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Dr Shane Horgan's Outputs (28)

Re-territorialising the policing of cybercrime in the post-COVID-19 era: towards a new vision of local democratic cyber policing (2021)
Journal Article
Horgan, S., Collier, B., Jones, R., & Shepherd, L. (2021). Re-territorialising the policing of cybercrime in the post-COVID-19 era: towards a new vision of local democratic cyber policing. Journal of Criminal Psychology, 11(3), 222-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-08-2020-0034

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop the theorisation of cybercrime in the context of the pandemic, and to sketch out a vision of how law enforcement might respond to a transformed landscape of online crime and offending.

Design/method... Read More about Re-territorialising the policing of cybercrime in the post-COVID-19 era: towards a new vision of local democratic cyber policing.

Influence, Innovations and Infrastructure: reflections on emerging police strategies in techno-social contexts (2025)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Horgan, S. (2025, April). Influence, Innovations and Infrastructure: reflections on emerging police strategies in techno-social contexts. Presented at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology Research Seminar Series, Maynooth University, Ireland

Three decades of technological transformation has created exciting opportunities and insidious challenges for public policing. While globalised bulk cybercrime frustrates conventional national criminal justice apparati, traditional serious and organi... Read More about Influence, Innovations and Infrastructure: reflections on emerging police strategies in techno-social contexts.

Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland (2025)
Journal Article
Buchan, J., Horgan, S., Wooff, A., & Tatnell, A. (online). Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland. Policing and Society, https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2025.2481117

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on rural ‘policing’ (broadly defined to include a range of institutions involved in order maintenance) remains relatively under-discussed and under-theorised. The pandemic created particular challenges for these se... Read More about Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland.

Influence Policing: domestic digital influence campaigns and algorithmic strategic communications in UK law enforcement and homeland security (2024)
Journal Article
Horgan, S., Collier, B., Stewart, J., & Thomas, D. (online). Influence Policing: domestic digital influence campaigns and algorithmic strategic communications in UK law enforcement and homeland security. British Journal of Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae063

This paper conceptualises an emerging model of algorithmic policing; ‘influence policing’. This harnesses the affordances of Internet platforms to conduct domestic digital influence campaigns for crime prevention. These campaigns use sophisticated ta... Read More about Influence Policing: domestic digital influence campaigns and algorithmic strategic communications in UK law enforcement and homeland security.

Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Buchan, J., Wooff, A., & Horgan, S. (2024, July). Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place. Presented at British Society of Criminology Conference 2024, Glasgow, UK

This paper presents qualitative data from two projects on policing and local partnership working in rural Scotland, with fieldwork carried out in 2021-2.

We understand this through an interdisciplinary synthesis of theoretical concepts - ontologic... Read More about Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place.

I just want to live a normal life filled with interesting problems’; Exploring identity reconciliation in desistance from cyber-dependent crime (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Anderson, S., Horgan, S., & Collier, B. (2024, July). I just want to live a normal life filled with interesting problems’; Exploring identity reconciliation in desistance from cyber-dependent crime. Presented at British Society of Criminology Conference, Glasgow, UK

Drawing on the in-depth life history narratives of a small sample (n=5) of people previously involved in cyber-dependent crime, this paper explores the way in which the separation of different social- identities (i.e. online and offline selves; pre-... Read More about I just want to live a normal life filled with interesting problems’; Exploring identity reconciliation in desistance from cyber-dependent crime.

Digital Deviance/Digital Compliance: Criminology, Social Interaction and the Videogame (2024)
Report
Henry, A., & Horgan, S. (2024). Digital Deviance/Digital Compliance: Criminology, Social Interaction and the Videogame. Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research

This project sought to begin a process of scoping out and developing criminological perspectives on videogames and the social worlds of videogames and gamers through two interactive workshops. Its starting orientation was social interactionism and th... Read More about Digital Deviance/Digital Compliance: Criminology, Social Interaction and the Videogame.

The first national subject benchmark statement for UK higher education in policing: the importance of effective partnership and collaboration (2024)
Journal Article
Pepper, I., Cox, C., Fee, R., Horgan, S., Jarman, R., Jones, M., Policek, N., Rogers, C., & Tattum, C. (2024). The first national subject benchmark statement for UK higher education in policing: the importance of effective partnership and collaboration. Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, 14(5), 1106-1120. https://doi.org/10.1108/heswbl-02-2023-0042

Purpose
The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education in the UK focuses on maintaining, enhancing and standardising the quality of higher education. Of significant impact are the development of subject benchmark statements (SBS) by the QA... Read More about The first national subject benchmark statement for UK higher education in policing: the importance of effective partnership and collaboration.

Influence Government, Platform Power And The Patchwork Profile: Exploring The Appropriation Of Targeted Advertising Infrastructures For Government Behaviour Change Campaigns (2024)
Journal Article
Collier, B., Stewart, J., Horgan, S., Thomas, D. R., & Wilson, L. (2024). Influence Government, Platform Power And The Patchwork Profile: Exploring The Appropriation Of Targeted Advertising Infrastructures For Government Behaviour Change Campaigns. First Monday, 29(1), https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i2.13579

The targeted digital advertising infrastructures on which the business models of the social media platform economy rest have been the subject of significant academic and political interest. In this paper, we explore and theorise the appropriation of... Read More about Influence Government, Platform Power And The Patchwork Profile: Exploring The Appropriation Of Targeted Advertising Infrastructures For Government Behaviour Change Campaigns.

Influence policing: Strategic communications, digital nudges, and behaviour change marketing in Scottish and UK preventative policing (2023)
Report
Collier, B., Stewart, J., Horgan, S., Wilson, L., & Thomas, D. (2023). Influence policing: Strategic communications, digital nudges, and behaviour change marketing in Scottish and UK preventative policing. Scottish Institute for Policing Research

Influence policing is an emerging phenomenon: the use of digital targeted ‘nudge’ communications campaigns by police forces and law enforcement agencies to directly achieve strategic policing outcomes. While scholarship, civil society, and journalism... Read More about Influence policing: Strategic communications, digital nudges, and behaviour change marketing in Scottish and UK preventative policing.

Critical perspectives on policing rural environments: Cops, context, communication and COVID-19 (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Wooff, A., Horgan, S., & Tatnell, A. (2023, September). Critical perspectives on policing rural environments: Cops, context, communication and COVID-19. Presented at 23rd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Florence, Italy

Recent work on policing in rural communities has highlighted the importance of reflecting critically on the context and environment being policed. Research has pointed to the importance of police discretion, order maintenance and police-community rel... Read More about Critical perspectives on policing rural environments: Cops, context, communication and COVID-19.

Influence policing: exploring the use of targeted digital 'nudge' communications by law enforcement in the UK (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Collier, B., & Horgan, S. (2023, September). Influence policing: exploring the use of targeted digital 'nudge' communications by law enforcement in the UK. Presented at 23rd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Florence, Italy

This paper describes an emerging phenomenon in UK policing: the use of behavioural ‘nudge’ communications campaigns. These campaigns are both a reaction to a UK political and policing context of multiple overlapping crises, many of which are perceive... Read More about Influence policing: exploring the use of targeted digital 'nudge' communications by law enforcement in the UK.

Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online (3PO): Privacy policies and protections in routine police management (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Horgan, S., Aston, L., & Wong, Y. N. (2023, September). Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online (3PO): Privacy policies and protections in routine police management. Presented at 23rd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Florence, Italy

This paper explores the ways in which police organizations conceptualize and operationalize their sense of responsibility for officers’ online safety and privacy. Police officers and organizations are increasingly the targets of cyber-attacks and tec... Read More about Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online (3PO): Privacy policies and protections in routine police management.

Watching you desist: Policing as punishment in the cybercrime context (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Horgan, S., Anderson, S., & Collier, B. (2022, September). Watching you desist: Policing as punishment in the cybercrime context. Paper presented at European Society of Criminology, Malaga

Cyber-dependent crime is now more often considered a national security issue rather than a routine policing matter. 'High-policing' agencies tend to take the lead in law enforcement responses, even when crimes are petty, ‘low-tech’, or born of curios... Read More about Watching you desist: Policing as punishment in the cybercrime context.

Moving AFK: Exploring the applicability of contemporary desistance theorising for cyber-dependent offending (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Anderson, S., Horgan, S., & Collier, B. (2022, September). Moving AFK: Exploring the applicability of contemporary desistance theorising for cyber-dependent offending. Paper presented at European Society of Criminology, Malaga

The presentation will explore the analytical utility of contemporary theories of desistance for making sense of narratives of cyber-dependent offending careers. Until recently, cybercrime research has been preoccupied with situational theorisations o... Read More about Moving AFK: Exploring the applicability of contemporary desistance theorising for cyber-dependent offending.

Why do researchers get 'hackers' so wrong, and why we should be worried about the police's response? (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Horgan, S., Anderson, S., & Collier, B. (2022, June). Why do researchers get 'hackers' so wrong, and why we should be worried about the police's response?. Paper presented at Electromagnetic Field, Eastnor Castle Deer Park

In this presentation, two criminologists and one sociologist reflect on why criminology and sociology often get ‘hacking’ very wrong - and on the challenges we faced trying to get it (a bit more) right.

We draw on ongoing research into how involv... Read More about Why do researchers get 'hackers' so wrong, and why we should be worried about the police's response?.