NCJ Number
213504
Editor(s)
David S. Wall
Date Published
2001
Length
233 pages
Annotation
This book covers the various issues being debated in connection with crime committed through the Internet as well as how criminal justice agencies can use the Internet to their advantage.
Abstract
The general topics discussed are the nature of Internet crime ("cybercrime") and the challenges it presents, various types of cybercrime and associated problems, and the challenges of cybercrime for the criminal justice system. One chapter considers how the features and uses of the Internet have and will shape the types of crimes perpetrated through the Internet. Another chapter focuses on telecommunications-based frauds, which have increased as commercial transactions over the Internet have become common. Also discussed in one chapter is the ethical motive of "hactivists," who invade and disrupt the online computer work of organizations whose policies and practices they oppose. Pornography on the Internet is discussed in a number of chapters. One chapter discusses how the unprecedented visual access to the gamut of sexual behaviors may be molding the sexual identities and acceptance of sexual behaviors in the real world of Internet users. This has implications for laws that define and regulate pornography. Chapters also discuss the free-speech issues raised by efforts to regulate Internet pornography. Abusive and harassing communications over the Internet are also discussed in some of the chapters. The focus is on how the content and frequency of Internet communications can cause psychological harm that rises to the level of criminal victimization. Other chapters focus on the multilayered regulatory entities that impact the prevention and control of abusive Internet use, an international network for countering cybercrime, and how British courts have used information and communication technologies. Chapter notes and references and a subject index