BIOGRAPHY
Dr Suleman Lazarus is a Visiting Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). At the LSE, Dr Lazarus is engaged in collaborative research projects, including (a) "Cybercrime Against Senior Citizens", (b) “Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice”, (c) "Convicted Cryptocurrency Fraudsters," (d) “Love, Lies and Larceny," and (e)“Human Trafficking, Job Scams, and Cybercrime Intersections.” Additionally, he is conducting a solo research project titled (a) Citation Politics, and North–South Power Dynamics” and (b) "Cybercriminal Networks and Insights from the ‘Black Axe’ Confraternity." Previously, he served as a Visiting Researcher in the Geography Department at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2019 to 2020.
EDUCATION
Dr Suleman Lazarus holds a multidisciplinary PhD from the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth (UoP). Before that, he earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Before university, he attended Lambeth College in London, where he completed his pre-university qualifications. His academic journey continued at the University of Greenwich (UoG), where he obtained a bachelor’s degree with First-Class Honours in 2013. He received the University Merit Award for achieving the highest classification in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
His multidisciplinary research interests include (1) Cybercriminals and society, (2) Online fraudsters and colonial legacies, (3) Cyber spiritualism in romance scams, (4) Feminism and the Tripartite Cybercrime Framework, (5) Penalties of divorce, (6) Child punishment across cultures, and (7) The therapeutic values of poetry.
Google Scholar
Web of Science
Research Gate
EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES
Dr Suleman Lazarus is an Associate Editor of a journal, Digital Threats: Research and Practice. He also serves as a referee for many established journals, such as the following:
- Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
- Social Science Computer Review
- Computer Law and Security Review
- Children and Youth Service Review
- Computers in Human Behavior
- Journal of Family Studies
- Journal of Crime and Justice
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Soares, A. B., Lazarus, S., & Button, M. (2025). Love, Lies, and Larceny: One Hundred Convicted Case Files of Cybercriminals with Eighty Involving Online Romance Fraud. Deviant Behavior, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2025.2482824
Lazarus, S., & Soares, A. B. (2025). From business centres to hustle kingdoms: Historical perspectives on innovative models of deviant education. International Annals of Criminology, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/cri.2025.1
Lazarus, S., Chiang, M., & Button, M. (2025). Assessing Human Trafficking and Cybercrime Intersections Through Survivor Narratives. Deviant Behavior, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2025.2470402
Whittaker, J. M., McGuire, M. R., & Lazarus, S. (2025). Conversations with deviant website developers: A case study of online shopping fraud enablers. Journal of Criminology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/26338076251321844
Lazarus, S. (2025). 'Online romance scams: who Nigeria and Ghana's fraudsters are, how they operate, and why they do it,' The Conversation, retrieved: https://theconversation.com/online-romance-scams-who-nigeria-and-ghanas-fraudsters-are-how-they-operate-and-why-they-do-it-247916
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, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2024.2446328
Lazarus, S. (2024). Assessing cybercrime syndicates: Understanding ‘Black Axe’ confraternity and cybercriminal networks in business email compromise (BEC) scams. The Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal, 14, 24–26. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126524/
Button, M., Gilmour, P. M., Hock, B., Jain, T., Jesperson, S., Lazarus, S., Pandey, D., & Sabia, J. (2024). Scoping study on fraud centres: Ghana, India and Nigeria. ITAD. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126338/
Soares, A. B., & Lazarus, S. (2024). Examining Fifty Cases of Convicted Online Romance Fraud Offenders. Criminal Justice Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2024.2429088
Lazarus, S. (2024). An Autoethnographic Perspective on Scholarly Impact, Citation Politics, and North-South Power Dynamics. Life Writing. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126252/
Garba, K. H., Lazarus, S. & Button, M. (2024). An Assessment of Convicted Cryptocurrency Fraudsters
Current Issues in Criminal Justice. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125357/
Lazarus, S., Ghafari, A. R., Kapend, R., Rezayee, K. J., Aminpoor, H., Essar, M. Y., & Nemat, A. (2024). Nomophobia (No-mobile-phone Phobia) among undergraduate medical students. Heliyon, 10, 16, E36250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36250
Lazarus, S., Tickner, P., & McGuire, M. (in press). Cybercrime Against Senior Citizens: Exploring Ageism, Ideal Victimhood, and the Pivotal Role of Socioeconomics. Security Journal, 1–19. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/123873/
Lazarus, S. (2024). Cybercriminal Networks and Operational Dynamics of Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scammers: Insights from the “Black Axe” Confraternity. Deviant Behavior, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2024.2352049
Whittaker, J. M., Lazarus, S., & Corcoran, T. (2024). Are fraud victims nothing more than animals? Critiquing the propagation of “pig butchering”(Sha Zhu Pan, 杀猪盘). Journal of Economic Criminology, 100052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100052
Lazarus et al. (2023). Cheques or Dating Scams? Online Fraud Themes in Hip-Hop Songs Across Popular Music Apps. Journal of Economic Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2023.100033
Lazarus, S., Whittaker, J. M., McGuire, M. R., & Platt, L. (2023). What Do We Know About Online Romance Fraud Studies? A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature (2000 to 2021). Journal of Economic Criminology, 100013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2023.100013
Lazarus, S. (2023) Social Media Users Compare Internet Fraudsters to Nigerian Politicians. The LSE BLOG (Blog entry):
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2023/02/02/social-media-users-compare-internet-fraudsters-to-nigerian-politicians/
Lazarus, S., Button, M. & Adogame, A. (2022). Advantageous Comparison: Using Twitter Responses to Understand Similarities between Cybercriminals (“Yahoo Boys”) and Politicians (“Yahoo men”). Heliyon, e11142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11142
Nemat A., Danishmand T.J., Essar M.Y., Raufi N, Ahmad S., & Lazarus S. (2022). Hijab or Niqab Interacts with Facemasks Usage at Healthcare Settings in Kabul, Afghanistan: A Multi-Center Observational Study. Healthcare. 10(10):1946. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10101946
Lazarus, S. and Button, M. (2022). Online fraudsters, colonial legacies, and the north-south divide in Nigeria. The Conversation (Blog Entry):
https://theconversation.com/online-fraudsters-colonial-legacies-and-the-north-south-divide-in-nigeria-187879
Lazarus, S., Button, M. (2022). Tweets and Reactions: Revealing the Geographies of Cybercrime Perpetrators and the North-South Divide. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2021.0332
Lazarus, S., Button, M. and Kapend, R. (2022). Exploring the Value of Feminist Theory in Understanding Digital Crimes. Howard Journal of Crime and Justice. https://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12485
Lazarus, S. (2021). Demonstrating the Therapeutic Values of Poetry in Doctoral Research. Methodological Innovations. 14 (2) 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/20597991211022014
Lazarus, S. and Okolorie, G. U. (2019). The Bifurcation of the Nigerian Cybercriminals: Narratives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Agents. Telematics and Informatics, 40, 14-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2019.04.009
Lazarus, S. (2019). Where is the Money? The Intersectionality of the Spirit World and the Acquisition of Wealth. Religions, 10, (3), 146, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10030146
Lazarus, S. (2019). Just Married: The Synergy between Feminist Criminology and The Tripartite Cybercrime Framework. International Social Science Journal, 69 (231) 15-33. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12201
Lazarus, Suleman. (2019). 'Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others': The Hierarchy of Citizenship in Austria. Laws, 8(3), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws8030014
Lazarus, Suleman. (2018). Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The Nigerian Cyber Fraudsters (Yahoo Boys) and Hip-Hop Artists. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 19 (2), 63-80. https://ccjls.scholasticahq.com/article/3792
Rush, M., and Lazarus, S. (2018). 'Troubling' Chastisement: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Child Punishment in Ghana and Ireland. Sociological Research Online, 23, (1), 177-196. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780417749250
Lazarus, S., Rush, M., Dibiana, E. T., and Monks, C. P. (2017). Gendered Penalties of Divorce on Remarriage in Nigeria: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 48 (3), 351-366. https://doi.org/10.3138/jcfs.48.3.351