Edinburgh Napier University

  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 curiosity rather than malice. We draw on autobiographical narratives collected during the GoingAFK project into the experiences of people involved in hacking, and the research team’s wider investigations into contemporary policing of cybercrime to examine two police interventions. One example adapts the ‘poacher-turned-gamekeeper’ approach, with a high-policing agency devising and managing a payback order, probation, and mentoring with young people found guilty of high-tech crimes. The other reflects the National Crime Agency’s PREVENT programme, newly adapted for cybercrime. In contrast, this sees ‘high police’ delivering surveillance, punishment, and ‘social work’ in managing a much wider group of young people who haven’t necessarily committed a crime, but who have been identified as ‘at-risk’. In both cases, police are administering punishment themselves, often outside the typical court process and involving intensive ongoing surveillance. These approaches showcase the emerging and expanding role of ‘police’ in the design and delivery of punishment and rehabilitation in ways which challenge understandings of the contemporary penal landscape.