Special Issue editors: Dr. Helena Carrapico (Aston University, UK) and Dr. Anita Lavorgna (University of Wolverhampton, UK)
Over the past two decades, the development of modern societies has become intimately interconnected with information technologies. Such trend is particularly visible among the increasing number of personal objects, household appliances and professional structures connected to information networks. Although such evolution is usually applauded from an economic and societal perspective, it is also understood as constituting a risk in security terms. As the degree of connectivity dependence of individuals, companies and critical infrastructures grows, so does the likelihood of technology being abused, in particular for criminal purposes. As a result, cyber crime has become, over the past few years, the object of increased concern in Europe. Not only does it represent a considerable cost to societies, but it also continues to constitute an important challenge for law enforcement and judicial systems, due to its technical complexity and rapid innovative character.
Although organised crime is generally presented by policy makers and international organizations as a major actor in cyber crimes, the academic literature has, so far, paid limited attention to this element. More specifically, limited research has been conducted on how different types of organised crime groups use cyber space to conduct their traditional activities, and on how new illicit online activities have emerged as a result of organised crime’s digital shift.
In view of countering this gap in the literature, this special issue welcomes theoretical and empirical articles on the connections between traditional and new forms of organised crime and cyber space. Topics in this special issue include (but are not limited to) definitional debates, national and international political responses, online investigations (including prevention and detection, investigation techniques, search, seizure, forensics, prosecution and trial), law enforcement cooperation, and critical perspectives.
The Special Issue will be published in EROC in September 2015. Articles should be submitted by the 5th of January 2015. However, authors are strongly encouraged to express interest and send abstracts of potential contributions to the editors by the 3rd of November 2014.
For expressions of interest, please contact the editors of the special issue at h.farrand-carrapico@aston.ac.uk and Anita.Lavorgna@wlv.ac.uk. For more information about EROC, please visit our website at https://standinggroups.ecpr.eu/sgocnet/site/the-review-eroc/.
