Criminal Justice System Assignment: On-Line World On Crime
Question
Task: Prepare the criminal justice system assignment discussing about the impact of on-line world on criminal justice system.
Answer
Introduction
The present report on criminal justice system assignment is focused on examining the impact of on-line world on criminal justice system. The increased use of information technology, mobile applications and internet has resulted in a significant rise in the crime rates across the world. The online world has also resulted in the increased rate of cybercrimes which can be described as the crime which is mediated with the help of networked technology. In simple words, old crimes such as harassment, fraud and theft have found new forms in information technologies and cyberspace. Therefore, it can be said that the on-line world has facilitated crime and deviance by way of offering approachability and prominence to normative perspectives and alternative justifications on different forms of cybercrime. Moreover, it has the capability of pressurizing the criminal justice system as well by bringing millions and billions of people in support for getting tough on the criminals. Criminal justice system can be defined as the series of institutions and agencies established by the government for the maintenance of the rule of law among the general public.This criminal justice system assignment is focused on how crime and criminal justice system gets impacted by the on- line world.
What is the impact of the On-line World on Crime and Criminal Justice System?
The on- line world is capable of stimulating the deviant and criminal activities as a result of incrusted and fragmented nature of the internet. This is due to the fact that the internet is not regulated by any centralized government body that can establish the norms regarding appropriate conduct. It allows maintaining false personalities and secrecy at the time of committing crimes in virtual spaces as compared to that in real physical space. It is also clear on this criminal justice system assignment that the use of disposable devices, apps, avatars and the deep web protects the criminals to a great extent through its added layer of security as it restricts the search engines from detecting the websites thereby facilitating the concealment of transactions made by criminals. The on- line world further facilitates the networking of those involved into nonconventional or illicit behaviour along with the socialization into subcultures. Cyberspace also has expert chat rooms and forums that have resulted in the creation of virtual spaces for networking and for forming trustworthy underground markets for child pornography, prostitution, illicit drugs, ideological deviant groups for inciting terrorism, engaging in harmful health risks like bug chasers, or engaging in espionage (Stalans, and Finn, 2016).
The criminal justice system assignment analyses the views of Moriarty (2017) that the existence of these kinds of forums in the cyberspace have provided widespread outreach around the world and therefore, assists in the establishment of reputation of the sellers that are engaged in selling illicit goods or services with the help of customer reviews. Moreover, these forums also play an important role in sharing and spreading of evasive strategies for the purpose of avoiding arrest and leads to the creation of market norms that aims to deter cooperating with the enforcement of law. Also, the existence of cyberspace and information technology in the connection of things such as phones, cars, home temperature controls and home security along with its importance in the form of critical infrastructure for societal institutions further highlights the severe damaging effects of cybercrime.
The criminals are getting more information relating to various aspects on the internet which further allow them to engage into criminal activities. Social media is increasingly becoming popular day by day among the users through crime related information is easily spread across larger audience in order to get their support. Some of the most popular social media websites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. where public posts are created for entertainment purpose or for getting the views of the audiences. The users uploads fight clips, re- shares transgression videos and also promotes fight pages. A number of fan pages are also created on these social media websites which allows the users to follow and connect to their area of interest, brand or cause. Therefore, there is a great impact of the on- line world in the form of social media on the way the users put away, distribute, view and curate the videotape of violence and crime. With the help of these clips and other viral content on the internet, the criminals are facilitated to have greater knowledge regarding how to plan their future criminal activities (Wood, 2017).
According to the research carried on criminal justice system assignment, Internet also plays a vital part in framing the viewpoint of the community at large regarding the criminal risk and social control. In simple words, it is capable of framing the attitudes of the community towards crime and justice as it offers different types of information regarding these issues easily. Moreover, the on- line world also increases the awareness among them regarding the deficiencies of the criminal justice system, blameworthiness of the offenders and the threat of crime in society. It can further be said in the context of this criminal justice system assignment that the traditional media such as television news and newspapers showed greater support for higher confidence in the police, punitive policies, and increased levels of anxiety regarding victimization. Therefore, the traditional media was capable of influencing the attitudes of only some kinds of individuals and the patterns of the audience impacted by the news were also not consistent. On the other hand, it is evident in this criminal justice system assignment that internet has started to become the primary news source for major category of people across the globe. In this way, internet is playing a substantial role in the social construction of opinions and attitudes regarding crime and justice (Roche, Pickett and Gertz, 2016).
The study used to develop this criminal justice system assignment mentions that Internet has also impacted the racial hate crimes and has therefore become a societal challenge. An affordable, accessible, anonymous and unscreened channel is offered by the internet for sharing and positing hate content and ideologies. Most of the hate activities appear on the popular social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The greater usage of internet by the people have led to the increase in the hate crime numbers as it trains the individuals in some way or other to commit such crimes. However, the areas where there is lower level of racism, the access to internet is less likely to cause an impact on the crimes relating to racial hate. In other words, the racial hate crimes are found to be concentrated in the areas having higher degree of racism. This implies that the policies framed for the purpose of fighting with the online hate content require to consider the peculiar pattern taken by the users in navigating the internet (Chan, Ghose and Seamans, 2016).
Cybercrime can be described as the crime which is mediated with the help of networked technology. Internet has brought fundamental changes to the society, but has also provided illegal access to the information to the unauthorized users and therefore causes harm to them. Therefore, it can be concluded that the online world is compromising with the safety and security of the information hereby creating a major challenge for the users. The growth of the users of internet has also brought a significant increase in the cases of cyber- crime and therefore, these crimes are no longer restricted by any national boundaries or geographical limitations of the world. These cyber- crimes are also found to create a negative impact on the social and economic lives of the people. For the purpose of effectively tackling the cybercrimes, multidimensional collaborations are required to be established between the information technology industry, law enforcement agencies, internet companies, information security organizations and the financial institutions. (Karali, Panda and Panda, 2015).
Digital society has led crime towards the path of digital criminology. Digital society can be defined as the perception that recognizes digital and communication technologies as the essential component of the social entity and makes the acknowledgment regarding the integration of digital media, technologies and networks in the day to day live of people along with in victimization, crime penetration and justice. In order to protect the sensitive information and stop these criminals from getting into these activities, inscrutable security is required to be used that is based on a unified system of hardware and software for authentication the information accessed through the internet (Stratton, Powell and Cameron, 2017).
It is further added by (Reyns, Randa and Henson (2016) that the examination of the connections between online exposure, online victimization, online prevention and online communication behaviors within a defined framework assists in identifying the causes of online crime prevention behaviors. Further research provides evidence regarding the influence of online lifestyles on the theorized cycle of preventative efforts and online victimization. Three crime prevention strategies have been identified by the researchers mentioned in the criminal justice system assignment in order to prevent online victimization: (i) target hardening (for e.g. increasing the level of security in some way or the other), (ii) increasing engagement in self- protective behaviors, (iii) increasing the guardianship of the probable target.
According to Feeley (2017), it is noted in the criminal justice system assignment that the criminal justice system can be described as the series of institutions and agencies established by the government. It undertakes its activities with the main aim of rehabilitating the offenders, providing moral support to the victims along with preventing other crimes. The primary institutions covered under the criminal justice system are prosecution, police, the courts, defense lawyers and the prisons. In simple words, it includes the law enforcement agencies along with the agencies for the supervision and detention of the offenders. The entire criminal justice system is able to work successfully when all these discrete agencies operate collectively as the foremost means for the maintenance of the rule of law among the general public.
The readings utilized to prepare this criminal justice system assignment illustrates that the on- line world also has a great impact on the criminal justice system due to the reason that it provides public access to the criminal justice data. Open access and digitization to the government data have resulted in the easy access and dissemination of the criminal justice information. Moreover this public availability of the data leads it to be reposted on various venues like crime watch blogs, websites, mug shot databases, Facebook Pages, etc. However, this is significantly impacting the privacy issues of the individuals and does not allow them to forget their mistakes and move on. This is due to the widely and rapidly accepted availability of data related to public crime which has outperformed the designing of legal protections for the people having the criminal label. The creation of the legislation on the republication of criminal justice data is still pending on the part of the lawmakers, but still the existing laws aims at protecting the website publishers along with offering little degree of recourse for the people appearing on the websites, even when the information published is outdated or incorrect. Furthermore, the website publishers also consider internet as a vital tool for the purpose of facilitating the criminal punishment. It is further believed by them that their efforts will assist and support the broader efforts in the context of crime control. The publishers also provide that through the creation of a permanent archive, criminal punishment is facilitated by them which is based on the belief that the criminal justice systems and laws are ultimately functional. However, this assistance can be utilized by the government for the purpose of disseminating information to the general public (Lageson, 2017).
It is further argued in the context if this criminal justice system assignment that crime and justice have changed to a great extent as a result of enhanced participation of the audience and their increased involvement in the creation of content. This change is said to be the consequence of emergence of social media which is clearly being reflected in the growth of justice and crime performances. Earlier, these performances were aimed towards wider heterogeneous audiences but its access was restricted by place, time and medium. On the other hand, it is also clear on this criminal justice system assignment that the new media performances are aimed towards smaller homogeneous audiences but has unlimited access as it is digital in nature. Traditionally, crime consisted of low visibility events in which an attempt was made by the actors to hide their identities. While, in the world of internet and social media, there is a competition between surreptitious crimes with the increased number of crimes having high- visibility. The transition to new media from legacy has brought a huge changes in the society and has led to the creation of new sort of stressors for criminal justice systems (Surette, 2015).
It is further argued by Siburian (2016) that the online world has also proved to be helpful for providing justice to various individuals as now the police agencies are conducting online sting operations for examining the social media performances of the individuals as a part of the investigations of crimes conducted by them. This is further undertaken by the police agencies for the purpose of identifying the suspects and for apprehension of offenders. In simple words, social media has impacted the law enforcement for the enhancement and extension of surveillance. Some of the involuntary performances that are offered by surveillance act as a valuable resource for the purpose of criminal justice. Now the focus of criminal justice system has also shifted to pre- crime prevention, target hardening and risk reduction from post- crime reactions, prosecutions and investigations. The segments covered in the criminal justice system assignment further implies that the criminal justice system no longer believes that a person can be brought under surveillance only when he/ she is under suspicion. In simple words, continuous, automatic and broadly targeted surveillance has now become a norm for the criminal justice system.
Conclusion
Therefore, by analysing the above segments of criminal justice system assignment, it can be concluded that the online world have created a significant impact on the crime and the criminal justice system across the world. The criminals are getting more information relating to various aspects on the internet which further allow them to engage into criminal activities. Social media also influence the way the users consume, distribute, view and curate the footage of violence and crime. Moreover, the findings obtained from the above analysis done in this criminal justice system assignment also signifies that the on- line world also increases the awareness among them regarding the deficiencies of the criminal justice system, blameworthiness of the offenders and the threat of crime in society. Internet has also impacted the racial hate crimes and has therefore become a societal challenge. Crime and justice have changed to a great extent as a result of enhanced participation of the audience and their increased involvement in the creation of content. The availability of data related to public crime has outperformed the designing of legal protections for the people having the criminal label. Online world has also proved to be helpful for providing justice to various individuals as now the police agencies are conducting online sting operations for examining the social media performances of the individuals as a part of the investigations of crimes conducted by them.
References
Chan, J., Ghose, A. and Seamans, R., 2016. Criminal justice system assignment The internet and racial hate crime: Offline spillovers from online access. MIS Quarterly, 40(2), pp.381-403.
Feeley, M., 2017. Two models of the criminal justice system: An organizational perspective. In Crime, Law and Society (pp. 119-137). Routledge.
Karali, Y., Panda, S. and Panda, C.S., 2015. Analysis of cyber crime and its impact in India. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 5(6), pp.119-127.
Lageson, S.E., 2017. Crime data, the internet, and free speech: An evolving legal consciousness. Law & Society Review, 51(1), pp.8-41.
Moriarty, L.J., 2017. Criminal justice technology in the 21st century. Criminal justice system assignment Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Reyns, B.W., Randa, R. and Henson, B., 2016. Preventing crime online: Identifying determinants of online preventive behaviors using structural equation modeling and canonical correlation analysis. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 18(1), pp.38-59.
Roche, S.P., Pickett, J.T. and Gertz, M., 2016. The scary world of online news? Internet news exposure and public attitudes toward crime and justice. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 32(2), pp.215-236.
Siburian, H.K., 2016. A Study of Internet and Cyber Crime. International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology, 2(6), pp.223-226.
Stalans, L.J. and Finn, M.A., 2016. Understanding how the internet facilitates crime and deviance. International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice, 11(4), pp. 501-508.
Stratton, G., Powell, A. and Cameron, R., 2017. Crime and justice in digital society: towards a ‘Digital Criminology’?. Criminal justice system assignment International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 6(2), pp.17-33.
Surette, R., 2015. Performance crime and justice. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 27(2), pp.195-216.
Wood, M.A., 2017. Antisocial media: Crime-watching in the internet age. Criminal justice system assignment Springer.
