European Youth Cybercrime, Online Harm and Online Risk Taking: 2022 Research Report

Researching cybercriminality to design new methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate cybercriminal behaviour. This is one of the largest studies to date exploring youth cybercriminality. The survey is informed by 5 key disciplines: cyberpsychology, criminology, psychology, neuroscience, and digital anthropology Results confirm that cybercrime and cyberdeviance is prevalent-survey finds that two thirds (69%) of European youth self-report to have committed at least one form of cybercrime or online harm or risk taking, and just under half 47.76% (N=3808) report to have engaged in criminal behaviour online, from summer of 2020 to the summer of 2021 Survey finds that males are more likely (74%) than females (65%) to self-report having been involved in at least one form of cybercrime or online harm or risk taking in the last year and results confirm that the majority of cybercrime and cyberdeviant behaviours are gendered. Survey analysis demonstrates that cybercriminal and online harm or risk taking behaviours form a cluster of 11 behaviours that are highly interrelated (CcCd-Cluster) and that cybercrime and online harm or risk taking behaviours represent a spectrum (CcCd-Spectrum) A significant shift from a siloed, categorical approach is needed in terms of how cybercrimes are conceptualised, investigated, and legislated

CC-DRIVER Policy Brief No. 8: European Youth Survey

This policy brief contains key findings from the CC-DRIVER 2021 European Youth Survey and corresponding conclusions. This brief is designed for all professionals working within the area of cybercrime and key stakeholders, including LEAs, Academics, Criminal Justice, Policy Makers, and Educators. The lack of clarity surrounding the term cybercrime has significant impact on society, cybercrime policy, legal intervention, and academic research. No single classification system fully encapsulated cybercrime concepts or accurately reflected the nebulous nature of cybercrime acts. There is remaining ambiguity as to what exactly constitutes a cybercrime, and it is likely that a clear conceptualisation of cybercrime will continue to be challenged. This review presents key cybercrime definitions, categorisations of cybercrime and typologies of cybercrime. This review presents a new framework with which to conceptualise cybercrime

Research on Protection of Minors: A literature Review and Interconnected Frameworks Implications for VSP Regulation and Beyond

Ofcom commissioned the Institute for Connected Communities at the University of East London (UEL) to conduct this research in order to help inform VSP guidance. The particular areas of interest identified by Ofcom were:Which risks of harm are most prevalent among minors on VSPs (considering both quantitative and qualitative evidence)? How do these harms manifest on VSPs? Are different VSP characteristics relevant to protecting users from harms

Radar Imaging of Volcanic Fields and Sand Dune Fields: Implications for VOIR

A number of volcanic fields and sand dune fields in the western part of North America were studied using aircraft and Seasat synthetic aperture radar images and LANDSAT images. The capability of radars with different characteristics (i.e., frequency, polarization and look angles was assessed to identify and map different volcanic features, lava flows and sand dune types. It was concluded that: (1) volcanic features which have a relatively large topographic expression (i.e., cinder cones, collapse craters, calderas, etc.) are easily identified; (2) lava flows of different ages can be identified, particularly on the L-band images; and (3) sand dunes are clearly observed and their extent and large scale geometric characteristics determined, provided the proper imaging geometry exists

Intention to Hack? Applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Youth Criminal Hacking

Adolescents are currently the most digitally connected generation in history. There is an ever-growing need to understand how typical adolescent risk-taking intersects with the vastly criminogenic potential of digital technology. Criminal hacking in older adolescents (16–19-year-olds) was assessed using an adapted Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model, a cohesive theoretical framework that incorporates cognitive processes and human drivers (informed by psychology, cyberpsychology, and criminology theory). In 2021, a large-scale anonymous online survey was conducted across nine European countries. Criminal hacking was assessed using data from 3985 participants (M = 1895, 47.55%; F = 1968, 49.39%). This study formulated a powerful predictive model of youth hacking intention (accounting for 38.8% of the variance) and behaviour (accounting for 33.6% of the variance). A significant minority, approximately one in six (16.34%), were found to have engaged in hacking, and approximately 2% reported engaging in hacking often or very often. Increased age, being male, and offline deviant behaviour were significant predictors of hacking behaviour. In line with the TPB, intention was the strongest individual predictor of hacking behaviour, which in turn was significantly predicted by cognitive processes accounted for by TPB constructs: subjective norms of family and peers, attitudes towards hacking, and perceived behavioural control. These TPB constructs were found to be significantly associated with human factors of risk-taking, toxic online disinhibition, offline deviant behaviour, and demographic variables of age and gender. Implications for future research, interventions, policy, and practice are discussed

Inferring the properties of a population of compact binaries in presence of selection effects

Shortly after a new class of objects is discovered, the attention shifts from the properties of the individual sources to the question of their origin: do all sources come from the same underlying population, or several populations are required? What are the properties of these populations? As the detection of gravitational waves is becoming routine and the size of the event catalog increases, finer and finer details of the astrophysical distribution of compact binaries are now within our grasp. This Chapter presents a pedagogical introduction to the main statistical tool required for these analyses: hierarchical Bayesian inference in the presence of selection effects. All key equations are obtained from first principles, followed by two examples of increasing complexity. Although many remarks made in this Chapter refer to gravitational-wave astronomy, the write-up is generic enough to be useful to researchers and graduate students from other fields.Comment: 57 pages. Chapter of "Handbook of Gravitational Wave Astronomy" (Eds. C. Bambi, S. Katsanevas and K. Kokkotas; Springer Singapore, 2021). Updated and revised w.r.t. v1. Includes new section (5.2). v2. adds back the glossary, that was lost in previous versio

The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-Up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo

We anticipate the first direct detections of gravitational waves (GWs) with Advanced LIGO and Virgo later this decade. Though this groundbreaking technical achievement will be its own reward, a still greater prize could be observations of compact binary mergers in both gravitational and electromagnetic channels simultaneously. During Advanced LIGO and Virgo's first two years of operation, 2015 through 2016, we expect the global GW detector array to improve in sensitivity and livetime and expand from two to three detectors. We model the detection rate and the sky localization accuracy for binary neutron star (BNS) mergers across this transition. We have analyzed a large, astrophysically motivated source population using real-time detection and sky localization codes and higher-latency parameter estimation codes that have been expressly built for operation in the Advanced LIGO/Virgo era. We show that for most BNS events the rapid sky localization, available about a minute after a detection, is as accurate as the full parameter estimation. We demonstrate that Advanced Virgo will play an important role in sky localization, even though it is anticipated to come online with only one-third as much sensitivity as the Advanced LIGO detectors. We find that the median 90% confidence region shrinks from ~500 square degrees in 2015 to ~200 square degrees in 2016. A few distinct scenarios for the first LIGO/Virgo detections emerge from our simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. For accompanying data, see http://www.ligo.org/scientists/first2year