Abstract
Through the application of counter-detection activities, football hooligan groups in Poland have created organised crime networks, that are able to identify, locate and neutralise police intelligence activities. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the issue of counter-detection activities undertaken by members of organised crime groups has not been acknowledged by researchers. Therefore, the existing body of work on forensic tactics as a scientific discipline needs to be critically analysed, and new definitions need to be adopted. The scope of the study includes definitions of forms of counter-detection activities (e.g. counter-surveillance or inverse surveillance), as well as the classification and functions of counter-detection activities. The article seeks to establish a framework and define the conceptual grid and key assumptions underlying the concept of counter-detection activities. It is the first desk-research analysis to systematise knowledge on the counter-detection activities of criminal groups. Analysis results are the basis for the creation of a theory of anti-forensics,: its typology is presented with the example of groups of football hooligans. The authors define the concept of counter-detection activities and its purpose, and seek to delineate the basic forms and strategies of counter-detection. The knowledge presented is also referred to as ‘anti-forensics’, which in fact, is a specific area of knowledge on how to prevent the detection of crimes and criminals. This follows directly from the wording of the cardinal rule of all crime-fighting: ‘Think like a criminal’.