Russell Brewer, Melissa de Vel-Palumbo, Alice Hutchings, Thomas Holt,
Andrew Goldsmith, and David Maimon present a critique of seven different
types of commonly deployed crime prevention interventions
which they believe have the potential to be used in tackling cybercrimes
(with a specific focus on cyber-dependent offences). Certainly, for this
reader, these distinguished authors have fulfilled their aim ‘to make a
substantial original contribution’ as to how their chosen crime prevention
techniques can be used to tackle offending in the digital realm.
Running through their analysis are at least three issues. The first is
that cyber-offending and cyber-offenders typically have different characteristics
to traditional offline offenders/offences. This complicates the
potential application of traditional crime prevention approaches when
applied to the digital arena. Second, there is a paucity of research, and
in particular evaluations of these prevention approaches in the online
world. The third point is that where there is evidence, it often produces
mixed results—sometimes interventions work as intended, sometimes
not, sometimes their effect is neutral, and sometimes they can make
things worse. This book charts a path through these issues by critiquing
the available evidence in the offline world, identifying relevant overlaps
with activities online, and then exploring the potential for them to be so
applied—providing guidance at the same time as to how this might be
undertaken most effectively.