Crime

INNOVATION: The technology revolution has brought about many benefits for society, but it has also provided tools for domestic abuse perpetrators to harass, stalk and terrify their victims, often through coercive control; IBM Security specialist Lesley Nuttall explains how technology is being used to abuse victims, and the steps that tech designers can take to ensure that their latest developments are resistant to being manipulated for harm.

FEATURE: Gold has always been an attractive commodity for criminals, because of its high value, relative anonymity and ability to evade banking controls; now a new report has highlighted the organised crime groups – including corrupt state actors – who are controlling the mining, smuggling and trading of this precious metal across Central Africa, as Policing Insight’s Chris Allen reports.

FEATURE: The terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils four years ago this month left 14 people dead and more than 130 injured; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the National Counter-Terrorism Strategy launched by the Spanish Government since those attacks, as well as the continuing threat and risk posed to Spain by both violent jihadist terrorism and returning foreign terrorist fighters.

OPINION: Last month an Australian couple were jailed after being found guilty of enslaving a vulnerable Tamil woman for eight years, in one of the few cases where people have been prosecuted for slavery offences rather than related crimes; Dr John Coyne of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believes the case should act as a reminder for police, prosecutors and the public that modern slavery exists in many areas of society, and also highlights latest UN policy guidance to help states tackle the issue.

OPINION: The killing of five people in Plymouth by Jake Davison (pictured), a man whose online activity included regular interaction with the incel sub-culture, has raised questions in the UK around the need for such groups to be targeted under counter-terror and extremist legislation; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon explores the growth in the incel movement and related attacks on women both in the UK and the US, and looks at what can be done to tackle the sub-culture.

ANALYSIS: COVID-19 has seen fraudsters taking advantage of the pandemic economy, and Africa has not escaped the attentions of those intent on fraud; Research Associate Nataliya Mykhalchenko and Lecturer Jörg Wiegratz, both of the University of Leeds, set out some of the key findings from their latest research into the responses to fraud, and the major characteristics of anti-fraud measures, across 11 African countries.

FEATURE: The resurgence in outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) in Australia and around the world has highlighted the need for a better understanding of their criminal activities; Dr Christopher Dowling of the Australian Institute of Criminology – a speaker at this week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference – outlines the work of the Serious and Organised Crime Research Laboratory, and its crime science approach to the criminal activity of OMCGs.

ANALYSIS: The recent upsurge in gang membership and conflict in New Zealand has prompted a fresh focus on their criminal activity; but ahead of this week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Dr Jarrod Gilbert of the University of Canterbury warns that equating patched gangs with organised crime ignores the evidence, and will result in law enforcement and socio-economic approaches to gang issues that are unlikely to be effective.

ANALYSIS: Crime prevention programmes in many countries often adopt a blanket approach to communities, with little regard to race or culture; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, researchers Dr Kabir Dasgupta, Dr André Diegmann, Professor Tom Kirchmaier and Dr Alexander Plum discuss their latest study which highlights the role of ethnicity in the criminal behaviour of young fathers, and suggests that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy response to crime reduction is likely to fail.

FEATURE: The volume and accessibility of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has increased considerably in recent years, prompting concerns from police, legislators and the public; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Dr Rick Brown, Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, outlines some of the key research and initiatives already underway to reduce CSAM in the future.

FEATURE: Targeting family violence and gender-driven crimes is a challenge for law enforcement around the world; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Lauren Callaway, Assistant Commissioner of Family Violence Command for Victoria Police, outlines some of the key steps taken by the force – both in its approach to crimes in the community, and in tackling issues within the organisation – to make people safer.

ANALYSIS: A network of programmes seek to provide pathways out of criminal behaviour for at-risk youth in New York City; Greg Berman, former Director of New York’s Center for Court Innovation, looks at both the challenges and the potential of the Cure Violence approach, and underlines the importance of empirical research in establishing if, why and how the various programmes achieve their aims.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on a terrorist drone attack in India that has raised concerns among security policymakers around the world, and highlighted the fact that unmanned aerial vehicles present a clear and present danger to the public – one for which police and security authorities remain poorly prepared.

FEATURE: The rape and murder of Sarah Everard in the UK has been a wake-up call to the wider issue of violence against women and girls, a problem that has resonated with female communities globally; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon looks at both the legislative and law enforcement responses in the UK and the US, as well as moves to tackle the subjugation of women and reinforce women’s rights around the world.

FEATURE: From fake big-name brands to illegal livestock sources and sub-standard products that are a danger to public health, the illicit food and alcohol industry is big business that attracts organised crime; Policing Insight’s Chris Allen looks at the latest efforts from Europol and Interpol to tackle the problem, as well as the UK’s response.

OPINION: Last month Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the UK Government’s new ‘Beating Crime Plan’ – not in parliament or at a press launch, but in a Sunday newspaper column; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett examines the lack of consultation, paucity of new ideas and absence of additional funding in the plan, and considers whether tone and public perception have become much more important than evidence-based actions and initiatives.

FEATURE: The forest wildfires which have swept large parts of Turkey, killing at least eight people and decimating wildlife, made the news headlines around the world: but there are fears that a return to pyro-terrorism rather than climate change could be the main factor behind these latest blazes, as PhD student Eray Arda Akartuna of UCL’s Dawes Centre for Future Crime reports.

OPINION: Australia’s female prison population has increased significantly, with First Nations women disproportionately affected, as laws and measures introduced to protect women and children from male violence have led to more females being jailed; Monash University Associate Professor Silke Meyer believes it’s time to invest more in primary prevention to end violence against women.

ANALYSIS: Levels of violent crime across America saw an unprecedented increase in 2020, and remain worryingly high in 2021; in this last in a series of essays from the Violence Reduction Project, former Newark Police officer Prof Jon Shane of John Jay College of Criminal Justice outlines the thinking behind situational crime prevention, and how addressing the physical and social environment can help to reduce crime, aggression, and disorder.

OPINION: Drill and grime music has often been linked (rightly or otherwise) to urban gangs, with claims that lyrics and videos posted on social media are an incitement to violence; but Liverpool John Moores University Policing Studies graduate Gwen Jones argues that the use of Criminal Behaviour Orders to prevent artists recording or publishing new material has criminalised those musical genres, often without evidence of preventing crime.

ANALYSIS: Lockdowns and ‘stay-at-home’ messages introduced as COVID-19 pandemic measures prompted speculation about the impact on crime, and whether anticipated falls in street crime and violence would be matched by rises in commercial burglaries and domestic violence; Professor Manuel Eisner of the University of Cambridge, and Utrecht University Assistant Professor Amy Nivette, studied the lockdown crime rates across six main offences in 27 cities, and believe the findings could help in the design of future crime reduction strategies.

OPINION: Levels of violent crime across America saw an unprecedented increase in 2020, and remain worryingly high in 2021; in this latest essay from the Violence Reduction Project, former NYPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Giacalone, now an Adjunct Professor at the City University of New York, explains why solving cold cases could build community bridges, take more offenders off the street, and play a crucial part in reducing levels of violence.

OPINION: Defining laws on hate speech is notoriously difficult; but as New Zealand considers new legislation to protect groups against the impact of hate speech, Dr Eddie Clark, Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, believes that the current insistence on proving a link to inciting violence as a precondition for defining hate speech regulation is wrong, and contradicts other existing forms of speech regulation in New Zealand law.

ANALYSIS: While many businesses and communities struggled to overcome the challenges presented by the pandemic, COVID-19 also offered opportunities for fraudsters and cybercriminals to target both vulnerable individuals and financial support packages offered by governments around the world; Policing Insight’s Andy Staniforth looks at some of the steps being taken – and the early successes – in the fight against COVID-19 fraud.