Law enforcement and disruption of offline and online activities : a review of comptemporary challenges

Abstract

The digital world represents a new frontier for law enforcement operations. The virtual nature of online communications creates challenges regarding legal frameworks and sovereignty that are exacerbated by the inherent context of the digital world, the current state of policing expertise and resources and the detection and reporting rates of cybercrimes. This book chapter presents an informed review of the current state of ‘what works’ in policing both offline and online, providing at each step the context needed to understand how new technologies impact police operations. Our conclusion suggests that new models of policing are indeed needed to effectively police the digital world and that cooperation through nodal governance could improve the ability of police agencies to regulate cyberoffenders.