Análisis criminológico de la delincuencia con criptomonedas cometida por grupos criminales y su aproximación desde los sistemas inteligentes

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies originated with the creation of Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto. Its emergence was prompted by the economic crisis of 2008, which led to an increase in public distrust of banking institutions. E-commerce was seen as overly dependent on banks, which acted as intermediaries capable of reversing the transactions made. Therefore, a payment system emerged which, using its cryptocurrency Bitcoin, allowed transactions to be carried out directly between people without intermediaries, in a secure way due to cryptographic protection and without any personal data, providing anonymity. In this way, a response was provided to a large sector of the population that demanded a payment system that guaranteed the privacy of their financial activity. However, cryptocurrencies have also been used in the criminal realm. The same characteristics that ensured the privacy of legal e-commerce have favoured the development of a wide range of criminal activities. For example, money laundering, scams, ransomware attacks and organised crime. This technology has enabled criminals to conduct anonymous, decentralised, international, low-cost, unmediated, fast transactions that can be converted into other fiat currencies. All of this has caused concern among the authorities, who are faced with a technology that favours its use for crime and makes it difficult to detect and prosecute. As a result, many investigations have been carried out to discover the authors of Bitcoin addresses and to study the Blockchain. The aim was to identify patterns of suspected criminal activity and to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to detect, prosecute and prevent this type of crime, especially through the development of Blockchain forensic analysis tools. However, due to the complexity of this criminal phenomenon, it is considered necessary to broaden its study and address other aspects of crime that go beyond the detection, prosecution, and apprehension of its perpetrators. A criminological approach is required to understand it in its entirety and to develop appropriate prevention policies in the future. The initial hypothesis is that a comprehensive understanding of the criminal phenomenon from all the elements of the crime would allow us to determine its importance as a tool for crime and to direct actions towards the key aspects of these crimes. The main objective of this research will be to study cryptocurrency crime from a criminological perspective. To this end, several specific objectives have been set that will focus on the study of the offender, the victims, the types of crimes committed and the criminal motivations. To achieve the proposed objectives, a mixed methodology combining quantitative and quantitative methodologies has been carried out through the development of five experiments. The first of them corresponds to the application of intelligent systems to cases of crime in this area with the aim of obtaining new knowledge that could guide this research and police actions. The remaining four experiments address each of the aspects of crime that are considered relevant to understanding the phenomenon: offenders, types of crime, victims, and criminal motivations. The results obtained show that: 1) criminal groups are the majority perpetrator profile; 2) new profiles of individual offenders who are self-taught have emerged; 3) property crimes predominate; 4) victimis ation depends on the socio-spatial patterns of perpetrators and victims; 5) the decision to use cryptocurrencies can be influenced by factors other than their characteristics, such as those that allow for greater profitability for the criminal business. Finally, the results obtained could be used to guide the subsequent development of actions to detect, prosecute and combat crime committed with cryptocurrencies, as well as for the development of crime prevention measures aimed at the victims identified as potential victims and the most frequent crimes.