police behavior.

Frontiers Media SA, 2020. 121p.

By Rasmus Højbjerg Jacobsen

When a policy maker or an administrator decides on how many and which of a number of proposed policy measures to implement an important piece of information is whether the effort is “worthwhile”. The precise meaning of the word “worthwhile” will depend on the context. In some cases, the question of whether a policy measure is worthwhile will be decided on a purely qualitative basis given the results of the policy measure. In other – and perhaps most – cases some sort of money evaluation will be attached to the results, and a total effect in money terms will be used to evaluate the results. This manual is concerned with the latter case. Given the large degree of competition between various projects for public funds, a compelling case for a specific project can be made if a well carried out cost-benefit-analysis shows a resulting surplus. While this criterion is obviously not the only one used, it could be an important factor when preparing policy makers to make decisions about a specific project. The basic idea behind cost-benefit-analysis is simple: calculate all benefits and all the costs associated with a specific effort, subtract the costs from the benefits while carefully addressing the time profile, and use the resulting number as an indicator for the economic profitability of the project. If the result is positive, the project produces an economic surplus, and if it is negative the project leads to an economic loss. Although this principle is simple the actual calculation is, however, in most cases somewhat more cumbersome, since the costs and benefits of a given effort can be difficult to determine. This is true for a number of reasons. First, it can be hard to decide whether the outcome for a group of participants is in fact a consequence of program participation or whether part of the outcome would have occurred anyway, in which case the resulting outcome cannot be fully attributed to the program. Second, although outcome is perhaps only measured in terms of relatively few variables, the outcomes of other, not measured, variables can also be expected to be influenced by the policy measure. In order to fully capture the program effect the outcome of these unmeasured variables also needs to be assessed.

Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School, Centre For Economic And Business Research , 2013. 42p.

Jean-Paul Buffat, Project Manager.

The objective of the Secucities Crime Prevention Europe project was to compare the prevention policies instituted in seven European cities in order to bring out a common body. This objective constituted a real challenge for all the participants: how to compare what is done in one city with policies conducted in other European cities, which one imagines to be different in many regards? The work seminars, on-site visits and the research carried out rapidly brought to the fore common problems and solutions that were often similar. There remains the fact that it will be necessary in the future to return to the same places to compare their respective evolutions... Here we present the conclusions and recommendations that the comparison of policies studied allows us to bring out, both at the level of the implementation of a local crime prevention strategy as well as the role of the States of the European Union.

Paris: European Forum for Urban Safety, 2002. 51p.

By H. Goudriaan.

Victim reports are the main source of information for the police regarding where crimes are committed, and also the basis for most subsequent actions of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the victims' decision to report to the police is crucial. However, much criminal victimization is not reported and, consequently, many offenders are never prosecuted. Why are some crimes reported and others not? Substantial differences in reporting are found across crime locations, neighborhoods and countries. In this book, a socio-ecological model of victims' decision-making is introduced which endeavors to explain these contextual differences in reporting. To empirically test the main hypotheses derived from this model, several data sources are used and different research strategies are employed, with which the effects of crime, victim and contextual factors on victims' reporting behavior are simultaneously analyzed. Factors constituting the context in which crime incidents take place (e.g. whether the location is in the private or public domain), as well as factors composing the neighborhood context (e.g. the neighborhood social cohesion) and – to a lesser extent – the country context in which victims reside, were found to play a role in victims's decision (not) to report.

Leiden: University of Leiden, 2006. 213p.

By A. Ojebode; B.R. Ojebuyi; N.J. Onyechi; O. Oladapo; O.J. Oyedele and I.A. Fadipe .

The problem of ineffective policing still persists in post-colonial Africa and as a result, both donors and governments are seeking non-state alternatives or complements to the state apparatuses. These alternatives include private sector provision, donor-driven interventions and community-based or community-driven crime prevention practices. There is no shortage of community-based crime prevention (CBCP) practices in Africa and they come in a variety of forms and models: neighbourhood watches, vigilantes, religious and ethnic militias, and neighbourhood guards. However, the effectiveness of CBCP practices is still a subject of controversy despite the widespread prevalence of these practices. This study looks at the effectiveness of CBCP practices, considers possible reasons for their effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and on the basis of the research, makes some policy recommendations.

Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2016. 59p.

By T. K. Cocx.

The increase in capabilities of information technology of the last decade has led to a large increase in the creation of raw data. Data mining, a form of computer guided, statistical data analysis, attempts to draw knowledge from these sources that is usable, human understandable and was previously unknown. One of the potential application domains is that of law enforcement. This thesis describes a number of efforts in this direction and reports on the results reached on the application of its resulting algorithms on actual police data. The usage of specifically tailored data mining algorithms is shown to have a great potential in this area, which forebodes a future where algorithmic assistance in "combating" crime will be a valuable asset.

Leiden: Leiden University, 2009. 179p.

By Walter Cade Reckless and Simon Dinitz. Chiefly based on a report of the Ohio State University Research Foundation to the National Institute of Mental Health, May 31, 1970. “The disintegration of the social and familial roles that children see for themselves, and the alienating effects that are the inevitable accompaniments of the increased mobility and fluidity that mark our society, are the major causes of delinquency and crime in the United States today. The prevention of juvenile delinquency must be tied, therefore, to an effort to overcome this critical lack of a role structure to which young people perceive themselves as belonging, and to reverse the present trend toward alienation and revolt.”

Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1972. 253p.

By Willy Zapata Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid Stefanie Garry.

This paper reviews the current status of the international fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, highlighting the importance of its prevention for economic and financial stability in Latin America and the Caribbean. It synthesizes the recent history of international legislation and agreements with respect to the issues, and presents the framework of public and private sector actors engaged in combating these threats. It reviews Latin American and Caribbean countries’ compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (40 + 9) Recommendations, and analyzes the region’s performance with respect to their third round Mutual Evaluation Reports. The evidence shows that while the region has made some significant progress in combating various typologies of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, important work remains to be done, particularly with respect to customer due diligence policies and the strengthening of national legal codes. A case study of Mexico’s progress provides specific insight into the country’s reforms and policies to combat these financial sector operational risks. Recent evidence suggests that if Mexico keeps strengthening its commitment to improve national regulatory, legal and judicial systems, it will be able to show full compliance with the FATF Recommendations in future evaluations. The paper provides reflections on new and emerging international threats, especially those related to technological innovations. The authors call for an enhanced system of risk management, technical support to countries, and the design of coordinated international responses to financial crimes and the financing of terrorism to ensure long-term financial sector integrity and macroeconomic stability.

Mexico City: United Nations, 2014. 53p.