Forest ecosystems are among the world’s most productive land-based bioeconomies that sustain life by providing both food and non-food resources. However, they face significant threats from forest crimes, particularly illegal logging, leading to deforestation, fragmentation, and biodiversity loss. These impacts further exacerbate climate change and socio-economic challenges. This paper, based on a community survey of 1,111 households adjacent to 14 forest ecosystems, contributes to the study of forest crimes through a Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach. It investigates the key actors involved in illegal forest products markets in Kenya, examining their relationships and the processes driving these crimes. The analysis identifies individuals and small businesses as central actors in the forest crime network. The findings support the “enterprise model” and “social network theory” as effective frameworks for understanding, explaining, and predicting the dynamics of criminal networks and entrepreneurial activities within illegal forest products markets.
In recent decades, the logistics sector has come to play an increasingly central role in advanced economies. From agrifood to e-commerce, the logistics warehouse (or ‘fulfilment centre’) serves as an essential site for the circulation and distribution of goods and commodities within the ‘global factory’. At the same time, given its prominence within the contemporary economic system, the sector has also been a key site for evolving labour management regimes and the advancement of new forms workplace control: accelerated production norms, increasing digitalised surveillance, and labour deskilling through automation—with the aim of ever-increasing productivity and profit. For workers, however, these new forms of workplace control and surveillance may also translate into new forms of abuse, precarity, and social harm. Focusing on the Netherlands—a major ‘distribution country’ and one of the most important logistics hubs in Europe—this paper draws on ethnographic participant-observation conducted in the logistics sector. Through observation of the labour process and conditions on the work floor itself, it examines the nature of these new forms of workplace control and surveillance. Situating the analysis within the framework of a ‘criminology of work’, it examines their impact on workers by exploring how these labour management practices translate not only to more physically demanding and intensive working conditions, but also broader experiences of psychological stress, alienation, and dehumanisation for workers. These findings are situated within wider theoretical debates on emergent forms of labour management within the contemporary workplace.
South Africa’s correctional system has long struggled with high rates of repeat offending. Yet the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has operated without coherent, evidence-informed guidelines for defining or managing recidivism. This matter, without agreed definitions and measurement, is inconsistent; without clear policy guidance, program delivery is uneven; without shared data systems, the justice cluster cannot track what works. The present study addresses this gap through a two-phase qualitative design. Phase 1 drew on a scoping review of international recidivism management literature alongside semi-structured interviews with 29 purposively selected DCS personnel and external justice-sector stakeholders. Thematic analysis identified five critical areas of weakness: definitions, policy mandates, sentence planning processes, rehabilitation programming, and intergovernmental data-sharing. Building on these findings, Phase 2 used two consensus workshops: one with academic experts and a second with 30 multi-sector stakeholders at Goodwood Correctional Centre to refine and validate a set of draft guidelines. The process produced ten interlocking recommendations spanning definitional standards, a dedicated policy task team, RNR-based sentence management, mixed-modality rehabilitation, reformed visitation arrangements, employability pathways, wraparound community support, family mediation protocols, integrated information systems, and biometric identification. Across both workshop phases, one tension surfaced repeatedly: the pull between procedural precision and relational, human-centered support, and the need to assign ownership clearly enough that neither gets sacrificed for the other. The ten guidelines are structured into three implementation tiers: Tier 1 addressing definitions, policy, and training; Tier 2 covers programs, visitation, employment, and support networks; Tier 3 of the DCS implementation framework emphasises technology and digital systems to enhance recidivism management and to incorporate electronic tools for offender risk assessment, monitoring, and data administration, thereby enhancing the precision and efficacy of recidivism tracking. The objective is to establish a framework that DCS can effectively implement.
This study delves into the dynamics of collaboration within networks of professional money launderers known to the police in the Netherlands. Building on prior research, which revealed that financial facilitators aiding drug trafficking organizations can be linked in extensive collaborative networks, this study explores the factors influencing the formation of these ties. Using Dutch police registration data on 117 financial facilitators and applying Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs), the research identifies key personal and relational attributes and features of the overall collaboration network that explain tie formation. The findings reveal that financial facilitators who operate more business-like have a higher probability to form connections with other financial facilitators. Additionally, underground bankers seem to be more inclined to collaborate with other underground bankers in the Netherlands than with other types of financial facilitators. The study further suggests a trend toward the formation of triadic relationships over dyadic ones within these observed money laundering networks.
UK law allows the confiscation of wages as proceeds of crime, notably for ‘illegal working’ by undocumented migrants. This article explores the context for criminalising work and confiscating wages, and the arguments against confiscation. It suggests that the confiscation of wages is conceptually, morally, and pragmatically questionable. The justifications for wage confiscation reflect an understanding of work as a finite resource controlled by the state rather than an act or relationship. The arguments against the confiscation of wages reflect the relational and social aspects of work, including the economic necessity to work and work’s potential for coercion and exploitation on the one hand, and dignity and self-realisation on the other. The article further suggests that only when the performance of the job itself is harmful to others may wages be confiscated.
In recent years, scholars have called out the nefarious ways in which crimmigration practices—the day-to-day tactics that vet immigrants into the criminal justice system— have taken a toll on Latine communities in the interior parts of the United States. However, while most of this work has uncovered the impact on predominantly Mexican communities, very little is known about what happens to Salvadorans when gang enforcement becomes the dragnet to detain, deport, and deter Central American immigrants from local areas where their presence is strong. One such area is Long Island, New York, where Salvadorans’ experiences with anti-gang efforts show how they have become the collateral damage. In this article, I use qualitative data collected throughout Trump’s first term as president to argue that gang enforcement is weaponized against Salvadorans to expand the ‘crimmigration’ system. This leads to more ‘legal violence’—what Menjivar and Abrego (2012) conceptualized as a process of cumulative state-sanctioned precarities—and sustains a White Supremacist racial project (Provine Doty, 2011).
The diffusion of deepfake technology has reshaped the structure of online risks and posed new institutional demands on existing network security management obligations. From a risk-oriented perspective, this article constructs a quantitative model for assessing artificial intelligence misuse risks and employs simulation-based experiments to systematically analyse governance outcomes under different levels of management obligations. The findings indicate that response timeliness, institutionalized procedures, and evidence preservation play a decisive role in damage mitigation, while reliance on technical detection alone is insufficient to achieve effective governance. The simulation model assesses the four types of governance systems for deepfake misuse across different scenarios through 10,000 iterations of the simulation experiment. Based on the experimental results, the article proposes a risk-tiered configuration of network security management obligations, providing empirical support for judicial determinations of the duty of reasonable care and for policy-level collaborative governance.
This article examines how wartime mobility shapes trust in the police during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Existing scholarship has usually examined internally displaced persons, returnees, and non-displaced residents separately. We bring these trajectories into a single analytical frame and develop the concept of displacement-shaped legitimacy: the idea that police legitimacy is reconfigured through mobility, dependence on state institutions, visibility to public authority, and uneven exposure to insecurity. Drawing on open-ended responses from three waves of the Security and Trust Survey conducted in Kharkiv in 2022, 2023, and 2024, the article compares internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, and emplaced residents. The findings show that IDPs often report higher police trust, but this should not be read as straightforward institutional legitimacy. It reflects a more ambivalent form of functional trust produced by vulnerability, constrained choice, and reliance on visible state actors. By contrast, non-displaced residents' lower trust reflects cumulative exposure to insecurity and frustration with routine order maintenance under wartime strain. Returnees occupy an intermediate position, articulating increasingly concrete expectations of recovery, accountability, and normalised policing. The article contributes to police legitimacy theory by showing that legitimacy thresholds are not only procedurally produced but also spatially and temporally recalibrated through mobility. It also identifies practical and policy implications for civilian policing under prolonged emergency conditions.
Migration brings about substantial social and cultural changes, impacting both individuals and entire societies. As individuals are directly affected during the migration process, adaptation to a new social environment may complicate processes of social integration. Since 2011, the Middle East region has experienced significant political instability and conflict, resulting in a massive influx of Syrian migrants. This influx has posed complex administrative, economic, and social pressures associated with rapid demographic change and institutional capacity constraints for Türkiye. The findings indicate that, despite their demographic size, Syrian migrants do not exhibit disproportionately high levels of involvement in public order crimes. Their contribution to total recorded incidents remains limited, accounting for approximately 0.94
This study examines how multinational corporations strategically communicate their own corruption during criminal proceedings. Through qualitative content analysis, we analyze press releases and annual reports from 10 corporations convicted in Switzerland for organizational deficiencies in relation to bribery of foreign public officials between 2011 and 2023. Drawing on corporate decriminalization and symbolic compliance theory, we investigate corporate communication’s timing, framing strategies, and sequencing before, during, and after their criminal proceedings. Our results show that corporate communication is primarily reactive, driven by market regulations, media or public scrutiny, and judicial authority disclosures. We identify four distinct framing strategies employed by corporations to address their corruption cases: criminal frames acknowledging legal gravity while emphasizing compliance or cooperation, illegal frames downplaying severity by avoiding criminal terminology, managerial frames recasting corruption as technical mistakes, and righteous frames denying wrongdoing entirely. Companies initially minimize or deny corruption allegations, then acknowledge criminality when authorities announce conclusions from proceedings, before gradually returning to downplaying strategies. This dynamic framing serves reputation management while responding to stakeholder expectations and legal constraints. The study contributes to criminological theories of decriminalization and symbolic compliance by understanding, why and how, through their own communications, corporations systematically resist framing their misconduct in criminal terms and manage this resistance while navigating the institutional pressures of criminal proceedings.
This study examines the mediating role of trust in government in the relationship between perceptions of injustice, perceived corruption, perceived government performance, and tax compliance attitudes among Ghanaians. Utilizing Afrobarometer Round 9 data comprising 2,369 observations, the study employs a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to analyze these relationships. The constructs were measured using comprehensive multi-item scales. The findings reveal significant relationships between perceived corruption, perceived government performance, trust in government, and tax compliance attitudes in Ghana. Perceived corruption was found to negatively impact both tax compliance attitudes and trust in government, underscoring its detrimental effects on public confidence and tax morale. Conversely, perceived government performance positively influenced trust in government and tax compliance attitudes, highlighting the importance of effective and transparent governance in promoting compliance. Moreover, trust in government significantly mediated the relationship between perceived corruption and tax compliance attitudes but did not mediate the effects of perceived government performance or perceptions of injustice. These results underline the critical role of governance quality and public trust in shaping compliance behaviors. The study recommends that the government strengthens anti-corruption efforts by enhancing transparency, establishing robust public accountability systems, and regularly monitoring corruption perceptions. Additionally, improving service delivery and making government performance more visible through clear communication of achievements and resource allocation are essential. Finally, implementing fair tax administration processes and ensuring equitable public service distribution are crucial for fostering public trust and encouraging tax compliance.
This article examines how Romania’s post-communist reparations regime operates in practice through a case study of a civil damages pathway created for victims of communist-era political persecution and their heirs. The problem addressed is the gap between formal recognition of persecution and the uneven delivery of material and moral redress. The article focuses on a family subjected to the Bărăgan deportations, a campaign of forced internal displacement and dispossession carried out by the communist regime in the early 1950s. The case provides in-depth insight into reparations mechanisms, while its single-family focus limits generalizability. The article combines family archives and oral testimony with litigation files, first-instance and appeal judgments, and an illustrative model of forgone agricultural use. The case is used to examine how courts translate administrative persecution, dispossession, and long-term livelihood disruption into legally compensable categories. A brief comparison with Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland situates Romania’s court-centered model within broader post-communist redress designs. Using a four-part lens: retributive, restorative, distributive, and moral/symbolic justice, the analysis finds that courts can provide strong symbolic recognition while tying material compensation to narrowly documented assets. Long-horizon loss-of-use claims are constrained by the special-law character of the reparations framework and by strict proof requirements. Procedural delay, evidentiary fragmentation, and inter-court variation limit distributive consistency and weaken restorative effects. The article contributes a mechanism-focused account of how legal design and adjudication shape reparations and points to the need for clearer valuation guidance, streamlined procedures, and more consistent incorporation of victim testimony and public memory measures.
Sexualised violence typically refers to acts involving people who are non-consenting and/or underage or involving specifically prohibited activities (e.g., voyeurism). Non-human animals are rarely acknowledged as victims and are predominantly discussed in literature concerning human sexual preferences (e.g., zoophilia) or criminality (e.g., bestiality), with little attention to animal sexual assault (ASA) as a form of violence in its own right. This article seeks to address this gap by presenting the first systematic analysis of over a decade of court and media-reported ASA cases in England and Wales. Until April 2026 in England and Wales, ASA was narrowly defined in legislation as acts of bestiality or in the context of the possession of extreme pornography. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has changed the definition of ASA from ‘intercourse with an animal’ to include broader non-penetrative sexual offences with an animal using the terminology ‘sexual activity with an animal’. This study examines the nature of ASA offences, exploring the characteristics of victims, offenders, and offences. It highlights a wider range of victims than previously acknowledged, alongside the prevalence of animal pornography offences and male offenders, with notable involvement of older offenders and those in occupations of authority and trust, advancing understanding of ASA. Additionally, the study discusses systemic gaps in addressing ASA cases, identifying a potential lack of interest from police, prosecutors, courts, and media in the animal victim and highlighting the implications for criminal justice. The article concludes that this neglect reflects broader speciesist power structures in society, which normalise indifference toward animal sexual abuse, and harms both human and nonhuman victims.
In recent years, particularly since 2018, Ethiopia has experienced severe violent conflicts causing widespread atrocities, deaths, and mass displacement. These crises highlighted the urgent need for effective early warning and response systems. In response, researchers conducted a study to examine the challenges of conflict early warning and timely police response in selected conflict-affected areas of the country. The study employed a qualitative, exploratory design targeting officers and officials from the Ministry of Peace, federal and regional police, peace and security bureaus, and selected universities, including vice presidents for student affairs, campus police, and student councils. Using purposive sampling, a total of 39 interviews, 6 focus group discussions, and document analyses were conducted. The collected data were analyzed thematically. The study identified major challenges in the Conflict Early Warning System (CEWS), including weak structural integration, poor communication, limited cooperation, political interference, low leadership commitment, and shortages of technology and manpower. Similarly, timely police response was hindered by structural gaps, weak communication, political influence, lack of coordination, declining social peace values, inadequate technology and manpower, and insufficient reliable information for intervention. It is recommended to establish a clear and decentralized Conflict Early Warning System (CEWS) structure within institutions, with hotspot areas having dedicated CEW departments under police supervision. Effective conflict mitigation requires broad stakeholder participation, especially community engagement and collaboration with traditional peace actors. Regular awareness programs, security assessments, and continuous training for CEW personnel are essential, while integrating CEW education into higher learning institutions can further promote lasting national peace.
The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has emerged as a significant transnational crime, exacerbating biodiversity loss and undermining global conservation efforts. Malaysia functions as a central hub in the IWT network, with Vietnamese workers from Quang Binh province increasingly involved in wildlife trafficking operations. This study examines the socio-legal aspects of this issue and focuses on how social organizations can help prevent these violations. This research identifies critical legal gaps and enforcement challenges through an analysis of international treaties, wildlife protection laws in Malaysia and Vietnam, and qualitative field research involving 60 stakeholders in Quang Binh province. It further examines the socio-economic factors driving laborers into IWT and highlights inadequate legal awareness within existing training programs. The findings highlight the need to strengthen community engagement and capacity-building among professional associations, youth groups, and NGOs for preventive interventions. This research recommends a multi-stakeholder approach to improve legal enforcement, create targeted awareness campaigns, and enhance the role of social organizations in combating IWT.
This paper explores how the welfare state disciplines its population by shaping the conditions under which women participate in paid and unpaid labour, thereby influencing their economic dependence and social positioning. Drawing on a literature review and case-study analysis, we identify a framework that highlights the disciplining elements of welfare state practices and provisions, particularly in relation to reproductive labour, women, and migrant women, through a theoretical analysis of historical and contemporary welfare laws, policies and interventions. Our analysis identifies a three-step process through which the welfare state exercises control. First, the conditionality of welfare support subjects citizens to strict eligibility criteria, reinforcing exclusion and inequality. Second, welfare policing enables the surveillance and investigation of beneficiaries, fostering a system of distrust and suspicion. Third, punitivity manifests in penal measures imposed on those deemed non-compliant, resulting in financial sanctions and social harm. Through a case-study of the Dutch childcare benefits scandal, this paper demonstrates how this three-step process operates in practice. Thousands of families faced severe repercussions as a result of welfare state governance, illustrating how welfare policies commonly assumed to provide protection can instead function as instruments of coercion and social control.
Copyright enforcement in the age of digital platforms is a multi-jurisdictional dilemma for rights holders and access. Enforcement, awareness, and collaboration are acknowledged as vital, but to date, there is limited empirical research on how technology mediates these factors and impacts access outcomes, especially in multi-jurisdictional contexts. To investigate the impacts of enforcement strength, awareness, collaboration, and policy variation on access to copyright content, and specifically focused on the mediating role of technology adoption in transnational copyright enforcement. Survey data were collected from 300 participants in South China via Google Forms. The survey instrument included 25 items measured with a 5-point Likert scale covering awareness, enforcement, interaction, technology adoption, and access. Data were analyzed with SPSS descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and mediation analysis to test hypotheses (H1–H5) based on the theoretical framework, and prepared for embedded silo analysis building on prior research. The study found significant positive relationships between all variables. Technology adoption reported the strongest relationships with access (r = 0.402, p < 0.01), and technology adoption mediated the relationships for enforcement, awareness, collaboration, and policy variation with access (p < 0.05). This mediation occurs as enforcement strength is operationalized through specific technological mechanisms, including DRM systems that regulate lawful access, AI-based content monitoring that improves detection efficiency, and blockchain-based verification that enhances attribution and cross-jurisdictional rights recognition. These technologies convert regulatory enforcement into practical and measurable access outcomes in transnational digital environments. Overall, the study results indicate that enforcement and awareness are still necessary, although the effect of these factors is enhanced by technology, and determines how rights protection protects equitable public access in multi-jurisdictional enforcement contexts.
This paper examines the involvement process of youth in financial cybercrime, focusing on preexisting ties and offender convergence settings. Based on interviews with 25 experts, and analysis of five criminal cases, we find that preexisting offline ties remain the most crucial, especially for core group members and money mules. This persistence is likely because such ties foster trust, reducing perceived risks in co-offending. At the same time, virtual offender convergence settings—particularly social media platforms like Telegram groups—appear to be gaining significance. These virtual settings may lower the barrier to entry for financial cybercrime, enabling individuals with limited cybercrime knowledge to engage in illicit activities. In the end, this development may expand the offender pool, enabling more people to enter the cybercriminal world, emphasizing the need for interventions. We discuss theoretical implications, including the need to reconsider how offender convergence settings are conceptualized in digital contexts, and practical strategies to disrupt youth involvement in financial cybercrime.
Using a capabilities approach to examine access to protection and wage recovery avenues for (potential) victims of human trafficking for labour exploitation in Belgium and the Netherlands, this article assesses whether they constitute ‘genuine’ opportunities (Wolff and de-Shalit 2007) for exploited workers. Drawing on fieldwork, research reports, and scholarship, it finds that victims of exploitation—primarily migrant workers—face significant risks when seeking protection and wage recovery. The article highlights good practices and proposes measures to enhance effective access while mitigating risks. Given the global relevance of these challenges, the findings offer insights applicable beyond the two case studies.
This paper examines the intersections between corporate/organisational crime and labour exploitation, thereby contributing to a ‘criminology of work’ perspective by focusing on (i) the conceptualisation, (ii) organisation, and (iii) governance of labour exploitation. Labour exploitation encompasses a spectrum of practices, from severe violations related to modern slavery, to more ‘banal’ but widespread challenges such as underpayment and precarious employment. Framing these issues through a corporate crime lens highlights how systemic organisational factors, such as complex supply networks, fragmented oversight, and corporate cultures enable exploitation while limiting accountability. Focused primarily on the UK, the paper critiques the UK’s claim to a ‘world-leading’ response to modern slavery, arguing that despite policy advances, systemic organisational factors and fragmented governance continue to enable exploitation to develop in the context of legitimate markets. It explores conceptual overlaps, emphasising how both labour exploitation and corporate crime are obscured by a range of hidden practices and inadequate legal frameworks. By integrating insights from criminology and the multi-/inter-disciplinary topic area of labour exploitation, this paper argues for a broader framing of labour exploitation within corporate/organisational crime research. This approach critiques existing frameworks while providing insights into structural challenges. It provides a foundation for addressing key drivers of exploitation and enhancing regulatory and organisational responses that go beyond reactive measures to systemic reform.
