Abstract
The digital world represents a new frontier for law enforcement operations. The virtual nature of online communications creates challenges regarding legal frameworks and sovereignty that are exacerbated by the inherent context of the digital world, the current state of policing expertise and resources and the detection and reporting rates of cybercrimes. This chapter presents an informed review of the current state of “what works” in policing both offline and online, providing at each step the context needed to understand how new technologies impact police operations. Our conclusion suggests that new models of policing are indeed needed to effectively police the digital world and that cooperation through nodal governance could improve the ability of police agencies to regulate cyberoffenders.
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Notes
- 1.
A botnet is “[...] a network of computers controlled by a malicious hacker who uses them—without their owner’s knowledge—to commit a broad range of crimes. Because of their versatility and scalability, botnets provide the core infrastructure of many cybercrime operations” (Dupont, 2017: 98).
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This chapter is part of the research project “Disrupting the Darknet: Law Enforcement Operations and their Impact of Darknet Offenders,” funded by PMI IMPACT—a global grant initiative by Philip Morris International (PMI) to support projects dedicated to fighting illegal trade and related crimes. In the performance of its research, the authors maintained full independence from PMI. The views and opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of PMI.
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Faubert, C., Décary-Hétu, D., Malm, A., Ratcliffe, J., Dupont, B. (2021). Law Enforcement and Disruption of Offline and Online Activities: A Review of Contemporary Challenges. In: Weulen Kranenbarg, M., Leukfeldt, R. (eds) Cybercrime in Context. Crime and Justice in Digital Society, vol I. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60527-8_19
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