Urbanisation has intensified population density, socioeconomic inequality and urban crime, increasing the need for safe and inclusive parks that foster urban social–ecological resilience. This study surveyed 610 residents in Lanzhou, China, and integrated the theory of planned behaviour with flow theory to examine the influence of attitudes towards park environment and management on fear of crime, flow experience and recommendation and revisit intentions. Gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were key concerns. The findings show that lower fear of crime and stronger flow experience are jointly associated with behavioural intentions through serial mediation. Flow, in this security context, reflects balanced immersion supported by visibility, management and natural surveillance. The study identifies ‘double vulnerability’, where low-SES females show heightened crime sensitivity and weakened behavioural intentions.
In recent years, cyberattack rates on social media have increased significantly. This appears to threaten the social, economic, and academic life of university students. This study examines social media usage and the prevalence of cyberattacks among undergraduate students in Tanzania. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used. To analyse the collected data, the IBM Statistical Product for Service Solutions (SPSS) was used to derive descriptive and inferential statistics. The study reveals that students’ preferences for social media are predicted by three major factors, including information, educational, and entertainment needs. Regarding awareness, the study indicates low awareness of cyberattacks and protection measures among students. However, awareness does not guarantee cybersecurity due to ignorance of the risks associated with cyberattacks. The study has also revealed various behaviours that expose students to cyberattacks on social media. Moreover, the study suggests that low awareness of cyberattacks is more likely to expose undergraduate students to behaviours that expose them to cyberattacks, and increase the frequency of attacks and the experience of actual attacks. The findings further suggest that engaging in behaviours that increase exposure to cyberattacks predicts the frequency of being attacked. To reduce these attacks on social media, training programmes targeted at raising awareness and improving the understanding of various types of cyberattacks and their prevention mechanisms among students are necessary.
The persistent threat of terrorism, whether from homegrown extremists or global networks like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, remains a critical security challenge for states worldwide. Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban’s rapid consolidation of power sparked concerns that Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) would exploit the resulting instability to organize and regain operational strength. This qualitative study challenged this assumption, identifying factors hindering AQIS growth and processing them through Principal-Agent Theory (PAT) and Rational Choice Theory (RCT) to establish limited opportunities for AQIS’s resurgence.
This study analyzes how property crime rates influence public interest in online security solutions in Colombia between 2010 and 2025. Using a quantitative approach, a Vector Autoregressive Model with Exogenous Variables (VARX) incorporated official National Police crime statistics as exogenous variables and Google Trends indicators for “Surveillance,” “Insurance,” and “Private Security” as endogenous variables. Results show that vehicle theft most strongly increases searches across all categories, business theft mainly drives interest in private security, and residential theft boosts insurance-related searches. These findings demonstrate that digital traces serve as real-time indicators of perceived insecurity, offering valuable insights for strategic business decisions and public policy.
The purpose of this article was to examine the operations of shopping and entertainment centres (SECs) under crisis conditions. To achieve this goal, management methods for SECs were analysed, and a survey of managers of major Ukrainian SECs was conducted. The study revealed significant challenges faced by large SECs in Ukraine from 24 February 2022 to 2024. The primary consequences of the invasion included reduced economic activity, declining footfall, disrupted supply chains, and increased security threats to staff and visitors. As the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 28.8
State surveillance has been shown to be a significant public and academic concern. That online communication from the public is subject to official scrutiny is not new knowledge, and with ever increasing connectivity, platforms and methods for doing so it will only increase. However, what is often not considered is how the public is likewise scrutinising these surveillance practices and the agencies performing them. Using original survey data and interviews with participants in the UK, we consider how this gaze is turned back onto the agents and agencies doing online communication surveillance. Participants express their gaze in terms of geographic, political and organisational factors, with trust and perceived competency playing central roles in their deliberations. Further, a distinction is made between automated and human analysis: while we had expected largely negative responses to automated analysis, participants often felt more comfortable with this than human analysis. Machines were perceived as more neutral, albeit with a degree of ambivalence as to their ultimate virtue. An underlying sense from participants of not being of interest to authorities is also woven through responses. These novel findings present important questions about the capacity of the public to critically engage with surveillance and take it apart, as well as being dissected by it.
This qualitative study explores how banking cybersecurity professionals in an emerging economy perceive the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in predicting cybersecurity risks. In addition, it examines the contextual, regulatory, and ethical issues influencing AI adoption in the Bangladeshi banking sector. Using a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants from Bangladeshi commercial banks engaged in protecting the cybersecurity of their banks. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants with adequate knowledge of the study context. Data were analyzed thematically using an inductive approach. From the interviews, five key findings emerged: (1) Slow but increasing overall integration of AI into banks’ cybersecurity strategies; (2) AI-based threat prediction involving both advantages and limitations; (3) Strong influence of past incidents (e.g., the Bangladesh Bank heist) on banks’ cybersecurity policies; (4) Persistent contextual, ethical, and regulatory issues; and (5) Strong barriers to effective AI implementation. While AI is seen as promising, its effectiveness is constrained by systemic challenges. This study offers original insights by qualitatively examining how banks’ cybersecurity professionals in an emerging economy perceive AI’s role in cybersecurity risk prediction. Unlike existing technical or quantitative research, it highlights contextual, regulatory, and ethical issues, providing a human-centered perspective on AI adoption in banks’ cybersecurity.
This paper examines the evolving role of tourism policing in China, exploring how these specialized units balance regulatory enforcement with symbolic state representation. Through case studies in Sanya, Yunnan, and Beijing, it highlights the dual mandate of tourism police as both law enforcers and emotional agents in managing public perception. The study uses a multi-theoretical framework, integrating governance theory and affective governance, to analyze the institutional challenges and symbolic functions of tourism police. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to improve institutional coordination, enhance emotional competence, and refine governance strategies to support sustainable tourism security.
A timeless question is why good people sometimes do bad things. Moral disengagement theory suggests that people cognitively restructure harmful conduct to preserve a positive self-image. While widely applied to unethical behaviour, research often treats moral disengagement as a unitary construct and studies of espionage or insider offences frequently rely on single cases. The present study examines the structure of moral disengagement among 16 individuals charged with crimes against national security after systematically mapping classified military infrastructure. Using frequency analysis and hierarchical clustering, the analysis identifies a stable empirical core of mechanisms: euphemistic labelling, diffusion of responsibility and minimization of consequences. The findings suggest that individuals do not draw equally on all moral disengagement mechanisms but instead rely on a smaller set of recurring justifications for unethical and unlawful behaviour.
During national Mega Political events, cities often enter an extraordinary state characterized by intensive security deployment and minimal inflow of external visitors, offering a rare quasi-experimental setting isolate the impact of highly centralized security governance on crime. However, research on how such measures affect crime opportunities remains insufficient. Against this backdrop, to quantify the net effect of high-intensity security measures on crime, the Military Parade Celebrating the Founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2009 and 2019 in Beijing were selected as a case study. The results show that high-intensity security measures reduce crime during event periods, with the most significant effects observed for theft. Crime reduction exhibits spatial heterogeneity, as theft declines more sharply in non-security areas, while robbery and assault show no significant spatial variation. Moreover, the effects are short-lived, with theft quickly rebounding to pre-security levels after security measures are lifted, while robbery and assault remain largely unchanged. These findings suggest that extreme security interventions exert selective and short-lived effects, being more effective for opportunity-based crimes than for violence driven. These empirical results extend the applicability of routine activity theory to extreme security contexts.
The culture of surveillance and informant behavior, where citizens monitor and report on each other, particularly regarding dissent against the regime, its representatives, and policies, serves as a crucial mechanism of policing and social control in authoritarian systems. This practice significantly contributes to the persistence and endurance of authoritarian regimes. This paper aims to explore the everyday practice of Zirabzani/Mokhberi (informant behavior) in Iran, analyzing how the Islamic Republic strategically reshapes public trust to normalize policing and surveillance as routine psychological features of everyday life, thereby controlling dissenting views. Through qualitative interviews with individuals coerced by various security and ideological institutions of the system, the study examines the dynamics of informant culture. The research seeks to develop an institutional-organizational taxonomy of informant behavior and analyze the ideological, cultural, psychological and organizational complexities surrounding everyday espionage among ordinary citizens in an authoritarian context. This exploration contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of fear and mistrust in repressive political systems and their effects on social cohesion, as well as the human costs of living under authoritarian regimes.
In the context of accelerated digital transformation, the protection of personal data has emerged as a critical legal and regulatory challenge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This article offers a critical assessment of the UAE legal framework governing personal data protection, with a primary focus on Federal Decree-Law No. (45) of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data. The analysis evaluates the effectiveness of legislative and regulatory mechanisms in ensuring data security, protecting individual rights, and addressing both civil and criminal liability arising from the misuse of personal data. Adopting a doctrinal and comparative legal methodology, the article examines the role of regulatory authorities in overseeing compliance and enforcement, while also assessing civil liability and compensation mechanisms available to individuals in cases of data breaches. The UAE framework is further benchmarked against selected international models, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to identify regulatory gaps and practical challenges. The article contributes to the existing literature by providing a critical evaluation of the UAE personal data protection regime and by proposing legal and institutional measures aimed at strengthening governance, accountability, and effective enforcement, while maintaining a balance between privacy protection and digital innovation.
This systematic review examines artificial intelligence-generated evidence in cybercrime investigations, analyzing peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2024 to identify key trends, challenges, and opportunities for using AI-generated evidence in criminal court proceedings. Following PRISMA guidelines, 20 articles were systematically selected and evaluated for methodological rigor, research design, and contribution to confidence assessment frameworks. While AI-generated evidence offers potential benefits for forensic efficiency and pattern recognition, significant challenges remain regarding user confidence, model transparency, and legal admissibility. Critical gaps exist in standardized confidence metrics, validation frameworks, and judicial acceptance protocols. This review provides researchers and practitioners with a foundational understanding of AI-generated evidence validation, reliability assessment, and legal admissibility standards while identifying essential directions for future research.
This study examined judicial decisions on cases of intimate partner violence that rapidly escalated to homicide. We collected information on cases involving repeated violence in the same couple. Survival analysis was performed, focusing on 51 cases involving the homicide of either the victim partner violence or someone close to them. The results suggested that instability in terms of the perpetrator’s unemployed status and non-marital relationship might be associated with increased risk of intimate partner violence rapidly leading to homicide. Individuals close to the victims of intimate partner violence are more likely to be killed when the perpetrators were aware of the availability of support. These findings provide insights that might be useful for preventing future homicides following intimate partner violence.
Utilizing the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), this in-depth case study explores the role of individual safety consciousness in an adversary recruitment process. The data stems from the legal proceedings of a criminal case in which Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) successfully recruited a trusted employee from a societal safety-oriented organization. Based on three CIT categories: (1) professional recruitment strategies, (2) safety consciousness in the recruitment process, and (3) change in behavior due to the recruitment process, we provide a conceptual model and typology of insider threats. Conceptualized through security violations as accidental neglective, self-motivated, and actor-driven insider threats, the results may help organizations delineate and target preventive efforts and draw on existing research.
Cybercrime presents increasing challenges to digital societies, yet population-level research on offenders remains limited, particularly in Sweden. This longitudinal study used national register data (2000–2022) to examine demographics of Swedish cybercrime offenders. Cybercrimes included online fraud, crimes against children, online threats, and other digital offenses. The proportion of offenders increased steadily over time, with men twice as likely as women to be involved. Most offenders were aged 20–39 and had low income and low educational attainment. Prior offline crime was common, suggesting overlapping criminal trajectories. Divorced and never-married individuals had higher odds of committing cybercrime. Socioeconomic profiles varied by offense type; child exploitation offenders were typically older with fewer offline crimes. Findings highlight the need for targeted interventions and further data to understand and prevent cyber-offending effectively.
Employees are a critical asset in private security-focused organizations, and their well-being is essential to organizational success. Life satisfaction—a key dimension of well-being—has important implications for both individual and organizational outcomes. The current preliminary study examined how two primary forms of organizational trust—supervisor trust and management trust—are directly associated with employee life satisfaction among staff at a private juvenile correctional facility. Survey data were collected from 157 staff members and analyzed with Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis. Results indicated that employees trust in their supervisor and their trust in management were significantly associated with higher levels of life satisfaction. Notably, the effect of management trust was more than twice as strong as that of supervisor trust. These findings suggest that enhancing organizational trust, particularly employee trust in management, may be an effective strategy for improving life satisfaction among staff in private correctional settings.
This study adds to the nascent literature examining cybercrime on Snapchat by providing prevalence estimates for victimization among adult Snapchat users and examining the factors associated with reporting such experiences. Using a cross-sectional survey (n = 631), the extent to which adult Snapchat users had experienced victimization arising from their voluntary self-disclosures, their self-disclosures being screenshot and shared with others without their consent and needing to involve law enforcement because others were monitoring their activities is explored. The findings indicate that nearly one-in-twenty (4.9
