Roundtable: Understanding Cyber-Offenders and Pathways into Cyber Crime: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

At ASC 2016 this panel presented an overview of the extent and nature of criminological research regarding cyber offenders and the empirical questions that must be addressed to improve our understanding of cyber offenders, pathways into cyber crime and potential interventions to prevent offending. This highlighted a lack of high-quality, empirical data and limited evidence regarding the applicability of traditional criminological theories to cyber crime. One year on, this panel will update on new research initiatives that have since been implemented and discuss where progress has been made in addressing key evidence gaps and the opportunities and challenges to any further research that still exist. Key questions that will be considered by the panel include: pathways into cyber offending, the causes of onset, persistence and desistance in offending, the role of digital and real peer networks, what law enforcement interventions are successful in stopping offending and factors that may differentiate individuals who have engaged in serious forms of cyber crime (including organised crime at an international level) relative to more common acts like digital piracy. This evidence is all key to understanding how best to prevent and deter future cyber offenders.

Sub Unit

• Area XIII: Roundtable Sessions

Division of Special Interest

• Divisions of Special Interest / Division on Terrorism & Bias Crime

Chair

• Tom Holt, Michigan State University

Discussants

• Adam M Bossler, Georgia Southern University

• Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg, NSCR (Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement)

• Richard Jones, National Crime Agency

• Julia Davidson, Middlesex University

• Robert Clarke, Home Office