The How and Why of Cybercrime: The EU as a Case Study of the Role of Ideas, Interests, and Institutions as Drivers of a Security-Governance Approach

Conducting research on the politics of cybercrime requires an understanding of the role of the actors involved in its definition, application, and enforcement. In particular, what drives policymakers to decide that an issue in cyberspace is a “crime” issue, and what type of response is most suited to that issue? Using the case study of the EU’s actions in the field of cybercrime as part of a broader “policy universe” within the context of the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice, this chapter demonstrates that the framing of cybercrime as a specific form of insecurity is deeply political, and the result of a range of ideas, interests, and institutions that serve as drivers for an approach that is often unrelated to cybercrime itself. With the blurring of state and non-state actors involved in both perpetrating and combating cybercrime, and new phenomena such as online disinformation and data manipulation becoming pervasive, current EU approaches seem ill-equipped to tackling new forms of cyber-insecurity.