By Sarah Treves-Kagan, Yanet Ruvalcaba, Daniel T. Corry, et al.

Problem/Condition: In 2022, homicide was the second leading cause of death for Hispanic and Latino persons aged 15–24 years in the United States, the third leading cause of death for those aged 25–34 years, and the fourth leading cause of death for those aged 1–14 years. The majority of homicides of females, including among Hispanic and Latino persons, occur in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). This report summarizes data from CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) on IPV-related homicides of Hispanic and Latino persons in the United States.

Period Covered: 2003–2021.

Description of System: NVDRS collects data regarding violent deaths in the United States and links three sources: death certificates, coroner or medical examiner reports, and law enforcement reports. IPV-related homicides include both intimate partner homicides (IPHs) by current or former partners and homicides of corollary victims (e.g., children, family members, and new partners). Findings describe victim and suspect sex, age group, and race and ethnicity; method of injury; type of location where the homicide occurred; precipitating circumstances (i.e., events that contributed to the homicide); and other selected characteristics. Deaths related to each other (e.g., an ex-partner kills the former partner and their new partner) are linked into a single incident. State participation in NVDRS has expanded over time, and the number of states participating has varied by year; data from all available years (2003–2021) and U.S. jurisdictions (49 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia) were used for this report. Of the 49 states that collect data, all except California and Texas collect data statewide; Puerto Rico and District of Columbia data are jurisdiction wide. Florida was excluded because the data did not meet the completeness threshold for circumstances.

Results: NVDRS collected data on 24,581 homicides of Hispanic and Latino persons, and data from all available years (2003–2021) and U.S. jurisdictions (49 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia) were examined. Among homicides with known circumstances (n = 17,737), a total of 2,444 were classified as IPV-related (13.8%). Nearly half of female homicides (n = 1,453; 48.2%) and 6.7% (n = 991) of male homicides were IPV-related; however, among all Hispanic and Latino homicides, most victims were male (n = 20,627; 83.9%). Among the 2,319 IPV-related homicides with known suspects, 85% (n = 1,205) of suspects were current or former partners for female victims, compared with 26.2% (n = 236) for male Hispanic and Latino victims. Approximately one fifth (71 of 359 [19.8%]) of female IPV-related homicide victims of childbearing age with known pregnancy status were pregnant or ≤1 year postpartum. Approximately 5% of IPV-related homicide victims were identified as Black Hispanic or Latino persons (males: n = 67; 6.8%; females: n = 64; 4.4%). A firearm was used in the majority of Hispanic and Latino IPV-related homicides (males: n = 676; 68.2%; females: n = 766; 52.7%).

MMWR Surveill Summ, 2024, 20p.

By Isabel Meciar, Cheneal Puljević, Alice Holland, Coral Gartner

Australian survey and seizure data suggest a growing illicit tobacco market. As an illicit product, accurately tracking trends in illicit tobacco growing, manufacture, and sales is challenging. We examined trends in Australian illicit tobacco-related crimes using a content analysis of news articles.

Aims and Methods

We analyzed Australian news articles identified in the Factiva database and government press releases describing Australian illicit tobacco-related crimes reported between January 2000 and December 2023. Sources were coded for crime type, location, product type, dollar value of seized products, methods of distribution or storage, agencies involved, and other crimes involved.

Results

We identified 447 crimes reported in 389 sources. The number of illicit tobacco-related crimes reported increased between 2000 and 2023. The most common crimes were possession of illicit tobacco (n = 196/43.7%) and smuggling (n = 187/41.8%), and the most common product type was “illicit cigarettes” (n = 197/44.1%). The most common distribution/storage method reported was via residential premises (n = 98/21.9%). One-hundred and twenty incidents involved other crimes such as financial crimes involving money laundering (n = 59/13.2%). Across all included news articles, the quantity of seized products totaled 827 529 307 cigarette sticks, 76 185 cartons, 668 687 packs, 239 hectares (of land growing tobacco plants), and 2 149 000 plants of illicit tobacco between 2000 and 2023. The median value (worth; AUD) of each seizure was $1 500 000 (range $43 to $67 000 000).

Conclusions

Australian media reporting on illicit tobacco-related crimes increased over the past two decades, particularly since 2018. These findings highlight a need for improved border detection measures, investment in enforcement, and other deterrent activities.

Implications

This media analysis complements trends identified in national survey data that indicate a growing illicit tobacco market in Australia since 2013 with a marked increase since 2018. While survey data suggests that the Australian tobacco tax policy, which has included regular large tax increases since 2010, has decreased consumer demand for tobacco overall, it may have also incentivized criminal networks to supply illicit tobacco products due to it being a “low risk” and “high reward” activity. Controlling the Australian illicit tobacco market should be a policy priority.

Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 26 October 2024, 8 pages

By Melanie Altanian

The injustice of genocide denial is commonly understood as a violation of the dignity of victims, survivors, and their descendants, and further described as an assault on truth and memory. This book rethinks the normative relationship between dignity, truth, and memory in relation to genocide denial by adopting the framework of epistemic injustice. This framework performs two functions. First, it introduces constructive normative vocabulary into genocide scholarship through which we can gain a better understanding of the normative impacts of genocide denial when it is institutionalized and systematic. Second, it develops and enriches current scholarship on epistemic injustice with a further, underexplored case study. Genocide denialism is relevant for political and social epistemology, as it presents a substantive epistemic practice that distorts normativity and social reality in ways that maintain domination. This generates pervasive ignorance that makes denial rather than recognition of genocide appear as the morally and epistemically right thing to do. By focusing on the prominent case of Turkey’s denialism of the Armenian genocide, the book shows the serious consequences of this kind of epistemic injustice for the victim group and society as a whole. The Epistemic Injustice of Genocide Denialism will appeal to students and scholars working in social, political, and applied epistemology, social and political philosophy, genocide studies, Armenian studies, and memory studies.

London; New York: Routledge, 2024. 194p.

By Stefano De Luca with Tristan Marcelin; Graphics: Samy Chahr

By the 2030s, quantum computers might compromise traditional cryptography, putting digital infrastructure at high risk in the European Union (EU) and around the world. Specifically, it is expected that quantum computers' unique capabilities will allow them to solve complex mathematical problems, such as breaking the traditional cryptographic systems used universally. The confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of sensitive data – including health, financial, security and defence information – will be exposed to threats from any actor possessing a sufficiently powerful quantum computer. There is a pressing need for the EU to start preparing its digital assets to face this risk. Post-quantum cryptography (which uses classical computer properties) and quantum cryptography (which uses quantum mechanical properties) are the two types of critical technology able to protect digital infrastructure from quantum computer attacks. Robust post-quantum cryptography algorithms have been identified, but swift and efficient implementation is crucial before malicious actors exploit the power of quantum computers. Experts stress the need for quantum preparedness to be put in place now, with some of them even warning of a 'quantum cybersecurity Armageddon'. Several countries are adopting strategies to address post-quantum cryptography. The EU is working with Member States and the United States to speed up the transition to post-quantum cryptography, and is also exploring long-term quantum cryptography initiatives.

Brussels: EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service, 2024. 8p.

Environmental crime is a serious and growing international issue, which takes many different forms and impacts origin, source, transit and consumer countries. Broadly speaking, environmental crime is a collective term for “illegal activities harming the environment and aimed at benefiting certain individuals, groups or companies through the exploitation and theft of, or trade in natural resources”. This crime area includes corporate crime in the forestry sector, illegal exploitation and sale of gold and minerals, illegal fishing and associated criminal activities in the fisheries’ sector, trafficking in hazardous waste and chemicals, the illegal exploitation of the world’s wild flora and fauna, and wealth generated illegally from natural resources being used to support non-state armed groups and terrorism. Environmental crime is low-risk and high profit for criminals. This crime area has been recently defined as the third largest criminal sector worldwide, after drugs, counterfeit goods and trafficking. In terms of economic loss, just illegal logging, fishing and wildlife trade have an estimated value of $1 trillion or more per year.  Although “illegal mining” has no universal definition, INTERPOL defines it as an umbrella term covering both illegal extraction and trade of minerals, including the illegal use of toxic chemicals (such as cyanide and mercury) in mining activities. Illegal mining has evolved into an endemic and lucrative enterprise in several regions across the globe, with seriously damaging consequences in terms of: • Socio-economic development, due to the high profits generated from illicit assets of approximately 12-48 billion USD per year,5 undermining government revenues; • Peace and stability, as terrorist organizations, armed rebel groups and drug cartels use the sector as both a funding source and a money laundering enabler. In conflict regions, the mining sites are controlled by Organized Crime Groups and have become hotspots for widespread violence; • Human rights in vulnerable communities, who are exposed to i) human trafficking, forced labor, child and women abuse/ exploitation and pervasive (sexual) violence; ii) health issues for local miners and adjacent communities - caused by the chemical substances and environmental-; and iii) human displacements to facilitate the business; and • The environment. Illegal mining causes water and land poisoning via the release of toxic chemicals (e.g. mercury, arsenic, and cyanide), as well illegal deforestation, biodiversity and habitat loss, erosion, sinkholes, and atmospheric carbon emissions. The subsequent illegal trade of gems and precious metals, coupled with corruption and money laundering, is often perpetrated by organized crime. The criminal groups operating in the illegal mining sector are also often involved in other crime areas. These criminal activities pose major threats to global supply chains, the rule of law and sustainable development. Tackling criminal activities in the mining sector requires an international and coordinated policing response  

Paria: INTERPOL, 2022.   20p.

By Noor Huda Ismail

Online radicalization is a complex issue characterized by the different roles of digital propagandists and potential perpetrators, as highlighted by the recent security threats surrounding the Pope's visit to Indonesia. To combat this threat effectively, we need to prioritize real-time monitoring and interdisciplinary collaboration, utilizing AI tools to analyze and mitigate extremist content while advocating targeted interventions instead of punitive measures. Addressing radicalization necessitates collective societal action and a significant investment of relevant resources.

S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU Singapore, 2024. 4p.

By Hannah E. Meyers, Ilya Shapiro, Tim Rosenberger

 Just as Ku Klux Klan members used white hoods to conceal their identities and terrorize their targets, modern activists are using keffiyehs, Guy Fawkes masks, balaclavas, and other inherently intimidating face coverings. Indeed, face-masking is pervasive among participants in demonstrations that are growing in frequency and disruptiveness. Most recently, the pro-Hamas “protests” that have proliferated across college campuses and city streets involve activists who cover their faces explicitly to make it impossible to determine who is engaged in violence, intimidation, and property destruction. Just as masks emboldened KKK activity a century ago, they are a central feature in the 360% surge in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s attack on Israel last year. New York City experienced about 2,000 protests in the half-year following October 7—including incidents involving more than 10,000 participants illegally blocking bridges and major infrastructure. Cities across the country seem to be struggling to maintain order and check the growing number of attacks associated with these events on Jewish-owned businesses and other institutions  There is an obvious and simple answer to protesters’ growing aggressiveness, an answer that proved effective against their forebears in the KKK: denying intimidating and violent protesters the right to conceal their identities via face coverings. Hamas supporters, Antifa, Patriot Front, and others act boldly so long as they can remain anonymous. Stripped of this anonymity and the intimidating power of the keffiyeh and black bandanna, they will be far less likely to engage in criminal behavior

New York: The Manhattan Institute, 2024. 5p.

By The Alliance for Youth Justice

Developed through consultation with our members and informed by evidence from children and young people,1 this briefing sets the youth justice agenda for the incoming government. We present the changes new Ministers must prioritize to work towards a society that promotes social justice and enables all children to reach their full potential. The incoming government must be ambitious about reimagining what ‘justice’ means for children, to achieve a safeguarding response to children at risk, promote racial justice, and ensure the use of custody is a last resort. Only then will the costly cycle of harm and offending be stopped, enabling all children to thrive. • A change in oversight and accountability is required to ensure children in or at risk of involvement in the justice system are treated as children. • Resources should be invested in local communities to support their children and aid prevention and desistance from crime, rather than in costly crisis intervention and punitive responses. • Clear strategies are needed to drive policy and practice change to keep children safe, end the imprisonment of children, and target and tackle racial disparities. This briefing provides a short overview of the issues and solutions to them, and we offer our ongoing support in further developing these much-needed reforms through engagement with our expert members.  

London: The Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ): 2024. 32p.   

Edited by Maya Avis, Daniel Marciniak and Maria Sapignoli   

Recent discussions on big data surveillance and artificial intelligence in governance have opened up an opportunity to think about the role of technology in the production of the knowledge states use to govern. The contributions in this volume examine the socio-technical assemblages that underpin the surveillance carried out by criminal justice institutions – particularly the digital tools that form the engine room of modern state bureaucracies. Drawing on ethnographic research in contexts from across the globe, the contributions to this volume engage with technology’s promises of transformation, scrutinise established ways of thinking that become embedded through technologies, critically consider the dynamics that shape the political economy driving the expansion of security technologies, and examine how those at the margins navigate experiences of surveillance. The book is intended for an interdisciplinary academic audience interested in ethnographic approaches to the study of surveillance technologies in policing and justice. Concrete case studies provide students, practitioners, and activists from a broad range of backgrounds with nuanced entry points to the debate.

London; New York: Routledge, 2025. 201p.

By Keenan, Marie and Zinsstag, Estelle

This book examines the degree to which restorative justice can contribute to a more enhanced justice response than that currently offered by criminal legal approaches alone, to victims, offenders, and their communities in cases of sexual crime. Concerned by the high attrition rates for sexual crime and the secondary victimization reported in victim accounts, annual reports from court and prosecutor services, and the empirical literature, the book analyses the extent to which restorative justice can address the justice gap that exists in current justice provision. Building on clinical experience and earlier research on sexual crime the researchers engage with the complex dynamics and traumatic impact of sexual violence as a critical starting point for their research and examine whether restorative justice can be appropriate for this crime too. The book presents extensive new data on restorative justice as applied in sexual violence cases across the globe. It engages with feminist concerns regarding the traumatic impact of sexual violence and the potential for re-traumatization; the power imbalances that characterize these offenses and the potential for re-victimization; the potential for coercion of the victim to participate in the process; the potential for manipulation of restorative justice by the offender; and the potential that restorative justice could lead to the reprivatization of sexual crime and ultimately to its decriminalization. Having examined these topics in detail the book concludes there is an important role for restorative justice as a victim-centred service in addressing the justice gap that exists after sexual crime and offers guidance on how this can be achieved.

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2022. 417p.

By Dan Cooke, Angus Marshall

Money laundering and video games provide opportunities to criminals for easier and less detectable methods of performing money laundering. These actions may be used as part of a system of transactions, by these criminals, to further disguise the origins of their funds. The use of videogames as a tool to launder money is something that has been only briefly explored. This work identifies the ways that money laundering through video game secondary marketplaces can offer benefits to criminals looking to launder money, versus the use of traditional money laundering methods. We explore the potential for using publicly accessible data, such as that available from the Steam Marketplace, to identify suspicious transactions that may indicate the existence of money laundering within these platforms. This research focused on identifying irregularities in the frequency and quantity of trades on the Steam Marketplace. The results of this investigation show that identifying, using very simple money laundering detection methods, possible cases of money laundering within transactional data from the Steam Marketplace is possible. The data used shows that there were several suspicious transactions and accounts that could warrant further investigation and may be involved in activity that represents money laundering. As a result of this, there is scope for further investigations using larger data sets and examination of other publicly accessible data using a greater range of methods to identify suspicious transactions including, but not limited to, the value of transactions and location. 

Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, Volume 50, September 2024, 301802