Crime and The Internet
David Wall (Editor)
Director, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, Department of Law, University of Leeds
London: Routledge ISBN 0415244293 November 2001

Can the Internet really empower a sixteen year old boy to become the biggest threat to world peace since Adolf Hitler? Are we all to fall victim to the cyber-criminals who will steal what is most dear to us from under our very noses, whilst never leaving the comfort of their armchairs? Underlying these questions are fears that have been frequently expressed during the past decade or so since the popular development of the Internet. Fears that are easily manipulated by the media's quest for sensationalism, but which contrast sharply with the experience that few of these fears have actually been realised, particularly the all-engulfing “cyber-tsunamis” that have been predicted. And yet, there is clearly a body of evidence that increasing numbers of people are falling victim to a wide range of cyber-crimes.

One could argue that criminologists have been slow to explore these emerging fears and new criminal behaviours and engage in debate about them in order to develop useful bodies of knowledge that could enlighten the public and provide the basis for informed policy. In the criminologists' defence, however, it could be argued that there is wisdom in exercising caution and in waiting for reliable trends of behaviour to emerge. But at the dawn of the new millennium the questions about what cybercrimes are, what their impacts will be and how we respond to them remain largely unanswered, the time for understanding is now.

Organised into three sections this book contains a range of various innovative chapters which seek to inform the readers about the criminological debates that are emerging over cybercrime. The first section looks at the general problem of crime and the internet, it then describes what is currently understood by the term ‘cybercrime’ before identifying some of the challenges that they present for criminology. The second section explores the different types of cybercrime and their attendant problems. The final section contemplates some of the challenges that cybercrimes give rise to for the criminal justice system.

The contributors are:
 

• David Wall (“Crime and the Internet”),
• Ken Pease (“Crime Futures”),
• Peter Grabosky and Russell Smith (“Telecommunications Fraud”),
• Mike Levi (“Computer Fraud”),
• Paul Taylor (“Hacktivism”),
• Bela Chatterjee (“Pornography in Cyberspace”),
• Marjorie Heins (“Criminalising Online Speech”),
• Yaman Akdeniz (“Controlling Illegal and Harmful Content on the Internet”)
• Louise Ellison (“Cyber-stalking”),
• Matt Williams (“The Language of Cybercrime”),
• David Wall (“Maintaining order and law on the internet”),
• Paul Norman (“Transnational Policing”),
• Clive Walker (“The Criminal Courts and the Internet”).

Last updated 15th July 2001