Output details

Drifting on and off-line: humanising the cyber criminal

Significance of output:

The National Deviancy Conference was formed in 1968 at York University. York hosted 13 of the 14 symposia and conferences held between 1968 and 1973. The books that appeared after the original conferences are now regarded as classic collections that contained the work of criminologists who are now central figures in the field. This new project represents a significant contribution to the revitalisation of a classic project in critical criminology and it is very exciting to be invited to contribute to the first new collection for 38 years.

Research content/process:

Our interest is on those who engage in the practice of carding, the trade in stolen and false credit cards. Very little academic research has been conducted on this activity (for exceptions to this see Jewkes 2002; 2011; Maguire 2007; Wall 2007; 2008; 2010; Yar 2005; 2006). No one has yet used online forums as a dataset to understand the activity from a criminological perspective. We have been granted exclusive access by the Serious Organised Crime Agency to use forums taken down in raids by them and other law enforcement agencies. Most work in this area derives from law enforcement, journalism, computer science or the security industry. The most in-depth study so far is by journalist Misha Glenny on the creation of several of the early discussion forums such as Dark Market and Cardersplanet (2011). Glenny’s book is an example of what can be achieved by good journalism in an era when the profession is under fire, for ironically widespread hacking of phones and other nefarious trade crafts. However, Glenny’s book did not have access to the kind of data that we have, namely the forums that were set up to allow carders and other cyber criminals to engage in communication and, most important of all, business.