Royal United Services Institute

Cyber criminals are broadening their efforts and expanding their strategic modus operandi to achieve higher value pay-outs from UK citizens, organisations and institutions. Even when key individuals responsible for the most damaging cyber criminal activities against the UK are identified, it is often difficult for the UK and international law enforcement agencies to prosecute them when they are located in jurisdictions with limited, or no, extradition arrangements.

BREXIT poses several challenges to UK-EU police cooperation. Both parts agree on the need to keep working together against serious and organised crime. However the modalities of this cooperation are still unclear. There is no precedent of non-EU or non-Schengen members to access the European police and criminal justice tools.

The UK will no longer be accountable to the EU’s judicial institutions. Neither will it be part of the adjudicatory oversight and judicial decisionmaking process. Brexit may also complicate intelligence-sharing.

Advanced data science technology presents new opportunities to more effectively analyse, understand and respond to the threats posed by organised crime. Recent research has highlighted the potential applications of such tools, but has also revealed a number of key barriers currently preventing law enforcement agencies from taking full advantage of these opportunities. Discussions have also increasingly focused on the ethical and legal challenges presented by the use of such technologies.

Preventing Organised Crime – European Approaches and Responses in Practice and Policy

This is the 9th conference of the EU-funded project ‘Research Network on Organised Crime 2017–2019’.  The conference will be hosted as the Annual Conference 2017 of RUSI’s Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research (SHOC). The event will bring together the Home Office, German Federal Police, Ministry of Justice in the Hague, Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention and Europol.

As part of RUSI’s Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research workshop series, this event will examine the potential impact of virtual currencies and Fintech platforms on the future of money laundering techniques.

Serious and Organised Crime is and always will be a fast-evolving threat. Serious and organised criminals continually seek to use new tactics, techniques and technology to identify means to exploit vulnerabilities and generate illicit profit. Our collective understanding of the nature of the threat to the UK has improved since the publication of the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy in 2013, although in some cases this has pointed to an underestimated level of resilience of organised crime networks, and to the breadth and sophistication of their activities.

This workshop will welcome panels of distinguished speakers to present and discuss some key considerations in addressing modern slavery in the UK, particularly focused on identifying victims, their susceptibility and vulnerability; and whether labour exploitation markets are organised or not.