'Cybercrime not classed as proper police work' - new study

Published by University of Leicester Press Office for University of Leicester in Central Government and also in Education

A study by the University of Leicester Department of Criminology highlights concerns over police resources, as well as attitude among some officers, in tackling a rising tide of internet crime.

In a new report entitled ‘Public policing and Internet crime’, Professor Yvonne Jewkes from the University of Leicester questions whether cybercrime as a criminal activity is taken as seriously as it should be.

She assesses the police’s ability and willingness to investigate cybercrime, and highlights problems of cooperation and law enforcement across geographical boundaries and legal jurisdictions.

With 1.7 billion, or 25 per cent of the world’s total population, online in 2009, the Internet is a massive medium which has spawned a new wave of criminal activities, including hacking, viruses, cyber-terrorism, illegal downloading and piracy, all of which need to be treated in a similar manner to more traditional criminal activities said Professor Jewkes.

Crimes perpetrated via an Internet auction site are explored within the study which has led to Professor Jewkes to question how seriously police take their occurrence.

Professor Jewkes commented:

“Early optimism and idealism have given way to a darker, even dystopian prognoses, with the Internet serving as a leitmotif for many and varied problems, dangers, risks and threats.

“There is resistance among individual police officers who do not see cybercrime as ‘proper’ police work, and inadequate resources to make an impact.

“According to newspaper reports, the police in England and Wales investigate one alleged internet auction site scam every hour, some of which have moved beyond the cyber-realm and precipitated ‘real world’ crimes including burglary, assault, possession of firearms offences, civil disputes, harassment and an arson attack.

“Some policing initiatives set up to investigate cybercrime have already failed and been dissolved, but others are showing more signs of success.”

Crimes committed on Internet auction sites are also currently being explored by two other academics within the University’s Department of Criminology. Head of Department, Adrian Beck, is researching the buying and selling of stolen and counterfeit goods, and Lecturer James Treadwell has undertaken empirical research on the individuals who use eBay to make money illegally.

Professor Jewkes’ paper is featured as a chapter in a new edited collection, the Handbook of Internet Crime, which Professor Jewkes co-edited alongside Majid Yar, Professor of Sociology at the University of Hull.

The Handbook of Internet Crime is published by Willan Publishing and brings together the leading experts in the field to explore some of the most challenging debates facing criminologists as the most ambitious book on cybercrime to date.

The book, which will act as a valuable resource to criminology student explores the global nature of cybercrime, deviance, policing, law and regulation in the 21st century.

About the authors

Yvonne Jewkes is Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester. She has written extensively on the problems of policing cybercrime as well as more generally about the relationship between new technologies, crime and deviance. Her books include Dot.cons: crime, deviance and identity on the internet (Willan, 2003) and Media and Crime (Sage, 2004). She is also cofounder and Editor of Crime, Media, Culture: an international journal and editor of Willan Publishing’s Handbook on Prisons (2007).

Majid Yar is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hull. He is the author of Cybercrime and Society (2006) and has written widely in the fields of crime and deviance, media, and social theory.