Introduction
Digital crimes include crimes committed on the internet as well as all types of crimes, perpetrated in the sphere of information and telecommunications systems. In this regard, the subject of the offense is all information resources and technologies, whereas the purpose of this violation is the criminal trespasses. In short, cybercrime regarding the non-legal intervention in the work of computers, software and computer nets as well as an unauthorized modification of any digital data refer to the legal categories, where the object of the crime is the information security, whereas the computer is the subject. If we consider cybercrime as a social occasion, it can be the exchange using email messages containing the information about the venue of the future crime as well as an arrangement of any criminally oriented data on the website.
The European Union Convention, signed in 2001, November 23, identified all types of offenses in the field of information and telecommunications systems (“Cybercrime: Security & Surveillance,” 2011). There is unauthorized access to the digital data and illegal interception of information, impact on the computer systems and intentional criminal damage, deletion, deterioration, change or block the digital data. The list also includes illegal usage of special technical devices to commit the crime, forgery, and fraud, distribution the child pornography or information promoting racism as well as hatred and inciting violence against minority groups.
Theories of Crimes
Criminology states for some arguments why people commit any types of crimes. There is Societal or Macro-Level and Community Theories, considered by Howitt (2009), Control Theory described by McGuire (2004) as well as Routine Activities Theory initially proposed by Cohen and Felson (1979). There are also Deterrence Theory, Influence Socialization, and Individual one as well as Strain Theories by Merton and Agnew (Merton & Agnew) and numerous Psychological Theories including personality, pedophiles, and other mental disorders. Last but not least, there is Terrorism and Political Theory rooted in Karl Marx’s book in 1887 (Marx). All of them observe the criminal issue at various levels. Their purpose is to dig deeper the psychological aspects of committed crimes (Taylor, 2006). In other words, the mentioned above theories aim to find out why the crime occurred (Kirwan & Power, 2012). However, the best argument explaining the nature of the cybercrime is the Routine Activities’ Theory (Leukfeldt & Yar, 2016) rooted in the theory of human ecology, presented by Hawley (1950), which pointed to three significant temporal constructs of community structure: rhythm, tempo, and timing. The research done by Hawley revealed many cases when people who did not seem like the typical criminals committed the digital crimes (Clarke, 1980). Taking into account some cyber offenses committed without any desire to cause harm, but due to the high level of curiosity, another interesting theory explaining the causes of cyber criminal behavior is Learning Theory that can shed some light on the hackers’ attacks, for instance (Taylor, 2006).
The Nature of Hackers
So, let’s consider the biggest group of cybercrime representatives – hackers. Many psychologists hold an opinion that those whom the society had rejected were usually computer freaks. The criminologists claim that the reasons for antisocial existence could be numerous: from physical disability or imperfection to ugliness. If this so, the deprivation of human contact caused people addicted to the computer as the unique way of self-esteem and self-expression. However, this is mostly a logical fallacy because a contradictory statement is false – not every physically challenged person can become a hacker.
Probably Western psychologists have approached to the truth closer than their colleagues from other regions. Among their patients there have been enough people who were not adapted to the reality, experiencing enormous difficulty in the communication sphere with the surrounding people and having an inadequate reaction to everything happening around them. In one word, these are individuals who look like mental degenerates capable of programming pretty well. Moreover, in many cases such patients suffered from autism usually diagnosed when people isolate themselves from the society and completely lose an ability to form emotional attachments as well as build any communication with people. In particular, the percentage of autism fluctuates from four to fifteen cases for every 10,000 children. Furthermore, the major part of those kids are boys. Statistically, only in the USA the sociologists registered more than 400,000 autistics, 80 % of whose are a brilliant according to their IQ rate.
Why Hackers Commit Cyber Crimes
The hacker does not desire to cause anyone any harm. All they want is to pay other people’s attention to their side, compensating the lack of communication. Such unconscious impulse people can interpret as a commitment to revenge on humanity for ignorance and isolation, even though it is not always true. So, this aspect of the hacker’s motive entirely coincides with the mentioned above routine activities’ theory which provided many examples of totally unsuspecting people who committed crimes due to their insult and desire to revenge for it (Clarke 1980; Felson 1998).
Of course, not all hackers are social outcasts. Some of them dream about cracking the Pentagon defenses in high school on a dare or due to the greatest interest and inquisitiveness. The mentioned above Leaning Theory states for three core values of any hacker - technology, secrecy, and mastery. Every hacker cannot imagine his life without technology. He always tries to get to the bottom of everything, demonstrating the level of qualification in front of so-called ‘colleagues’ (Taylor, 2006).
White-Collar Crimes with the regard of Strain and Space Transition Theories
One more impressive group of individuals with the regard to human nature, most at risk to commit digital and other crimes, are so-called white-collar professionals (Taylor, 2006). The computerization of working places has fostered the interconnection between the digital violations and those who perpetrated them. Very often the state ministers have had the unlimited access to the internet and totally outdated and decked out computers to facilitate their work. Moreover, the white-collar workers’ authorities have been powerful enough to determine the fate of their fellow citizens.
Conclusion
References
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