LECTURE-1

DIGITAL CRIME AND COMPUTER

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Contd…
● There are many positive uses of the Internet. However, it has become
an area of Wild West. Many unscrupulous persons started using it for
criminal purposes. Notably, the founding fathers of the Internet did not
envisage that it will become a medium of criminality or it will create
new forms of crime. This legal lacuna further created problems, as
many of the countries did not know how to manage cyber crimes in
their jurisdictions.

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● Initially, academics also could not understand cyber crime as it
is a new form of crime. Especially, criminologists were very
slow in researching cyber crimes, though; their counterparts in
the field of computer and internet science surpassed them and
created new fields such as information security and cyber
forensics.

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Definition:
● "Cyber Criminology" is defined as:
ʺthe study of causation of crimes that
occur in the cyberspace and its impact
in the physical space.”

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● As an academic discipline, cyber criminology includes
multidisciplinary field of inquiry - criminology, sociology,
psychology, victimology, information technology and
computer / internet sciences.
● “At its core, cyber criminology involves 1. the examination of
criminal behavior and 2. victimization in cyber space from a
criminological or behavioral theoretical perspective”.

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Reason for the Creation of New Domain:
● This new field within the larger ambit of criminology for two
main 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“.

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Theories in Cyber Criminology

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Theories on Causation of Cyber Crimes:
● There are many scholars who attempted to address the
causation of cyber crimes with traditional theories such as:
● 1. Social Learning Theory,
● 2. Routine Activities Theory and
● 3. Drift and Neutralization theory.

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● However, they were not fully successful in their explanation of
cyber crimes, as the cyber space is altogether a new space and
cyber crime is a new form of crime . Latest is:
● 4. Space Transition Theory.

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1. Social Learning Theory
● Social learning theory is one of the most popular and frequently researched theories in
criminology. Social learning theory has its roots in the work from the 1940s with Dr.
Edwin Sutherland differential association. Dr. Sutherland theory of differential
association stated that crime is learned through interactions with close associates.
American criminologist Dr. Ronald Akers social learning theory was developed around the
theoretical conceptions of differential association and the principles of Behavior Science.
Akers also builts on the work of psychologist Dr. Albert Bandura as his social learning
theory evolved.

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● Dr. Akers social learning theory states that
people develop motivation to commit
crime and the skills to commit crime
through the people whom they associate.
In simply terms, people learn new
behaviors, values, and attitudes by direct
experience and observing other people’s
behavior through positive or negative
stimuli.

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● Social Learning Theory integrated behavioral and cognitive
theories of learning in order to provide a comprehensive model
that could account for the wide range of learning experiences
that occur in the real world.
● As initially outlined by Bandura and Walters in 1963 and
further detailed in 1977, key tenets of Social Learning
Theory are as follows:

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Key points:
● 1. Learning is not purely behavioral; rather, it is a cognitive
process that takes place in a social context.
● 2. Learning can occur by observing a behavior and by
observing the consequences of the behavior (vicarious
reinforcement).

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● 3. Learning involves observation, extraction of information from those
observations, and making decisions about the performance of the
behavior (observational learning or modeling). Thus, learning can
occur without an observable change in behavior.
● 4. Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely
responsible for learning.
● 5. The learner is not a passive recipient of information. Cognition,
environment, and behavior all mutually influence each other
(reciprocal determinism).

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4 Process in Social Learning Theory
● Dr. Akers suggest that four (4) processes need to occur for
social learning theory to be present.
1. Attention
2. Retention
3. Reproduction
4. Motivation

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● It was first proposed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen
in their explanation of crime rate changes in the United States
between 1947 and 1974.
● Routine activity theory, revolves around three things: 1. a
“potential offender, 2. a suitable target, and 3. the absence
of a capable guardian”.
● All three must come together in order for criminal activity to be
realized. As in any theory, routine activity theory has its
criticisms.

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● The routine activity theory describes how likely offenders
come to commit a crime partly based on their normal
everyday activities. Routine travel and activities can bring a
motivated offender into contact with a desirable though
vulnerable asset without appropriate guardianship. The
simultaneous concurrence of the three elements of the routine
activity theory will witness the possible occurrence of a crime.

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Thus
● Routine activities’ refer to the set patterns of behavior within the spatial
environment of three kinds of social actors: (a) motivated offenders; (b)
capable guardians of persons or property; and (c) suitable targets of
criminal victimization (targets may be persons or places).
● The interconnection of these patterns may account for criminal activities.
routine activities theory may act as a bridge between the sociology of crime and
the sociology of crime control and of the production of security.

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● Neutralization theory was developed in 1957 by Dr. Gresham Sykes
and his former student, Dr. David Matza.   
● Their theory presented a different perspective on social control which
was first explained by Edwin Surtherland in 1947 through his
Learning Theory.   Dr. Matza felt that Routine Activity Theory was
being left out and developed the Neutralization and Drift Theory to
help explain why delinquents drift in and out of delinquency. 

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According to Gresham Sykes and David Matza:
● Acts that violate norms or go against beliefs can carry with them guilt and
shame, which dissuades most adolescents from engaging in criminal or
delinquent acts. Would-be delinquents, therefore, find ways to preemptively
neutralize the guilt and protect their self-image if they choose to participate in
delinquent or deviant behavior.
● One way to do this is by using techniques of neutralization that provide
episodic relief from moral constraint and allow individuals to drift back and
forth between delinquent and conventional behavior.

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Five neutralization techniques:
Sykes and Matza outlined five neutralization techniques:
● 1. denial of responsibility,
● 2. denial of injury,
● 3. denial of victims,
● 4. appeal to higher loyalties, and
● 5. condemnation of condemners

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THEORIES IN CYBER
CRIMINOLOGY
● Space Transition
Theory of Cyber
Crimes: A unique
Theory to further the
discipline of Cyber
Criminology

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● Prof. Karuppannan
Jaishankar

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● 1. Persons, with repressed criminal behavior (in the physical
space) have a propensity to commit crime in cyberspace,
which, otherwise they would not commit in physical space, due
to their status and position.
● 2. Identity Flexibility, Anonymity and lack of deterrence factor
in the cyberspace provides the offenders the choice to commit
cyber crime.

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● 3. Criminal behavior of offenders in cyberspace is likely to be
imported to Physical space which, in physical space may be exported
to cyberspace as well.
● 4. Intermittent ventures of offenders in to the cyberspace and the
dynamic spatio-temporal nature of cyberspace provide the chance to
escape.
● 5. (a) Strangers are likely to unite together in cyberspace to commit
crime in the physical space. (b) Associates of physical space are likely
to unite to commit crime in cyberspace.

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● 6. Persons from closed society are more likely to commit
crimes in cyberspace than persons from open society.
● 7. The conflict of Norms and Values of Physical Space with the
Norms and Values of cyberspace may lead to cyber crimes.

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Let’s review some concepts
1. CYBER 2. CRIMINOLGY 3. THEORIES

4. PROPUNDERS OF THEORIES 5. MEANING OF THEORIES 6. QUIZ

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THANK YOU