ANZSOC welcomes the new co-convenors to the Cybercrime and Digital Criminology Thematic Group, Dr Sahana Sarkar, Flinders University, Dr Tahlia Hart, Flinders University and Dr Rahul Sinha-Roy, LaTrobe University. Sahana, Tahlia and Rahul are working to set their agenda for moving the thematic group forward with a focus on further developing ECR engagement and fostering an inclusive and vibrant hub for thematic group members and others who are interested in joining this thematic group. We spoke to the co-convenors about their visions for the Cybercrime and Digital Criminology thematic group, their plans for key initiatives and what they identify as current research trends and challenges in this research area that they’re keen to address with the group.
What are your hopes for what this group can achieve within ANZSOC and the broader criminology community?
We hope this group becomes a vibrant and inclusive hub for cybercrime and digital criminology within ANZSOC, one that reflects the growing centrality of digital environments to crime, harm and justice, while fostering ongoing engagement beyond the annual conference.
Our work is guided by a few core aspirations. First, we want to build stronger connections across institutions, regions, and career stages, creating a supportive community where HDRs, ECRs, and established scholars can engage, collaborate, and learn from one another. Second, we aim to advance methodological innovation in digital criminology, encouraging the use of approaches such as digital ethnography, computational methods, and platform-based research to better understand emerging forms of harm. Third, we are also committed to amplifying critical research on evolving issues such as AI-enabled offending, online coercive control, and digital surveillance, while ensuring these conversations remain inclusive and intersectional. Finally, we want to strengthen links between research and practice by connecting scholars with policymakers, regulators, industry, and civil society, positioning the group as a space where research can inform real-world responses to digital harms.
Ultimately, we see this group as contributing to the growth, visibility, and impact of digital criminology across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
What are some key initiatives or activities you’re hoping to develop through the group this year?
We’re focusing on a set of concrete initiatives this year that build connection, visibility, and collaboration across the cybercrime and digital criminology community.
One priority is structured support for HDRs and ECRs. We will run an annual HDR/ECR online showcase, alongside a series of cross-institutional “work-in-progress” webinars where emerging researchers present their work and receive feedback from senior discussants at different universities. In addition, we will host informal drop-in sessions and circulate a biannual digital update highlighting publications, grants, and opportunities across the network. We are also planning two online research roundtables, each focused on a specific emerging issue such as AI-enabled harms or online coercive control. These will be interdisciplinary, cross-institutional events with speakers across career stages, designed to generate focused discussion and potential collaborations. To strengthen links beyond academia, we will organise at least one policy-focused roundtable bringing together researchers, regulators, legal practitioners, and industry stakeholders to discuss current challenges in digital crime governance. Finally, we will begin mapping cybercrime teaching across institutions and explore opportunities for collaborative grant applications and special issues, helping to build longer-term research and teaching partnerships within the group.
Are there current trends or challenges in Cybercrime and Digital Criminology that you’re keen for the group to explore?
There are several key trends and challenges shaping cybercrime and digital criminology that we’re keen for the group to explore. One major area is the rapid rise of AI-enabled harms, including deepfakes, automated harassment, and the use of generative technologies in offending. These developments are evolving faster than legal and regulatory responses, raising important questions around accountability and prevention. We’re also interested in the growing influence of platform governance. Decisions made by technology companies, such as content moderation practices, algorithmic amplification, and data access, are increasingly shaping how harm is produced and managed, often without sufficient transparency or regulatory oversight. Another critical issue is the uneven impact of digital harms. Forms of abuse such as online coercive control, cyber-extortion, and technology-facilitated violence disproportionately affect women and marginalised communities, underscoring the need for intersectional and context-sensitive approaches. Finally, there are ongoing methodological challenges, particularly around access to data, ethical research practices, and the use of computational and platform-based methods.
As a group, we see value in creating space for these conversations and supporting research that is both critically informed and responsive to these emerging dynamics.
Sahana, what’s one Cybercrime or Digital Criminology idea or innovation you’re really excited about exploring right now?
I’m really interested in co-design approaches in digital criminology, bringing communities, practitioners, and those directly affected by online harms into how we think about research and responses. It’s about moving beyond top-down or purely technical fixes and working collaboratively to understand what safety and justice actually look like in practice.
For me, this creates space for more inclusive, grounded, and meaningful responses to issues like technology-facilitated abuse and online coercive control and helps ensure our work stays connected to real-world experiences rather than abstract solutions.
Tahlia, who or what inspires your research and co-convenorship of this group?
My work in digital criminology is shaped by both academic influences and real-world developments in the field. I am particularly interested by the evolving nature of technology, as well as the way it is regulated (e.g., social media age restrictions) and its impact on social, legal, and technological systems. As a current Teaching Specialist, I am intrigued about how to best empower undergraduate students to embark on future research in cybercrime and digital criminology fields. These have both influenced my approach to co-convening this group with my colleagues. I, along with my colleagues, aim to facilitate a space that brings together diverse perspectives, encourages critical discussion, and connects academic insights with practical challenges, as well as share techniques to empower students (future academics) to become informed and independent cybercrime and digital criminology researchers.
Rahul, what’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone new to researching Cybercrime and Digital Criminology?
If I have to pick one advice, it would be keeping an open mind while undertaking empirical studies and allowing one’s analysis/thinking to be driven by data and/or informants/participants as much as existing theories. This is because this is a rapidly evolving area, and so existing theories/modes of thinking might often fall short in comprehensively explaining new phenomena of interest. So, keeping an open mind, developing existing frames of thinking, and proposing newer theories, as driven by empirical evidence is an important and exciting avenue to explore in digital criminology/cybercrime research.
Also, applying existing critical criminological theories to cybercrimes/harms is equally useful as cybercrimes occur within the same power-privilege matrix that exists in an offline world (of course we now know that this online-offline binary thinking is rarely useful criminologically, but that is a different topic altogether). So, tracing how power combines with technology to create new forms of harms can help us demystify cybercrimes. So, understanding cybercrime means asking not just what a new technology does, but whose world was it built for and whose safety was never part of its design.
Sahana Sarkar
Dr Sahana Sarkar is a Lecturer in Criminology at College of Business, Creative Arts, Law and Social Sciences at Flinders University, Adelaide. She completed her Doctorate in Criminology from Queensland University of Technology in 2023. Her doctoral thesis was on Exploring women survivors’ experiences of, responses to, and impact of technology-facilitated sexual violence in India. Her research focuses on how technology facilitates gendered and sexual violence by unknown persons and intimate partners within the Global South. Dr Sarkar’s research also explores digital literacy to understand how individuals employ safety practices and how marginalised identities influence it.
Rahul Sinha-Roy
Dr Rahul Sinha-Roy is a lecturer in Crime, Justice and Legal Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University. Their research focuses on queer people’s experiences of violence in digital societies in the global South, and lies at the intersection of queer criminology, digital criminology and sex-positive criminology. Their PhD project was among the first criminological studies to examine the victimisation experiences of the users of gay dating platforms in India. Rahul’s research agenda centres around creating safer digital and physical societies for queer people, and improving their experiences with the criminal justice system in the aftermath of victimisation. Their forthcoming book with Routledge, provisionally titled ‘Queer Love, Gay Dating Apps, and Victimisation Narratives from India’ is one of the first books on Queer Criminology from India.
Tahlia Hart
Dr Tahlia Hart is a practising lawyer and lecturer in Criminology at Flinders University’s College of Business, Creative Arts, Law and Social Sciences. In 2023, she completed her Doctorate in Criminology at Flinders University. Her thesis focused on children and adolescent learnt skills and experiences in online environments intended for adult users (e.g., dating apps). This thesis explored how and why children engage in these adult online environments with a focus on policy responses to minimise this engagement. Tahlia’s research interests broadly include technology, cybercrime, and digital justice for vulnerable cohorts to better understand and mitigate potential risks and harms. She is also a passionate student-centered educator seeking to advance student experience with cybercrime, law, and criminology topics.
