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However, little is known about the attitudes of law enforcement towards cyber offenders in those countries in which state-sponsored and state-tolerated cyber offending occurs: it is simply assumed or inferred from unsuccessful pursuit that little is being done there, at least until they victimise their local populations, setting aside often well-informed and severe reactions to those deemed to be “political opponents” or acting without authorisation from those in power. Yet, the scope of cyber offenders, their involvement in a range of illegal activities, and the costs of policing cyber offenders, stemming from cross-jurisdictional offences, generate serious concerns for law enforcement agencies throughout the world (Carroll and Windle 2018 Gilmour 2014 Malby et al. In addition to this challenge, the vast majority of research is undertaken, produced, and disseminated in English and focuses on a minority of sites where actively publishing western academics are based (Cross 2018). The evolution of cybercrime and cyber offender strategies is fast paced, making studying and reporting on them a difficult task. “Effectiveness” in policing cybercrime needs to be clearly defined and should be seen on a spectrum. Policing has been slow to adjust to the rise of digital crimes and fraud, not least because it often means giving up functions currently performed, which meet resistance (HMICFRS 2019a, 2019b). Despite the increase in such units and cybersecurity spending, global law enforcement and private capacity to investigate and police cybercrime competently are not sufficient to respond efficiently in real time (McMurdie 2016), due to the quickly-evolving and vast nature of these crimes (Holt 2018), which typically involve more effort and cross-border expense and access difficulties than do most offline crimes in the Pursue mode. The uptick in cybercrime has resulted in the formation of digital policing units and computer emergency response teams (CERTs) in jurisdictions around the world (Harkin, Whelan, and Chang 2018 Boes and Leukfeldt 2017 Décary-Hétu 2016), as well as within industry (Holt 2018). (See also successive Eurobarometer surveys for data within the EU 28 as a whole.) An increase in cybercriminal activity means that transactions that involve the proceeds of crime increasingly occur in whole or in part in cyberspace (Ablon, Libicki, and Golay 2014 Allodi, Corradin, and Massacci 2016 Higbee 2018 Hill 2018). This is also true for the small number of countries which conduct general social survey measures of cybercrime as part of their general crime surveys or as separate modules on sub-sets of cybercrime such as identity crime. The number of victims of total crime Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) including fraud and computer misuse decreased by 19% in April to June 2020 compared with January to March 2020 (ONS, 2020). Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, during which the number of incidents of cybercrime in the UK had increased (Buil-Gil, Miró-Llinares, Moneva, Kemp and Díaz-Castaño 2020), incidents had been falling in England and Wales, though cybercrime still represented a larger proportion of all reported crime. To that end, the rate of cybercrime has been steadily increasing over the past decade, and continues to be likely underreported (Caneppele and Aebi 2017 Levi et al. The increase of digital aspects in everyday life has made crime and victimization in cyberspace a regular occurrence (Bryant and Bryant 2016). Introduction Policing CybercrimeĪlthough the rate of most crimes appears to have been decreasing over the past three decades, the same cannot be said for cybercrimes (Van Dijk, Tseloni, and Farrell 2012, 245). Editorial assistance was provided by Isobel Scavetta. Research assistance was provided by Tessa Cole and David Flint. This work was supported by the UK Home Office through a National Cyber Security Programme research grant.
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