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With society becoming increasingly digital, new opportunities are afforded to potential offenders to weaponize digital features and affordances to carry out their crimes. As a result, concerns persist over online forms of crime, particularly cybercrime involving sexual exploitation, and what can be done about them. Drawing on interview and focus group data collected from 70 sex crime investigators from police service organizations across Canada, we uncover police perspectives on online sex-based crime. We demonstrate that police perceive online crimes to not necessarily be new forms of crime, but rather altered by digital media in terms of methods and weapons being used. We focus on uncovering the features and affordances police identify as contributing to the increase in crime itself as well as the creation of greater opportunities for crime to occur. In addition, resulting from crime shifting into digital spaces, we uncover the challenges digital media has presented for police in terms of how they handle, respond to, and investigate online crime. We discuss these challenges and their impact on policing and provide solutions for combatting them moving forward. Overall, this article contributes to the current body of literature investigating online crime and policing in the digital age by drawing on the theoretical framework of affordances and offering police perspectives on online sex-based crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement of the Internet and digital technology has enabled individuals to commit crimes affecting both virtual and real targets at will. Criminological scholarship related to cybercrime and technology-enabled offending has primarily focused on offenders and victims, calling to question how police agencies effectively respond to these incidents. Limited empirical research has largely focused on line officers, who view these cyber offenses to be less serious in comparison to traditional crimes. Research examining the perceptions of detectives and inspectors is virtually nonexistent, though they are much more likely to have an investigative responsibility to pursue offenders and engage with citizens about the offense. Thus, there is a need to understand the attitudes inspectors hold toward online crime in order to improve our knowledge of police views and inform policy makers in building effective strategies to aid their response to unique and emerging crime types. This study examined the attitudinal factors associated with online crimes and incidents using a sample of 155 inspectors from 26 local agencies across England and Wales. The implications of this study for both police detectives and law enforcement agencies are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central question of this article is: To what extent and how do the needs of victims of cybercrime deviate from the needs of victims of traditional offline offenses? In total, 19 victims and 22 experts were interviewed. Our study shows that victims of online offenses have the same needs as victims of traditional offenses: ranging from emotional or financial needs to information needs. However, victims' needs are often not met. Victims state that in most cases, they are not acknowledged as a victim, that no statement is recorded by the police, or no investigation is started. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the perceptions of police constables and sergeants across England and Wales regarding the nature of cybercrimes, their frequency, and any time spent investigating these offences each week. Though previous research has examined line officer views and police management in the US, there is limited research examining how constables view online crimes as they are being directed to address them through national policy, and through local demands from the citizens they serve. The results demonstrated that constables engaged with online offences in the field, though they differ on the nature of online crimes and their impact on the general public. They also viewed online crimes as frequent problems, though they spend a relatively small proportion of their time each week responding to these cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]