The Human beneath the Hoodie: Profiling pathways into cybercrime

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Melissa completed her PhD after two decades of operational work, bringing a pracademic perspective to cyber profiling and offender pathways.

Her research focuses on understanding the human behind the keyboard through developmental history, motivation and lived experience.

Initial motivations among hackers often centre on curiosity, challenge seeking and belonging rather than financial gain.

Many participants reported early interest in technology, solitary online activity and experiences they described as destabilising events.

Melissa distinguishes between lawful and criminal pathways using indicators such as modifying games, low self-control and a history of property offending.

Her work highlights misunderstandings about intent, the role of gamification and the abstraction of harm when offending takes place online.

She argues that cybercrime is a societal problem requiring early education, parental and teacher capability building and partnerships with tech and gaming companies.

Diversion programs are essential to guide youth with technical interest toward prosocial cybersecurity roles rather than criminalisation.

About our guest:
Dr Melissa Martineau
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-martineau-369bb5258/
https://www.captechu.edu/webinar-series-melissa-martineau

Papers or resources mentioned in this episode:
Martineau, M. (2023). The pathways of cyber dependent offenders. Journal of Cybercriminology, 3(3), 32.
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/3/3/32

Martineau, M. (2024). Distinguishing lawful and criminal hacker trajectories. Journal of Cybercriminology, 4(4), 45.
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/4/4/45

Other:
Dr Martineau wanted to share something called PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) which is a helpful guideline designed to improve the reporting of systematic reviews. You can find out more about it here.
http://www.prisma-statement.org