Crime

FEATURE: COVID-19 lockdowns around the world may have led to a fall in most domestic crime, but transnational drug-trafficking operations and other organised crime groups have been quick to adapt and overcome, leading to potentially bigger profits and a new criminal world order, warns Dr John Coyne of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Opinion: In Australia, the recent Victorian Royal Commission into Police Management of Informants has highlighted concerns over police accountability, and called for major changes around oversight and transparency; but Professor Jude McCulloch and Professor Michael Maguire, both of Monash University, argue that real progress will require more extensive reform.

OPINION: Following a recent three-year pilot, provisions in a new UK Domestic Abuse Bill will pave the way for mandatory lie-detector testing of high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators; but Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth argues that new scientific test techniques would be more effective and appropriate than using outdated polygraph methods.

FEATURE: With online extremists migrating to increasingly niche platforms, law enforcement is having to work harder to monitor and tackle hate crime and extremist activity; but as online intelligence experts Franck Znaty and Dr Lewys Brace told delegates at this year's NPCC Internet, Intelligence and Investigation conference, targeting such activity may be challenging but can still be successful.

LONG READ: Modern slavery and human trafficking are transnational crimes that could easily flourish in the COVID-19 pandemic conditions of economic uncertainty and isolation; in this long-read article, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at efforts in the UK and US to tackle this illegal human trade which often targets society’s most vulnerable.

ANALYSIS: Counterfeiting is now a global problem accounting for more than three per cent of world trade, securing profits for criminals and in some cases putting consumers’ health at risk; in this briefing paper published by the UK’s Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL, Dr Chiaki Crews, Prof Robert Speller and Dr Rob Moss set out some of the sector challenges in tackling counterfeiting, and highlight the key questions for policy makers.

FEATURE: Online child sexual exploitation is a growing crime with horrific consequences around the world, but a global task force led by the FBI is making significant inroads, catching offenders and rescuing children; Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports from the UK’s Internet Intelligence and Investigations Conference on the success of the VCACITF.

OPINION: A consultation on Serious Violence Reduction Orders – the latest Government measure to tackle violent offences, particularly knife crime – recently finished, having prompted concerns from a number of criminal justice support organisations; police ethics adviser Montell Neufville believes that, if introduced, the new orders could have a damaging impact on community relations.

OPINION: With policing resources under greater pressure than ever, prioritising police activity has never been more important; Professor Lawrence Sherman, Director of Research, Jerry Lee Centre for Experimental Criminology, at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology and crime harm index (CHI) pioneer, explains why the concept could be crucial for modern policing, ahead of a free, live CHI webinar tomorrow.

FEATURE: In the second of two articles exploring crime harm indexes, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at the rationale behind the Cambridge index, and how the approach as been adopted in other countries including Sweden and Australia.

FEATURE: In the first of two articles exploring crime harm indexes, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at the thinking behind the concept, and the latest calls for resources to be prioritised around a harm-based framework as part of the new approach to policing after the pandemic.

FEATURE: The social and economic conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled a surge in human trafficking in many countries; Policing Insight contributor Andrew Staniforth reports on one US initiative which has brought together a range of covert intelligence and overt investigative agencies to tackle the issue – with impressive results.