Crime and the Internet

de David Wall

s the internet really powerful enough to allow a sixteen year old to become the biggest threat to world peace since Adolf Hitler? Are we all now susceptible to cyber-criminals who can steal from us without even having to leave the comfort of their own armchairs? These are fears which have been articulated since the popular development of the internet, yet criminologists have been slow to respond to them. Consequently, questions about what cybercrimes are, what their impacts will be and how we respond to them remain largely unanswered.Organised into three sections, this book engages with the various 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 understood by the term 'cybercrime' by identifying some of the challenges 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.