SO4309: CRITICALLY DISCUSS
HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS
BECOME MORE IMPORTANT TO
THE POLICE IN RECENT YEARS
BOTH AS A PROFESSION AND
AS DEALING WITH CYBER
CRIME.
J71263
JASON POWELL
, The growing expansion of new, emerging technologies within recent years has significantly aided the
British police force, both in everyday efforts and whilst tackling broader issues such as the
intensifying phenomenon of cybercrime. This assignment looks to explore different variations of
cybercrime before analysing the explanations behind the challenge of effectively policing crime
which occurs in the digital realm. Finally, the piece will explore how the police force have historically
utilised technology and how they do so presently, before reaching a conclusion by way of an
exploration into whether new media technologies have been more of a help or a hindrance to the
police’s efforts and image.
Organised crime has existed as a prominent expanse in the realm of crime and deviance for many
years, as the influx of new media technologies, accompanied with quick and straightforward internet
access, have arisen, criminals have exploited the new and intriguing opportunities which the digital
realm offers. Cybercrime is defined under two umbrella terms; firstly, as crime that cannot be
committed in any other way or against any other type of victim and latterly, familiar or conventional
crimes that are facilitated by computer and online information technologies. (Jewkes, Y. & Yar, M.
2010. Pp. 526.) For example; fraud, identity theft and stalking are crimes which existed before the
rise of the internet but have simply been aided by technology and subsequently prevailed within the
digital empire. Likewise, with activities that are officially deemed as illegal, the internet enables
social harms such as pornography, gambling, unregulated sales of medicines and so on. Finally,
criminals engage in what is deemed as a ‘grey area’ of cyber activity, situated between the legal
definitions of crime and social harms. Examples of such range from cyber-bullying and online hate
crime. The category in which these particular activities fall into is dependent on factors such as
severity and varying legal jurisdictions.
Structured criminal groups have also utilised the world wide web to engage in a number of new
crimes, many of which include stealing individual’s money, identities and/or data. Cybercrime, like
all crime inevitably doesn’t encompass just individual victims, small businesses along with large
corporations likewise fall victim to crimes of this nature. Some common examples of consumer-
targeted cybercrime include phishing; in which individuals receive counterfeit emails requesting
security information/personal details and webcam hacking, whereby cyber-criminals hijack
individual’s webcams and use their access to prey on the victim, perhaps for sexual motives or
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