Shane Horgan
shane horgan

Dr Shane Horgan

Lecturer

 0131 455 3425

  S.Horgan2@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Shane joined Edinburgh Napier University as a Lecturer in Criminology in August 2019. Shane is currently the program leader for the BSc in Policing and Criminology, and teach on the topics of; policing and security, cybercrime and cybersecurity, criminological theory, online research methods, criminal justice, and surveillance.

Shane is an affiliate of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and the Scottish Institute of Policing Research, and also convenes the School of Applied Science Research integrity Committee.

Shane research interests include the the sociological study of cybercrime and cybersecurity, and police responses. In particular, their work has explored how people and organisations make sense of cybercrime and enact cybersecurity behaviours and policies in their routine everyday lives and operations. Shane is in interested in further developing criminological and sociological perspectives on cybersecurity, the policing of cybercrime, and novel ways ICT is deployed in the governance of security.

Shane is currently accepting doctoral candidates whose research relates to cybercrime and online harm, the sociological dimensions of cybersecurity and privacy, and the impact of new technologies on crime, policing, and criminal justice.

School

Themes

Research Areas

Events

Esteem

Conference Organising Activity

  • Scottish International Policing Conference 2025 Chair

 

External Examining/Validations

  • PhD Examiner, University of Dundee, 2024
  • MRes Examiner, Bournemouth University, 2023
  • External Examiner BSc Professional Policing

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Edinburgh Napier University Ambitious Award

 

Invited Speaker

  • Seminar: School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University, April 2025
  • Conference talk: 7th Strathclyde International Perspectives on Cybercrime, July 2024
  • Keynote: Scottish Community Safety Network Conference, June 2023
  • Keynote: SIPR Postgraduate Research Conference, Dundee Univeristy, 2022

 

Media Activity

  • Cybercrime 'Almost doubled' as coronavirus crisis tightened grip, Scottish Herald

 

Reviewing

  • Journal reviewer: European Journal of Information Systems
  • Journal Reviewer: Police Practice and Research: An international journal
  • Journal Reviewer: Police Practice and Research, 2025
  • Abstract reviewer: British Society of Criminology Conference
  • Journal Reviewer: European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 2024
  • Journal Reviewer: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
  • Journal Reviewer: International Journal of Police Science and Management
  • Journal Reviewer: Theoretical Criminology, 2024
  • Journal reviewer: Policing and Society, 2023
  • Journal Reviewer: Computers and Security, 2023
  • Journal of Criminal Psychology, 2022-
  • Journal Reviewer: Crime and Delinquency, 2022
  • Journal Reviewer: Journal of Cybersecurity, 2022
  • Journal Reviewer: Criminology and Criminal Justice
  • Book reviewer: Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd Edition, 2021
  • Journal Reviewer: Computing Surveys, 2020
  • Journal Reviewer: Journal of Cyber Policy, 2020

 

Filter by

Date


22 results

Influence, Innovations and Infrastructure: reflections on emerging police strategies in techno-social contexts

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 conv...

Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland

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 a...

Influence Policing: domestic digital influence campaigns and algorithmic strategic communications in UK law enforcement and homeland security

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 inf...

Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place

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 t...

I just want to live a normal life filled with interesting problems’; Exploring identity reconciliation in desistance from cyber-dependent crime

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 separa...

Managerial Officers 3PO Briefing

Report
Wong, Y. N., Horgan, S., & Aston, E. (2024)
Managerial Officers 3PO Briefing. EPSRC

Digital Deviance/Digital Compliance: Criminology, Social Interaction and the Videogame

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 inter...

The first national subject benchmark statement for UK higher education in policing: the importance of effective partnership and collaboration

Journal Article
Pepper, I., Cox, C., Fee, R., Horgan, S., Jarman, R., Jones, M., …Tattum, C. (in press)
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, 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 ...

Influence Government, Platform Power And The Patchwork Profile: Exploring The Appropriation Of Targeted Advertising Infrastructures For Government Behaviour Change Campaigns

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 polit...

Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online (3PO): Privacy policies and protections in routine police management

Presentation / Conference
Horgan, S., Aston, L., & Wong, Y. N. (2023, November)
Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online (3PO): Privacy policies and protections in routine police management. Paper presented at American Society of Criminology Conference 2023, Philadelphia

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