Exploring the cyber-organised crime narrative: The hunt for a new bogeyman?

This paper looks at the significance and the scale of the use of the OC representation when it comes to cybercrime and other Internet-facilitated crimes at the European and international level by conducting a document analysis on official outputs of the major security and intelligence agencies, centres, and other relevant organisations addressing the possible intersections between OC, cybercrimes, and internet-facilitated crimes. This contribution problematises the current use of the cyber-OC narrative and shows how this appears insufficient to guarantee a common level of understanding in public and scientific debates. Before moving to the core of this contribution, the following sections provide a concise overview of the existing academic literature dealing with cyber-OC and related problems, showing how evidence-based research is still indecisive as to the degree of organisation of offenders operating in cyberspace.