The Future of Cyber Criminology
The Future of Cyber Criminology
The Future of Cyber Criminology
Copyright 2010 International Journal of Cyber Criminology (IJCC) ISSN: 0974 2891
Jan July 2010, July - December 2010 (Combined Issue) Vol 4 (1&2): 2631
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EDITORIAL
K. Jaishankar
Internet technology and the development of cyberspace have taken society to the next
level of evolution. Cyberspace has defied the boundaries and has made geography (or
place) irrelevant. Cyberspace presents myriad potential opportunities for society in the
new millennium. In the 1990s, a new era was ushered in, in which Internet technology
reigned supreme. However, the increase in the netizens has dwarfed the technology to a
mere medium. Additionally, the perpetrators who attacked machines through machines
have started attacking real humans through the machines. This radical development led
criminologists to address the need for a discipline to study and analyze criminal behavior in
cyberspace. The crimes, offender behaviors, and victimization that occur in cyberspace
needed to be studied from a social science versus a technological perspective. In this
backdrop, I established cyber criminology as a sub discipline within the larger ambit of
Criminology in 2007, with the launch of the International Journal of Cyber Criminology
(http://www.cybercrimejournal.com), an online open access journal. In 2008, I also
developed a theory to further the discipline of cyber criminology. The theory is called
space transition theory, and it explains the causation of crimes in cyberspace (Jaishankar,
2007, 2008).
Cyber criminology is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses researchers from various
fields such as criminology, victimology, sociology, Internet science, and computer science.
I define cyber criminology as the study of causation of crimes that occur in the
cyberspace and its impact in the physical space (Jaishankar, 2007, para 1). I academically
coined the term cyber criminology for two reasons. First, the body of knowledge that
deals with cyber crimes should not be confused with investigation and be merged with
cyber forensics; second, there should be an independent discipline to study and explore
cyber crimes from a social science perspective.
Since the launch of the International Journal of Cyber Criminology, the term cyber
criminology has taken its academic roots in the online as well as offline academic circles
(Jaishankar, 2007; Nhan & Bachmann, 2010). According to Nhan and Bachmann (2010),
Cyber criminology is slowly emerging from a niche area that is often marginalized by
mainstream criminology to one of high importance (p. 175). Although cyber
criminology is gaining hold within the mainstream field of criminology, the big question
is, Will it evolve as a separate discipline? There are many such criminologies that have
1Copyright 2011. From Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior by K. Jaishankar.
Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, a division of Informa plc.
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2010 International Journal of Cyber Criminology. All rights reserved. Under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India License
International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Vol 4 Issue 1&2 January - July 2010 / July - December 2010
1. Issues in Teaching
Many of the universities in the United States and the United Kingdom offer
criminology programs with a course in cyber crime. Recently, some universities in the
United Kingdomsuch as Canterbury Christ Church University; University College,
Dublin; and University of Bedfordshirehave started offering master of science (MSc)
courses in cyber crime forensics and forensic computing. The mushrooming courses on
cyber forensics prove that universities are more interested in the practical investigative part
of cyber crimes than the causation of cyber crimes. Although the practical part is
important, neglecting the theoretical issues behind cyber crimes would not compliment a
holistic understanding of cyber crimes. Hence, courses should be offered as an MSc in
cyber criminology and forensics; this will enable a combination of both theoretical and
practical aspects of cyber crimes.
Getting quality teachers to teach cyber crimes, laws, and investigation is one of the
biggest challenges in developing programs in cyber criminology. The growth of Internet
science, computer science, and information technology has a great impact on the
development of the cyber criminology discipline. Conventional criminologists do not
seem to be adapting to the growing needs of the expanding criminological discipline.
They are not learning additional disciplines such as information technology and Internet
science, both of which encompass the scope of cyber criminology. Without technical
knowledge, conventional criminologists cannot move beyond teaching the merely
theoretical aspects of cyber crime. On the other hand, if technocrats were to be involved
in teaching cyber criminology, they may be much less concerned with teaching the
fundamentals of cyber criminology. They might be more inclined to speak about the
technology than about the issues behind the cause of cyber crimes. Alternatively, if lawyers
were to teach cyber criminology, they might focus only on cyber laws, thus leaving out
other important components of cyber crimes. Such atomistic teaching by criminologists,
technocrats, or lawyers will not help efforts to advance the formal discipline of cyber
criminology. There is a strong need for holistic professionals who have a collective
knowledge of cyber criminology, law, and forensics and who can take cyber criminology
to the next level. Conventional criminology departments could offer a multidisciplinary
program of cyber criminology and forensics with assistance from other departments, such
as departments of computer science, law, and information technology. Those professionals
who complete their degrees in cyber criminology could then be further absorbed as
research and teaching assistants to develop the discipline. This would create a pool of
professionals who would serve as a repository, of sorts, with a blend of both theoretical
and practical knowledge of cyber crimes, investigation, and laws; these professionals would
be valuable in advancing the profession as well as assisting the criminal justice
administration in the investigation of cyber crimes.
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K. Jaishankar - Editorial The future of Cyber Criminology: Challenges and Opportunities
Opportunities
The installation of a new International Cyber Crime Research Centre at the Simon
Frazer University Centre for Cybercrime Research and at the University of Ontario
Institute of Technologyboth in Canadaprovides a good base for the development of
research works in cyber criminology. Research centers such the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society and the Centre for Cybercrime Studies at John Jay College of
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2010 International Journal of Cyber Criminology. All rights reserved. Under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India License
International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Vol 4 Issue 1&2 January - July 2010 / July - December 2010
29
2010 International Journal of Cyber Criminology. This work is licensed under a under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India License
K. Jaishankar - Editorial The future of Cyber Criminology: Challenges and Opportunities
Music piracy is a highly debatable area. Many countries in the world differ in the
ownership of music. While some countries strongly emphasize the copyright issue and
ownership of music, some countries openly allow download of music via torrents and
other peer to peer sites. Gunter et al explores this aspect from a different set of population
from an US perspective. As most of the studies in this area so far concentrated among
college students, this study comes as a break in the tradition. This study analyzed the
behavior of music piracy among school students. The researchers tried to predict
involvement in music piracy with demographics (sex, race, and class), educational
achievement and aspirations, and self-control and found that the said factors had an effect
on the school students in relation with music piracy.
Cyber bullying is one of the largest analyzed crimes of the internet. However, cyber
bullying research remains only to populations of few countries. Su and Holt have moved
beyond this convention and have analyzed a set of population which was not studied
earlier. They examined the behavior of victims and bullies of a Chinese population. Until
now, language barrier did not allow such studies to be brought to the international
audience. However, with efficient translators and analysts such studies became possible and
this study is an important contribution as it gives a new dimension to cyber bullying
research. The study found out the usage of sexual overtones in bullying and also the
concern of the bystander towards victims. This finding of bystander support is very new as
most of the other studies have shown the involvement of bystander as either an active or
passive participant and not as a strong mediator who stop such crimes.
Reporting behavior is an important area of research in the field of victimology. Moore et
al have tried to examine the reporting behavior of online harassment. Unlike the physical
space harassment where females tend not to report their victimization, most of the females
have reported their online victimization. The researchers have also found that parental
regulations had no impact on their reporting behavior. Also the researchers emphasized
that youth who are more in the cyberspace report more on their victimization than those
who infrequently visit the cyberspace. This research on cyber victimization fills the gap in
the literature and is a novel contribution to both the fields of cyber criminology and
victimology.
The analysis by Marion is on the effectiveness of the Convention of Cyber Crime
created by the Council of Europe in 2001. Marion examines the Convention of Cyber
Crime from the symbolic perspective developed by Edelman (1964). She has made a
extraordinary critique of the Convention of Cyber Crime and emphasized that the current
stature of the Convention of Cyber Crime is not going to be useful to member countries
in the mitigation of crimes, as it is a mere symbolic exercise. She has also provided some
suggestions to improve the effectiveness of the Convention of Cyber Crime and for
creating better policy on cyber crimes.
Acknowledgements
This issue was possible only because of the authors continued faith in the quality of the
International Journal of Cyber Criminology and its outstanding reviewers. The reviewers
of this issue provided their review in a short notice and have greatly supported me in
bringing out the issue. From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely thank all the reviewers
for their constant support and assistance that makes International Journal of Cyber
Criminology a quality online open access journal which sincerely believes that knowledge
of cyber crimes should unreservedly reach everyone who has an access to the internet.
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2010 International Journal of Cyber Criminology. All rights reserved. Under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India License
International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Vol 4 Issue 1&2 January - July 2010 / July - December 2010
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