Cybercrime And Digital Deviance

Cybercrime and Digital Deviance is a work that combines insights from sociology, criminology, and computer science to explore cybercrimes such as hacking and romance scams, along with forms of cyberdeviance such as pornography addiction, trolling, and flaming. Other issues are explored including cybercrime investigations, organized cybercrime, the use of algorithms in policing, cybervictimization, and the theories used to explain cybercrime. Graham and Smith make a conceptual distinction between a terrestrial, physical environment and a single digital environment produced through networked computers. Conceptualizing the online space as a distinct environment for social interaction links this text with assumptions made in the fields of urban sociology or rural criminology. Students in sociology and criminology will have a familiar entry point for understanding what may appear to be a technologically complex course of study. The authors organize all forms of cybercrime and cyberdeviance by applying a typology developed by David Wall: cybertrespass, cyberdeception, cyberviolence, and cyberpornography. This typology is simple enough for students just beginning their inquiry into cybercrime. Because it is based on legal categories of trespassing, fraud, violent crimes against persons, and moral transgressions it provides a solid foundation for deeper study. Taken together, Graham and Smith’s application of a digital environment and Wall’s cybercrime typology makes this an ideal upper level text for students in sociology and criminal justice. It is also an ideal introductory text for students within the emerging disciplines of cybercrime and cybersecurity.

Cybercrime and Digital Deviance, Second Edition, combines insights from sociology, criminology, psychology, and cybersecurity to explore cybercrimes such as hacking, identity theft, and romance scams, along with forms of digital deviance such as pornography addiction, trolling, and “canceling” people for perceived violations of norms. Other issues are explored including cybercrime investigations, nation-state cybercrime, the use of algorithms in policing, cybervictimization, and expanded discussion of the theories used to explain cybercrime. Graham and Smith conceptualize the online space as a distinct environment for social interaction, framing their work with assumptions informed by their respective work in urban sociology and spatial criminology, and offering an engaging entry point for understanding what may appear to be a technologically complex course of study. The authors apply a modified version of a typology developed by David Wall: cybertrespass, cyberfraud, cyberviolence, and cyberpornography. This typology is simple enough for students just beginning their inquiry into cybercrime, while its use of legal categories of trespassing, fraud, violent crimes against persons, and moral transgressions provides a solid foundation for deeper study. In this edition each chapter includes a new “Current Events and Critical Thinking” section, using concepts from the chapter to explore a specific event or topic like the effect of disinformation on social cohesion and politics. Taken together, Graham and Smith’s application of a digital environment and Wall’s cybercrime typology makes this an ideal upper-level text for students in sociology and criminal justice. It is also an ideal introductory text for students within the emerging disciplines of cybercrime and cybersecurity.

This volume presents the reader with an interesting and, at times, provocative selection of contemporary thinking about cybercrimes and their regulation. The contributions cover the years 2002-2007, during which period internet service delivery speeds increased a thousand-fold from 56kb to 56mb per second. When combined with advances in networked technology, these faster internet speeds not only made new digital environments more easily accessible, but they also helped give birth to a completely new generation of purely internet-related cybercrimes ranging from spamming, phishing and other automated frauds to automated crimes against the integrity of the systems and their content. In order to understand these developments, the volume introduces new cybercrime viewpoints and issues, but also a critical edge supported by some of the new research that is beginning to challenge and surpass the hitherto journalistically-driven news stories that were once the sole source of information about cybercrimes.

This book crosses the boundaries of sociological, criminological and cultural discourse in order to explore the implications of recent massive transformations in information and communication technologies for the growth of criminal and deviant identities and behaviour on the Internet.

This initiating monograph provides the first thorough examination of the concept of white-collar crime online. Applying an offender-based perspective which considers the central role of convenience, it seeks to inform, improve and develop the current literature on cybercrime, whilst paying particular attention to its founding category within criminology. It argues that white-collar crime has receded from criminological perspectives on cybercrime in recent years and that a detailed, rich re-assessment of white-collar crime in contemporary digital societies is needed. Following a theoretical introduction, the book develops to discuss, inter alia, implications for corporate reputation, the various organizational roles utilized in mitigating external and internal threats, the unique considerations involved in law enforcement efforts, and likely future directions within the field. White-Collar Crime Online recognises the strong lineage and correlation that exists between the study of white-collar crime and cybercrime. Using convenience theory within a comparative analysis which includes case-studies, the book explores both European and American paradigms, perspectives and models to determine where white-collar crime exists within the contemporary workplace and how this might relate to the ongoing discourse on cybercrime. In doing so it revaluates criminological theory within the context of changing patterns of business, the workplace, social rules, systems of governance, decision making, social ordering and control. White-Collar Crime Online will speak to criminologists, sociologists and professionals; including those interested in cyber-security, economics, technology and computer science.

Amidst the sensationalist claims about the dangers of the Internet, Virtually Criminal provides an empirically grounded criminological analysis of deviance and regulation within an online community. It integrates theory and empiricism to forge an explanation of cybercrime whilst offering new insights into online regulation. One of the first studies to further our understanding of the causes of cyber deviance, crime and its control, this groundbreaking study from Matthew Williams takes the Internet as a site of social and cultural (re)production, and acknowledges the importance of online social/cultural formations in the genesis and regulation of cyber deviance and crime. A blend of criminological, sociological and linguistic theory, this book provides a unique understanding of the aetiology of cybercrime and deviance. Focus group and offence data are analyzed and an interrelationship between online community, deviance and regulation is established. The subject matter of the book is inherently transnational. It makes extensive use of a number of international case studies, ensuring it is relevant to readers in multiple countries (especially the US, the UK and Australasia). Pioneering and innovative, this fascinating book will be of interest to students and researchers across the disciplines of sociology, criminology, law and media and communication studies.

Computers and the Internet play an increasingly pivotal role in daily life, making it vitally important to understand the dynamics of cybercrime and those victimized by it. The anthology Cybercrime and Criminological Theory: Fundamental Readings on Hacking, Piracy, Theft, and Harassment explores the predictors for participation in various forms of cybercrime and deviance, from common problems like media piracy, to more distinct offenses such as computer hacking. Most criminological theories were developed to account for street crimes, so it is unclear how these theories may apply to virtual offending. This text provides critical insight into the utility of multiple theories to account for cybercrimes. Cybercrime and Criminological Theory gives direct insight into the rates and prevalence of cybercrime offenses using data sets from populations across the United States. It gives readers a fundamental understanding of, and appreciation for various forms of cybercrime, and outlines prospective predictors of both offending and victimization. The selected readings identify research questions that must be addressed in order to improve the legal, technical, and policy responses to cybercrimes. Cybercrime and Criminological Theory begins with an introduction to cybercrime and virtual criminality. From there, the book offers five sections featuring seminal and cutting edge works on topics in: - Routine Activities Theory - Deterrence Theory - Social Learning and Self Control - General Strain Theory - Deviant Subcultures The book uses articles and cutting-edge research in the field to create a text that is relevant for students at all levels of study, as well as scholars in criminology, sociology, and information security. Undergraduate students will gain insight into the value of various theories to account for victimization and offending, and learn basic research methods applied by criminologists to assess crime and victimization. Graduate students benefit from the detail provided on research methods, measurement, and research questions that must be addressed to fully understand cybercrimes. Thomas J. Holt earned his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri, Saint Louis. He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. His areas of research include computer hacking, malware, and the role played by technology and computer-mediated communications in facilitating crime and deviance. Dr. Holt is the co-author of Digital Crime and Digital Terror, and the co-editor of Corporate Hacking and Technology-Driven Crime. He is also the editor of the book Cybercrime: Causes, Correlates, and Context. His work has also been published in numerous academic journals, including Crime and Delinquency, Deviant Behavior, and the Journal of Criminal Justice. Dr. Holt received two grants from the U.S. National Institute of Justice to examine the market for malicious software, and the social dynamics of carders and on-line data thieves. Additionally, he is the project lead for the Spartan Devils Chapter of the Honeynet Project, and directs the MSU Open Source Research Laboratory, which explores cyber threats around the globe through on-line research.

Covering a wide range of different online platforms, including social media sites and chatrooms, this volume is a comprehensive exploration of the current state of sociological and criminological scholarship focused on online deviance. Understanding deviance broadly, the handbook acknowledges both an objective normative approach and a subjective, reactivist approach to the topic, putting into sharp relief the distinctions between cybercrime and online deviance on the one hand, and wider concerns of online communities related to online deviance on the other. Divided into five sections, the first section is devoted primarily to scholarship about the theories and methods foundational to exploring online deviance. The second section, "Gender, Sex, and Sexuality", presents empirical research on expressions of gender, sex, and sexuality in online spaces considered deviant. The third section, "Violence and Aggression," highlights scholarship on types of violent communications such as hate speech and cyberstalking. The fourth section, "Communities and Culture," describes empirical research on online communities and networks that can be described as deviant by wider society. Lastly, the fifth section, "Regional Perspectives," highlights research in which a terrestrial location is impactful to the online phenomena studied. Providing a window into future scholarship over the next several years and acknowledging the ephemeral nature of research on digital technology, The Routledge International Handbook on Online Deviance is essential reading for students and scholars of Criminology and Sociology focused on deviant online behaviour. It will also appeal to those working in related areas within Internet/Digital Studies, Media/Communication Studies, Psychology, and Cybersecurity.