Hacking Desistance: Exploring Police Practices and Social Control Strategies in Cases of Cyber-dependent Crime

• In Event: Policing Hacking: Vulnerability, Securitisation, and Criminalisation

Abstract

Cybercrime is often considered a national security rather than a policing matter. ‘High-policing’ agencies tend to take the lead in law enforcement responses, even when crimes are petty, ‘low-tech’, or born of curiosity rather than malice. We draw on autobiographical narratives collected during the GoingAFK project researching experiences of people involved in illegal hacking, and wider investigations into contemporary cybercrime policing to interrogate constellations of policing and social control deployed against hackers engaged in criminalized activities. Specifically, we critically analyze the apparent roles of police in the design and delivery of punishment and rehabilitation. We argue these challenge understandings of contemporary policing, penality, and their operation. We draw on examples of police surveillance, mentorship, and social work to consider how current police practice might adapt to address youth involvement in cyber-dependent crime more generally.

Authors

• Sarah Anderson, Edinburgh Napier University

• Shane Horgan, Edinburgh Napier University

• Ben Collier, University of Edinburgh