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Under the common law ‘identification principle’ criminal fault can only be attributed to a corporation if a sufficiently senior individual, typically a director, is guilty of the offence in question. This is problematic in itself given the typically complex and decentralised organisational structures of large companies. However, it is particularly ill-suited to address instances of pervasive and systemic corporate fraud, such as may have been evidenced in the recent widespread mis-selling scandals. In response to the difficulties associated with the ‘identification principle’, various alternative approaches have been mooted. Whilst the realist nature of organisations is now widely acknowledged, proposals for reform implicitly perceive the need to prove criminal mens rea as problematic and therefore construct an altogether different basis of fault, such as negligence or the ‘failure to prevent’ model. However, whereas the negligence-type model fails to express adequately the deceptive nature of fraud, the ‘failure to prevent’ construct is equally ill-suited in that fraud is peculiar, it is not an activity in itself but the way in which an activity is performed. This thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by identifying the legal principles and evidential mechanisms through which mens rea can be attributed directly to an organisation such that a corporate prosecution under the Fraud Act 2006 can be sustained without the need to identify individual criminality. Further, the proposed return to a manifest approach to fault attribution does not disturb the actus reus/mens rea construct of criminality and neuro-scientific advances made in relation to mirror neurons provide a radical new understanding of how fault can be ascertained in both individual and collective action. Accordingly, the perception that the manifest approach to fault is incompatible with the subjectivist ideology of the criminal law melts away with exciting implications for a theory of corporate criminality generally.

This thesis is an investigation into maritime piracy in the Arabian Gulf and Somalia with a practical objective of understanding the drivers underpinning piracy behaviour to aid identifying how best to deal with this issue. Maritime piracy is a complicated crime which is unique in every region. The main findings from empirical data collected using face-to-face semi-structured interviews (n = 43 undertaken between 2012 and 2013 in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi and Mombasa) showed that pirates could be categorized according to different strategies adopted in attacking ships: pirates in the Arabian Gulf applied hit and run techniques, while Somalis’ pirates adopted a kidnap for ransom approach. While both sets of pirates seek money as a reward, the question is why do Iraqi and Iranian pirates steal cash and valuables, whereas Somali pirates focus on ransom? In this thesis, the resultant analyses identified that motive is not the main key for forming the pirates’ chosen strategy - whether the motive is political, ideological or purely financial is not critical to the method selected. The reasons for the different strategies adopted by the pirates are manifold, however, three main variables emerged from the analyses: geographical advantage; state failure or success; and illegal fishing by foreign vessels. These three factors must be applied all together in order to trigger the kidnap-for-ransom strategy. In the Arabian Gulf, there is no illegal fishing or state failure, which suggests that Iraqi and Iranian pirates do not kidnap for ransom, whereas Somalia exhibits all three factors at the same time. Studying these and other factors by a combination of fieldwork and documentary analysis has led to a new understanding of why different kinds of maritime piracy have arisen in the geographical areas researched, and the research presented herein offers new contextual evidence that could help the different regions decide how best to tackle the different types of piracy. These findings and the methods employed may also have potential application in other parts of the world where piracy is a problem of potential risk.

The limited research that has been undertaken into occupational fraud has focused on the offender and why he or she does it. This thesis focuses on the situation of the crime, the organisation. Some organisations acquiesce to internal fraud whilst others robustly confront it. The research employs a mixed-method strategy to explore the structures, social influences and cultural characteristics of organisations which lead either to active prevention or passive tolerance. The first stage of the research examines the nature of the occupational fraud threat. The prevalence of the crime indicates that low value, occasional offending has become normalised behaviour. However the greatest financial threat comes from a small number of habitual offenders dominated by high greed sociopaths. The difficulties in tackling fraud flow from the ambiguities in its definition, not least because it is contingent on circumstances, local rules, contractual terms and the role of the transgressor. Subjectively labelling observed behaviour as fraudulent is thus in itself a major challenge. The second stage of the research employs interview, case study, documentary data and ethnographic methods to explore how organisations respond to the challenges. An important focus of the research is the comparison of two large organisations, one with a very strong counter-fraud culture, the second seemingly indifferent to the threat. The thesis identifies ethical climate as a key variable. It proposes a five stage organisational ethical development model and identifies some of the characteristics associated with each stage, characteristics which suggest that situational crime prevention is an important component of a progressive ethical climate. A key emergent theme is the range of excuses and justifications that are deployed to avoid tackling occupational fraud. These rationalisations mirror the rationalisations constructed by offenders to justify their actions. The thesis posits differential rationalisation as a new criminological theory, an addendum to differential rationalisation.

In the last decade, cybercrime has sought to bypass technical security in place by focusing in people. Recently more attention has been given to the security of mobile devices. However, very little research has investigated the human factors of mobile phishing. This thesis investigates human aspects in relation to SMS phishing. Based on our findings, we present recommendations and opportunities for research that will help the security community to better understand phishing attacks and educate mobile users against them. The first study reports the results of a qualitative investigation of what people think and feel about mobile security. The study presents this investigation temporally by means of a series of interviews performed sequentially in multiple stages. A variation was noted in the users' responses and a theory was developed to explain such variation. The study proposed a grounded theory that suggested that human security attitude is strongly influenced by their agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion personality traits. The developed theory suggested that this general behaviour is moderated by individuals’ knowledge and past error-in-judgement experiences. The theory was tested via three further studies (one lab study and two experimental studies). The results suggest that the personality traits Assertiveness and Extraversion affect humans’ phishing vulnerability. To the best of our knowledge, the three studies are the first empirical studies of the human aspects involved in SMS phishing. The thesis embraces both quantitative and qualitative analysis approaches. The quantitative analysis helped in isolating the personality traits Assertiveness and Extraversion while the qualitative analysis helped us understand how individuals reason about their behaviour.

Although a large body of work has been amassed on the Gulag a number of voices remain excluded. Criminal subculture had a profound influence on daily life in the camps yet academic study has lagged behind other groups, such as political prisoners. Without gaining a better understanding of the inner workings of the world of the criminals, our knowledge and understanding of Gulag society remains incomplete. This thesis contributes primarily to answering two broad questions within the current scholarship on the Gulag: (1) How were approaches and perceptions of criminality shaped during the period in question? And (2) What can we learn from the reconstruction of criminal subculture from the large literary corpus regarding life in the camps? These issues are not easily separated, with the second often self-consciously playing into the first. The first question is explored in the first section of the thesis, which examines a number of well-known images of criminal subculture across the revolutionary divide of 1917 and discussions of criminality found in the early prison press (1918-1930). The second section will reconstruct criminal life in the camps from the mid-1930s onwards, and address a number of principle questions such as: How did groups of criminal prisoners adapt to the process of ‘prisonization’ (adaption in the penal environment)? What methods of communication were used to transmit criminal norms? How important were methods of enactment, such as card playing, in the construction of penal hierarchies? What form did punishment rituals amongst criminals prisoners take? And, finally: How was conflict between criminal prisoners resolved and what effect did this have on Gulag society as a whole? The thesis will look to test two principal arguments. Firstly, the resilience of criminal subculture, not only across the revolutionary divide of 1917 but throughout the entirety of the Stalinist Gulag. The creation of illicit hierarchies and development a number of ‘informal’ practices undermined attempts by Gulag authorities to fully control their inmate population, suggesting that the camps were as much a product of neo-traditionalism as an emblem of modernity. Secondly, the rendering of criminal subculture through various ‘cult products’ such as tattoo drawings, song collections, books, plays and films has resulted in a conflation of folklore and historical fact. Using a strong interdisciplinary approach with influences from social and cultural anthropology, ethnography, literature studies, criminology and penology, the reconstruction of these practices will demonstrate that perceptions of criminal subculture have often prevented a comprehensive study of its effect on daily life for all prisoners.

The majority of US based insider-trading research argues that trading using private information is harmful and produces adverse selection costs for outside market participants (Seyhun, 2000). Despite this, evidence shows that insider-trading regulations are ineffective in curtailing the actions of corporate insiders in the US capital market (Seyhun, 1986, Lakonishok and Lee, 2001, 'Garfinkel, 1997). It appears that these regulations had an impact only on the stock-trading patterns of insiders particularly those around corporate news and failed to eliminate opportunistic insider-trading activity (Garfinkel, 1997). Despite these findings, the impact of corporate governance on insider-trading activity and performance has been little researched. This thesis examines empirically the role played by the characteristics of the board, debt level and managerial remuneration with regard to insider profit and trading activity in the US. The agency model proposes that corporate governance may be used as a tool to align managerial interests with shareholders' interests (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). Corporate governance measures such as independent directors, debt-financing and executive remuneration (particularly executive director shareholdings) are proposed by the agency model to be effective tools for 'reducing asymmetric information between managers and shareholders. I used a sample of 350 US firms to examine whether these measures help to reduce the performance of insider trades and their trading activity. The three empirical chapters of this thesis show that board structure does affect the performance of insiders in their stock transactions but do not reduce opportunistic insider-trading activity. I also found that firms with weaker credit ratings and lower executive remunerations have a positive relationship to insider-trading activity associated with private information (i.e. opportunistic insider-trading). My results suggest that corporate governance mitigates agency problems and, as such, may reduce opportunities for corporate insiders to trade opportunistically in the capital market. This may add value to the security exchange market regulators' emphasis on better internal and external corporate governance mechanisms so that they may reduce the opportunities available for corporate insiders in the capital market.

The aim of this research study was to build upon the continuing interest around the applicability of situational crime prevention to tackle many forms of crime, including organised crimes. Using money laundering as the specific crime type, this study focused on two specific methods, namely cash intensive businesses and the purchasing of high value portable commodities to determine whether situational crime prevention could improve or enhance current preventative measures within the United Kingdom.

Fraud, which has been defined as, “any crime which uses deception as its main modus operandi” (Wells, 2011, p.2), has a significant effect on society. Its effect may be second only to drug trafficking in the economic harm that it causes to the United Kingdom (UK). It is estimated to cost the UK economy more than £50 billion annually, of which £20 billion is attributable to the public sector (Attorney General's Office, 2006, p.9; National Fraud Authority, 2013, p.2). The UK government has announced its intention to decrease the losses due to fraud. The UK government’s declared ‘zero tolerance’ strategy for the UK public sector encompasses the following: a collaborative approach supported by improved information flows; fraud awareness and prevention; and the need for more effective enforcement activity where fraud is suspected. Diminishing police resources allocated to fraud mean that this approach will need to be delivered by both law enforcement and civilian counter fraud teams (Attorney General's Office, 2006, pp.128-129; Cabinet Office & National Fraud Authority, 2011a, 2011b). This research project sought to establish whether UK central government organisations have the legal powers, skills and regulation needed to tackle fraud effectively. It was concluded from the literature review that an effective legal framework, supported by a wide range of skills, is essential to the delivery of the UK government’s zero tolerance approach, and that both professional standards, and the civil rights of those subject to investigation, should be protected through some form of regulation. Empirical data, collected via a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview programme, suggested that the effectiveness of central government civilian counter fraud teams is hampered by a fragmented legal landscape and a lack of skills, and that further professionalisation and regulation is needed to protect professional standards and individual legal rights.

For the year ending March 2014 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated there were 573,000 domestic burglaries in England and Wales. Using the Home Office Integrated Offender Management Value for Money Toolkit valuation (2011) the cost to society of this is £1.9 billion. The financial and resulting emotional cost is a heavy burden for the UK. Better understanding crime prevention approaches and their impact on reducing residential burglary is of obvious relevance to policing, government and society as a whole. This study examined the wider impact of traceable liquid property marking strategies on reducing residential burglary and other acquisitive crime. It monitored levels of crime in trial areas. It observed if crime displacement or diffusion of benefits effects occurred to a distance of 750m, in 250m intervals, surrounding the trial areas. By doing so it added to the body of knowledge that surrounds situational crime prevention. It also surveyed households, which were participants of the trial, some 6 months following the deployment to measure any impact on their confidence in policing and on their fear of crime. To do this, 10 x London trial sites, comprising of 500 households areas were purposively selected that had both a persistent and a long-term chronic residential burglary offence rate. Two such sites were selected on each of five London Boroughs. The residential homes within these areas were then visited by a police officer or a PCSO and occupants had their property marked using a unique traceable liquid property marking solution. This strategy was supported by stickers saying their property had been marked being placed on external display on front and back doors and windows, signs being put up on street furniture in the surrounding area telling people they were entering a property marked area and the use of press and media releases to wider market the approach to offenders. Trap cars and houses were utilised and arrests advertised to ‘prove’ the approach to offenders. Finally control areas of similar characteristics to the trial areas were identified and observed on each of the 5 x borough sites. Once the marking had been implemented to the point of 85% saturation (where able), key data was observed over a 12-month period and compared against the previous year. These included: o Residential burglary crime levels within the target area. o Residential burglary crime levels in displacement zones of 250m, 500m, and 750m, surrounding the targeted area. o Robbery, theft of motor vehicle (M/V), theft from motor vehicle and total notifiable offences (TNO’s) offence levels within the target and displacement areas to measure displacement effects. o An online survey of the trial households of police satisfaction and fear of crime levels. o Interviews with key staff that implemented the trial. The study deduces that the following effects occurred within the trial areas: o A 45% reduction in residential burglaries, a 21% reduction in robberies, no significant change in M/V crime and 22% less TNO’s. Once offset against the control area performance the results indicated: o Overall average residential burglary was reduced by 21% with the best BOCU achieving an 88% reduction. o Personal robbery offences reduced by 16% and overall TNO’s by 20%. o There was no statistically significant change in M/V crime offence levels. o There was no significant crime or offence displacement within the target areas and indeed clear diffusion of benefits effects occurred. When the trial areas were widened to include the 250m, 500m and 750m displacement zones the following results were found to 750m: o A 23% reduction in residential burglaries, a 15% reduction in robberies, a 3% reduction in theft of M/V, 1% reduction in theft from M/V and a 9% less TNO’s. Once offset against the control area performance the results indicated: o Residential burglary reduced by 12% in the 250m-displacement zones, increased by 7% in the 500m zones, decreased by 19% in the 750m zones and cumulatively resulted in a 17% reduction. o Robbery increased by 8% in the 250m-displacement zones, decreased by 7% in the 500m zones, increased by 13% in the 750m zones and cumulatively resulted in a 5% increase. o Theft of M/V increased by 27% in the 250m-displacement zones, increased by 4% in the 500m zones, increased by 5% in the 750m zones and cumulatively resulted in a 10% increase. o Theft from M/V increased by 24% in the 250m-displacement zones, increased by 16% in the 500m zones, increased by 11% in the 750m zones and cumulatively resulted in a 15% increase. o TNO’s increased by 3% in the 250m displacement zones, decreased by 4% in the 500m zones, increased by 5% in the 750m zones and cumulatively resulted in a 1% increase. The results of the on-line survey found the following: o 51% of householders felt safer in their area. o 52% of householders felt safer in their home. o 33% had an improved opinion of the police. The study concludes that traceable liquid property marking is highly effective at reducing residential burglary. It found that when deployed with high levels of saturation to an area, diffusion of benefits effects for this crime type are likely to occur out to at least 750m from that area. This strategy led to a reduction in the fear of crime and if distributed by the police family, leads to an increase in public confidence for at least 6 months after the distribution period. However in achieving these positive impacts there will be offence displacement outside the targeted area, where offenders will move from residential burglary to other offences types. The most likely change is into theft of and from M/V crime. These crimes are arguably less harmful and impactive on crime victims and occurred at a lower rate than the residential burglary offences prevented.