Cathy Haenlein

Cathy Haenlein is Director of Organised Crime and Policing Studies at RUSI. Her research explores the multilayered threat posed by serious and organised crime, including the shifting intersections between transnational criminal markets, licit economies and other threat areas. She is a recognised subject-matter expert in organised crime, illicit trade, corruption, natural resource governance and environmental security.

Cathy has authored over 65 publications and presented insights at some of the world’s most influential platforms, including the UN, G7, G20 and OECD. Her commentary and expertise have been featured by leading media outlets such as The Economist, The Guardian and the BBC.

Cathy has extensive experience delivering complex research programmes relating to crime and insecurity worldwide. She has a key focus on environmental crime, and has led fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Malawi, Mozambique, Gabon and Sierra Leone. She is the editor, with M L R Smith, of the book Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking and Security in Africa: Myths and Realities (Routledge, 2016).

Cathy is the Chair of RUSI’s Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research (SHOC), established in partnership with the National Crime Agency, Home Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and Research Councils UK. 

Before joining RUSI in 2012, she worked in Madagascar as a Project Development Specialist in the development sector. She also spent five years in Italy, working with European publications on EU–African relations, development cooperation and migration.

Cathy holds an MSc in African Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, with a focus on crime, conflict and peacekeeping – and a BA from Durham University in Combined Social Sciences (Criminology, Politics, Geography).

In more detail, her research areas cover:

• Transnational environmental crime: spanning wildlife crime, illegal fishing, minerals crime and waste crime, and domestic and multilateral responses.
   
• Organised crime as a multidimensional threat: covering evolving criminal markets for drugs, humans and arms, and illicit trade in a range of commodities.
   
• Corruption and criminal governance: the reach and dynamics of corrupt enablers and criminal governance structures in key locations.
   
• Frameworks and strategies to combat organised crime: including the effectiveness of law enforcement approaches and relevant sanctions regimes.