Mary Beard – historian, guest on BBC’s Question Time (political debate show)

Mary Beard was called "a vile, spiteful excuse for a woman, who eats too much cabbage and has cheese straws for teeth“ on the website Don't Start Me Off (and other things far worse)

Gary McKinnon – hacked into the US government’s top secret military and space research websites

GLOBAL CYBER-CRIME?

• Cyber-crime is one of the fastest-growing criminal activities on the planet

• Cyber-crime is essentially the use of global computer networks to commit crime

• Thomas &Loader define it as computer-mediated activities that are either illegal or considered illegal by some and that are conducted through global electronic networks

• High-tech criminals of the digital age have not been slow to spot the new opportunities

Wall (2001) identifies 4 categories of cyber-crime PDTV

1 Cyber-trespass2 Cyber-deception and theft 3 Cyber-pornography4 Cyber-violence

TASK 1 classifying cyber crimeSlot the cyber crimes you have thought up into Wall’s 4-fold classification. If any don’t seem to fit put them in the ‘OTHER FORMS’ category

Category of Cyber Crime (Wall)

Examples

1 Cyber-trespass

2 Cyber-deception and theft

3 Cyber-pornography

4 Cyber-violence

OTHER FORMS (which don’t seem to fit Wall’s classification system)

TASK 2 policing cyber crime

Policing and controlling cyber crime has proved to be extremely challenging. Can you think of any reasons why? Make a note of them below

1 Scale of the internet and the limited resources of the police

2 It is globalised – it crosses national borders and so it is poses problems of which country should someone be prosecuted for an internet offence

3 In police culture it is given low priority because it lacks the excitement of conventional policing

MEDIA AS THE CAUSE OF CRIME

• Groups at the back of the room: Think of as many different ways the media might generate/cause crime and deviance

• Groups at the front of the room – you are going to classify these for us using your sheets

THE MEDIA AS A CAUSE OF CRIME

THE MEDIA AS A CAUSE OF CRIMESome of these ways include:1 IMITATION – by providing deviant role models, copycat behaviour results

2 AROUSAL – through viewing violent or sexual imagery

3 DESENSITISATION e.g. through repeated viewing of violence

4 BY TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE of criminal techniques e.g. how to hot wire cars

5 AS A TARGET FOR CRIME e.g. Antiques Roadshow, highlighting wealthy neighbourhoods...

6 BY STIMULATING DESIRES – for goods that people cannot afford e.g. advertising

7 BY PORTRAYING THE POLICE AS INCOMPETENT – easy to fool, little chance of getting caught

8 BY GLAMOURISING OFFENDING

9 BY GENERATING MORAL PANICS (public outcries) which lead to a DEVIANCY AMPLIFICATION SPIRAL

THE MEDIA AS A CAUSE OF CRIMEIronically it seems crime and deviance might be generated through the media in two ways:A When the media portray and glamorise criminal and deviant lifestyles and actsB When the media portray and glamorise NON-criminal and deviant lifestyles and acts

A When the media portray and glamorise criminal and deviant lifestyles and acts

EXAMPLE 1: IMITATION and/or AROUSAL• There has been a longstanding concern that the media can

have a negative effect on attitudes, values and behaviour – especially on the young This has often been seen in terms of ‘moral decline’/corruption.

• Grand Theft Auto (computer game) has been accused of encouraging violence and criminality.

• Famously the film A Clockwork Orange was withdrawn from cinemas in the Uk in 1971 because it had been accused of generating a copycat rape and murder. The ban lasted 27 years

A famous laboratory experiment conducted in 1977 byAlbert Bandura claimed to have made a link Between children watching aggressive behaviour and actingviolently themselves.

B When the media portray and glamorise NON-criminal and deviant lifestyles and acts

BY STIMULATING DESIRES – for goods that people cannot afford e.g. through advertising, celebrity culture etc

I’m Hector Riva...Welcome to my world

All notes away, answer the following questions:

Q1 Define cyber crimeQ2 Write down 3 examples of cyber crimeQ3 Write down Wall’s 4 categories of cyber crime Q4 Write down 4 ways the media could be seen to generate

crimeQ5 Which perspective?a) Rampant advertising of consumer products while

simultaneously marginalizing certain groups and denying them the chance to obtain these goods legitimately creates relative deprivation which leads to crime. Which perspective?

b) The media generate crime by peddling the image of the ultra-tough black ghetto superstar. Which perspective?

c) The media created the black mugger which the government used as a diversionary tactic to turn people’s heads from the failures of capitalism. Which perspective?

Answers to Quick Check Questions on page 124 QUESTION

Violent crime is over-represented; police success is exaggerated; victims and criminals are seen as older and more middle-class than those who appear in the official statistics; crimes are often represented as daring and ingenious; crimes by strangers are over-represented.Hacking; spreading viruses; identity theft; internet pornography; cyber-stalking.

The media may promote fear of crime by exaggerating the amount and seriousness of crime and the risks to groups such as young women and old people.

Immediacy; dramatisation; personalisation; any of the news values listed on page 119.

The amount of deviance increasing or appearing to increase. The media contribute to deviance amplification by highlighting deviant behaviour and by calling for measures to control it, which may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy.By imitation, arousal, desensitisation, or any of the other ways listed on page 120.

Exaggeration/distortion; prediction; symbolisation; linking unconnected events; by calling for a crackdown; by defining deviant identities and providing deviant role models.

McRobbie and Thornton argue that moral panics are less likely nowadays because audiences are accustomed to exaggerated shock stories and don’t ‘panic’. There is less agreement in society about what is deviant. It is not clear why some problems are amplified and others not. It is not clear why the reaction should be seen as ‘disproportionate’ rather than rational.

Answers to Quick Check Questions on page 124 QUESTION

Violent crime is over-represented; police success is exaggerated; victims and criminals are seen as older and more middle-class than those who appear in the official statistics; crimes are often represented as daring and ingenious; crimes by strangers are over-represented.

2

Hacking; spreading viruses; identity theft; internet pornography; cyber-stalking. 8

The media may promote fear of crime by exaggerating the amount and seriousness of crime and the risks to groups such as young women and old people. 3

Immediacy; dramatisation; personalisation; any of the news values listed on page 119. 1The amount of deviance increasing or appearing to increase. The media contribute to deviance amplification by highlighting deviant behaviour and by calling for measures to control it, which may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy.

5

By imitation, arousal, desensitisation, or any of the other ways listed on page 120. 4Exaggeration/distortion; prediction; symbolisation; linking unconnected events; by calling for a crackdown; by defining deviant identities and providing deviant role models.

6

McRobbie and Thornton argue that moral panics are less likely nowadays because audiences are accustomed to exaggerated shock stories and don’t ‘panic’. There is less agreement in society about what is deviant. It is not clear why some problems are amplified and others not. It is not clear why the reaction should be seen as ‘disproportionate’ rather than rational.

7