World of Crime in 2025: 77 stories, thousands of readers, 43 supporters
I’ll skip the tired preaching about values and ideals and the death of journalism. If World of Crime has been useful to you, maybe help us out.
This year, World of Crime published 77 long-form stories.
Thousands of readers read them.
Forty-one people paid for them.
We’ll be publishing more than 100 in 2026.
So if you’ve read the newsletter regularly, or even just once or twice, and you found it useful, please think about helping us out. For a few euros a month, you get a year of deeply reported explainers about how organised crime is evolving around the world.
To say thank you, anyone who takes out a paid subscription between now and 7 January will receive a 30-minute confidential consultation with me, Chris Dalby, at a time that suits them in 2026.
I explain why, and what that looks like, further down.
Why World of Crime works the way it does
Most niche media grow their community around a single, repeated interest: one sport, one country, one problem.
World of Crime doesn’t work like that. One day, we reveal the latest opioid killing people in London. The next, we break down the indictment of a corrupt DEA agent. The next, we discuss Tren de Aragua, or luxury car theft, or Southeast Asian scam compounds.
This is done on purpose. We’re not breaking news, we break down what organised crime stories we think our readers should be looking at, pointing out the latest criminal innovation, trend, or criminal economy.
We’ve received a lot of support for this, but it also makes subscribing a harder decision. Not every story will be immediately relevant to every reader.
So we decided to ask you.
Through surveys, chats with our paying subscribers, and many, many conversations with law enforcement, academics, journalists, policymakers, here’s what we learned.
First: specifics matter.
The most consistent feedback was that World of Crime is useful when it breaks stories down to their constituent parts. Criminal activity is often reported as if it were uniform. But it isn’t. Cartel violence, crypto-scams, human trafficking operations, and fraud schemes all function differently, even when they look similar from the outside. Understanding who is involved, how they operate, and why they make the choices they do is often the difference between disruption and repetition.
Second: follow stories to the end
Many readers said they value reporting that is based on more than the first arrest or headline. A case in point: next week’s piece on tokuryu, a loosely organised form of criminal grouping in Japan. I’ve been tracking them for over a year, but until recently there wasn’t enough verified information to make the reporting useful. Since September, arrests in Japan and the Philippines have clarified how recruitment and control actually worked. Now, it makes sense to publish, because there is finally something concrete to explain.
A practical thank-you
As I mentioned, anyone who takes out a paid subscription between now and 7 January will receive a 30-minute confidential conversation with me in the coming months.
It can be about a criminal group or market you’re researching, a trend you’re trying to understand, an article recommendation, or a project you’re working on.
I’ll follow up personally with new subscribers to arrange a time.
Thank you so much for your support, and I wish you very happy holidays,
Best,
Chris Dalby
Director, World of Crime
