What are the dynamics of online marketplaces and forums that support or undermine the criminal economic ecosystem?
Background
Alongside the more specific categories for further research, there are some cross-cutting themes where the research questions and gaps are relevant across economic crime as a whole.
This includes how best to understand and respond to the threat as technology develops quickly. For example, how might this technology development influence the response required. There are also gaps in the best research methods to understand economic crime as a whole; for example, around best identification and utilisation of suitable data sources.
Finally, horizon scanning is crucial to maintaining sight of how the threat may evolve and how best to prepare for mitigating that in the future.
Next steps
Get in touch with NECC-IF-Research@nca.gov.uk EconomicCrimeResearch@homeoffice.gov.uk
Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Economic Crime Areas of Research Interest ARI report July 2025 1
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Related UKRI funded projects
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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 dynamics of online marketplaces and forums in relation to criminal economic ecosystems.
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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 natural language processing for analyzing underground online forums, which is related to criminal activities but does not directly address the dynamics of online marketplaces in the criminal economic ecosystem.
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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 understanding organised crime, which is a part of the criminal economic ecosystem, but does not specifically address online marketplaces and forums.