ABSTRACT
Within academic and policy doma ins the thinking around the policing of contemporary 'communities' has been largely preoccupied by common-sense notions of diversity. Communities are seen as internally fragmented in terms of ethnicity, geography, rel igion, sexuality, class and age. Some groups are identified as 'hard-to-reach' (Jones and Newburn, 20(H) signalling their abstraction from the 'homogeneous' elements of the community withiu which they live. Reassurance and neighbourhood policing initiatives have targeted these groups in an attempt to fill the 'reassurance gap' (ACPO, 2001; Innes, 2004: 151). In tandem, conceptual and empirical work on the plurality of policing has shown how the 'mixed economy' of patrol in relation to these ini tiat ives is both beneficial and problematic (Crawford and Lister, 2006; Hughes and Rowe, this issue) . Attempts at making communities and the isolated groups within them safer while also reducing fear of crime have shown varying degrees of success in the Uni ted States and Britain (Skogan and Steiner, 2004; Tuffin et aI., 2006). Innes (2006a) argues that part of the reason for the 'pockets of success' is the 'discursive' shift from 'community policing' to notions of 'reassurance' and 'neighbourhood' policing. lnnes also notes that this is more than simple rhetoric as it reflects an 'increasing awareness among police officers about the complexity of the policing environment' (2006b: 96). This complexity is reflected in the recognition that in late modern society 'traditional' definitions of community are subject to challenge and, in response, 'neighbourhood' becomes a site and focus for policing with specific bounded geodemographies. This article questions the extent to which this awareness and recent trends in policing, extends beyond notions of community, neighbourhood and diversity into the domain of 'non-terrestrial' cyberspaces. These 'cyber-communities' and 'cyber-neighbourhoods' can be conceptualized as deeply embedded within a mixed economy of crime control and in need of reassurance in the face of a burgeoning cybercrime problem.
