  As cybercrime becomes one of the most significant threats facing society
today, it is of utmost importance to better understand the perpetrators behind
such attacks. In this article, we seek to advance research and practitioner
understanding of the cybercriminal (cyber-offender) profiling domain by
conducting a rigorous systematic review. This work investigates the
aforementioned domain to answer the question: what is the state-of-the-art in
the academic field of understanding, characterising and profiling
cybercriminals. Through the application of the PRISMA systematic literature
review technique, we identify 39 works from the last 14 years (2006-2020). Our
findings demonstrate that overall, there is lack of a common definition of
profiling for cyber-offenders. The review found that one of the primary types
of cybercriminals that studies have focused on is hackers and the majority of
papers used the deductive approach as a preferred one. This article produces an
up-to-date characterisation of the field and also defines open issues deserving
of further attention such as the role of security professionals and law
enforcement in supporting such research, as well as factors including
personality traits which must be further researched whilst exploring online
criminal behaviour. By understanding online offenders and their pathways
towards malevolent behaviours, we can better identify steps that need to be
taken to prevent such criminal activities.
