How social media can facilitate, monitor and discourage crime and recruitment into organised crime groups.

Background

Crimes such as homicide and theft, and drugs such as heroin and cocaine have always been of public concern, and there has been a recent focus on areas such as child sexual abuse, modern slavery, new psychoactive substances, online fraud, and online indecent images of children.

Next steps

Get in touch with research@homeoffice.gov.uk

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Areas of research interest relevant to the Home Office GOVUK

Related UKRI funded projects

  • CybercrimeNLP (CC-NLP): A natural language processing toolkit for the interdisciplinary analysis of underground online forums

    Online and electronic crime now account for about half of all property crime, in all countries for which we have good victimisation data. A significant number of other offences, including harassment, also happen online. ...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on studying online crime and understanding how young people get drawn into crime, which is relevant to the question of how social media can facilitate and discourage crime and recruitment into organized crime groups.

  • How Online Technologies are Transforming Transnational Organised Crime (Cyber-TNOC)

    The role of online technologies in organised crime is growing, as it is in wider society. Traditionally, organised criminals would threaten or (in the UK) much less often resort to the use of violence and intimidation to...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project specifically addresses the role of online technologies in facilitating organized crime, which is directly related to the question.

  • Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research

    In December 2014, RUSI launched a Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research to develop a world class research agenda that meets the needs of policymakers. With the support of government agencies and Research Councils UK...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on bridging the gap between academic research on organized crime and the needs of policymakers, but does not directly address the question of how social media can facilitate and discourage crime and recruitment into organized crime groups.

  • Tracking Covid Cybercrime and Abuse

    Around half of all acquisitive crime was already online before the start of the pandemic; it is now surging as many human activities move online chaotically, and cybercriminals adapt to the opportunities. This project wi...

    Funded by: COVID

  • Ethical and Privacy-preserving Big Data platform for Supporting criminal investigations

    This proposal aims to develop an innovative and privacy-preserving decision-support system for European law enforcement authorities, leveraging advanced Big Data and AI technologies to effectively combat crimes and terro...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

  • SMS Africa: Social Media and Security in Africa

    The project aims to provide a timely understanding of the role social media plays in documenting and driving (in)security in East and West Africa. As more people connect to social media in Africa, their expectations for ...

    Funded by: ESRC

  • Assuming Identities Online: description, development and ethical implications.

    Preventive policing of serious crime sometimes involves deception and disguise. A case in point is the prevention of abuse arising from paedophile grooming and peer to peer networks where abuse images of children are dis...

    Funded by: ESRC

Similar ARIs from other organisations

Crime, Prevention & Specific Crime Types - Human Trafficking and Exploitation How do social media and technology facilitate child criminal exploitation, and what are the implications for prevention and intervention? Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services, 2025
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