Understanding the Journeys of Online Crime Victims Through Law Enforcement in Britain

Many rely on digital technology and online services to conduct their lives and businesses. However, digital technology has broadened online crime (the term here denotes cybercrime and fraud), enabling transnational offending. Reported fraud and computer misuse offences continuously rise in the UK despite being under-reported, and total recorded crime falling. The situation for those falling victim to online crime is bleak; victims approach different organisations for help and advice and rarely receive the assistance they need. This paper concerns the journeys taken by victims of online crime when approaching Britain’s law enforcement. Adopting an exploratory methodology, the research maps organisations, processes and connections between organisations supporting victims. The mapping process and the resulting data displays illustrate the journeys that online crime victims take and how law enforcement supports victims. Snowball sampling was used to recruit 46 participants involved with victims of online crime (23 in British law enforcement). Through semi-structured interviews and analysing official documents and reports, the research uncovered the roles and connections between specialist law enforcement units supporting online crime victims. The research found broken systems in law enforcement−Action Fraud, a lack of access to data across forces/regions and a lack of knowledge. There is under-reporting of online crime, and victims take different journeys through law enforcement depending on whether they are victims of cyber-dependent or cyber-enabled crimes. While Action Fraud’s reporting systems are outdated and victims rarely report online crimes, this has in part led to resources being allocated to the most reported (rather than most prevalent) crimes. Victims take different journeys through law enforcement, even as victims of the same events. Victims of fraud (and other cyber-enabled crimes) rarely receive assistance, whereas victims of cyber-dependent crimes are always contacted. Team Cyber is a law enforcement structure dedicated to tackling cyber-dependent crime, which is not replicated for fraud.