With the far-right terror attack in Hanau in 2020, Germany witnessed yet another act of right-wing extremist violence, resulting in the death of 9 people with foreign roots. In this blog post, Anna Merz raises the question why, and how authorities still fail to recognise the far-reaching problem of structural racism, racist attacks, and the existence of neo-Nazi networks in Germany.
On Friday April 23rd, 2021 dr. Eleonora Di Molfetta defended her PhD thesis titled: Injustices under the shield of the law: An exploratory study of judicial practices towards foreign defendants in an Italian criminal court. We recently interviewed her to inquire about the focus and results of her PhD studies.
Tomorrow begins the European qualifying campaign for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. At the same time, a report recently published in The Guardian revealed that thousands of migrant workers have died in Qatar over the course of preparations for the tournament. This blog post discusses this report in light of the wider context of corruption within the sport, and reflects on the nature and trajectory of professional world football going forward.
The heist of the century. Thinking of a diamond or bank robbery? Art theft? Something à la Money Heist, Ocean’s Eleven or The Killing? Its less glamorous but more harmful than that: the Cum-Ex Files. In this blog post, Anna Merz shortly discusses how the intermingling of state and corporate actors—law enforcement authorities, politicians and financial institutions—has contributed to the (so far) rather lenient response to the scandal, and the preservation of the status quo.
Today’s guest writer for the Rotterdam Criminology Blog is Mathijs Giltjes, a PhD Candidate from Erasmus School of Law who researches high frequency trading and market abuse. In this blog post, Mathijs offers a critical reflection on the value and limitations of the EU financial criminal law framework in combating high-frequency trading. This blog post carries important criminological relevance in relation to technology and cybercrime, and the unique challenges of developing effective criminal justice system responses to crimes of the powerful.
A few weeks ago, US President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on preventing online censorship, which could significantly affect how social media platforms govern the content of their users. In this blog post, Amr Marzouk draws on the latest Trump-Twitter feud to explore challenges surrounding online censorship, 'fake news', and the growing influence of Big Tech. It argues that Trump’s recent Executive Order serves to worsen, rather than address, these important challenges.