The theme for 2023 International Women's Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” –recognizing the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education and exploring the digital gender gap. You can read more about this year’s theme on the UN Women’s website.
Information and communications technology have transformed our traditional understanding of organized crime with organized criminal groups participating in varying degrees within the cyberspace. Recent cases have shown us that women can have a wide variety of roles within cyber organised crime, however, due to the degree of anonymity offered by the cyberspace, the full extent of women’s participation within cyber organised criminal groups remains unclear. There also continues to be a lack of gender-disaggregated data on victims of cyber organised crime, with many victims not coming forward due to shame and lack of confidence in law enforcement’s capacity to follow up on these issues. Despite the increasing prominence of cyber organized crime, research remains sparse, particularly on the gender dimensions of this phenomenon. Only if gender-informed approaches are adopted, can effective policies, strategies, and legislations to prevent and combat cyber organised crime be developed.
