Policing the Digital Void

This accessible book examines American law enforcement cybercrime investigations. Through semi-structured interviews with forty-seven cybercrime law enforcement investigators, it explores the characteristics of investigators, the development of cybercrime units and task force programs in the US, the processes involved in these investigations, and the culture of American cybercrime investigations. This includes how cybercrime investigators relate to police occupational culture, their perceptions of offenders and victims, and use of humor. It also considers the technological, economic, political, and cultural contexts that shape and structure cybercrime investigations, units, and task forces. It adopts a sociological approach to the study of cybercrime policing by tracing connections between the individual and organizational levels of analysis to the macro-structural. In other words, it situates cybercrime policing in the “big picture” of technological change, the political economic of internet platforms, the transformation of “force” in the internet age, and related matters. Finally, this book builds from this comprehensive analysis of American policing to discuss pathways forward by curating institutional and organizational policy suggestions to promote both effective and just cybercrime policing.

Kevin F. Steinmetz is Professor of Criminology at Kansas State University, USA.

Brian P. Schaefer is Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health and Information Sciences the University of Louisville, USA.

Don L. Kurtz is Professor of Social Work and the Head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Kansas State University, USA.