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Abstract

This research analyses the perspective of UK law enforcement professionals that manage, oversee, or advise on cryptocurrency investigations within their organisation. Interviews with Detective Sergeants and Detective Inspectors from UK police forces and Regional Organised Crime Units provide a primary source for research that aims to examine the UK’s law enforcement response to cryptocurrency and crime. The research begins with a review of the existing literature around cryptocurrency and criminality, such as the scale and types of crime it is linked to. The review presents cryptocurrency as an additional complexity to the current economic crime problem due to the similarities in crime types and issues faced in responding to it. Although the review finds that cryptocurrency exchanges and know your customer checks are mentioned regularly in the literature, there is little if any research on the interaction between the exchanges and law enforcement. The response from the participants mirrors previous research on the causes of the economic crime problem. The results are thematically discussed, finding that; cryptocurrency is now prevalent across all areas of criminality, there is a belief among those investigating it that its use will only increase and all financial investigations will soon have a cryptocurrency aspect; there is a lack of interest from police officers in moving to these roles and an inability to retain the staff that do get trained in this area; and finally, there is a larger than normal interaction with private sector partners in investigations, but an inconsistent response from exchanges for requests for information.

Course: Criminal Justice - MSc - C2681F

Date Deposited: 2024-11-21

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14569.html