2026 ISEC Award Winners and Runners Up
ISEC are pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 ISEC Awards.
Best PhD
Runner Up
Frow-Jones, B. (2024). Prison staff wrongdoing: an exploratory study (Doctoral dissertation, Cardiff University). https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/176744/
Winner
Michail, N (2025) Developing a Central Bank Digital Currency in Australia: Legal and Regulatory Issues to be Addressed' by Nancy Michail PhD
Best paper by an ECR
Runner Up
Lazarus, S., Soares, A. B., & Button, M. (2025). Pathways, pressure, and profit: Adaptive innovation and strain in a convicted cybercrime academy called Hustle Kingdom. Deviant Behavior, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2025.2551790
Winner
Han, B., & Button, M. (2026). An anatomy of ‘pig butchering scams’: Chinese victims’ and police officers’ perspectives. Deviant Behavior, 47(4), 635-653. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01639625.2025.2453821
Best paper by a practitioner
Runner Up
Freeman, C. (2025). Fraud and complexity theory: Moving beyond the fraud triangle towards a new theoretical framework. Journal of Economic Criminology, 10, 100198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100198
Winner
Day, T. (2025). An exploration of the anatomy of doorstep crime rogue trading. Journal of Economic Criminology, 8, 100149. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949791425000259
Best paper by an academic
Runner Up
Taiwo, O. O., & Tade, O. (2025). ‘Prosecuting fraud takes time and money’: understanding fraud investigation and prosecution by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps. Journal of Financial Crime, 32(6), 1235-1250. https://www.emerald.com/jfc/article-abstract/32/6/1235/1309182/Prosecuting-fraud-takes-time-and-money?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Winner
Lazarus, S., Hughes, M., Button, M., & Garba, K. H. (2025). Fraud as legitimate retribution for colonial injustice: Neutralization techniques in interviews with police and online romance fraud offenders. Deviant Behavior, 47(3), 427–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2024.2446328
Best paper in the Journal of Economic Criminology
Runner Up
Cretu-Adatte, C., Azi, J. W., Beaudet-Labrecque, O., Bunning, H., Brunoni, L. & Zbinden, R. (2024). Unravelling the organisation of ivorian cyberfraudsters: Criminal networks or organised crime ? Journal of Economic Criminology, 3. p.1-9
Winner
Anagnostou, M., Doberstein, B., Armitage, D., Stoett, P., & Glasson, A. (2025). Disentangling and demystifying converging crimes and illegal wildlife trade in South Africa, Hong Kong, and Canada. Journal of Economic Criminology, 100196 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100196
Best book
Runner Up
Franceschini, I., Li, L., & Bo, M. (2025). Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds. Verso Books.
Goldbarsht, D., de Koker, L., & Ferrill, J. (2025). Combating financial crime: Intended and unintended consequences. Springer Nature.
Winner
Lord, N., & Levi, M. (2025). Organising White-Collar and corporate crimes. Routledge.
Best publisher
Winner
The Journal of Economic Criminology, published by Elsevier
Best initiative to promote research in economic criminology
Winner
The Journal of Economic Criminology, published by Elsevier
Lifetime achievement award
Winner
Professor Michael Levi
More detailed criteria on the awards can be found here.