The internet however is a valuable source of information for many especially today in social networking but it can also be a valuable source of those who use it for illegal and fraudulent activities. The speed the cyberspace information can be distributed and the vast number of people it reaches can attract those intent on causing harm. The agencies governments employ to police the internet in order to protect the vulnerable in society have reported an increase in child pornography and online fraud. (Neal, 2009).
The term ‘cybercrime’ is becoming more widely used and the anonymity it offers and the scope for financial gains the internet provides can make the virtual world of cyberspace a haven for criminals and those with criminal intent. (Neal, 2009, p.76). The internet placed in the right hands is a great tool but place its capabilities in the wrong hands it can be used to cause harm locally and globally.
In the world of virtual possibilities and the popularity of online virtual gaming especially the violent games, has been a cause of many debates where the discussion turns to whether these types of games can lead to and cause violent crimes and behaviour. Games like Grand Theft Auto which takes the player into the virtual world of a criminal identity and a gangster-ridden Liberty City and encourages the player to undertake violent missions and tasks to complete. (Neal, 2009, p.93). This behaviour demonstrated in this virtual game raises questions about if it contributes to the anxieties of the relationship between real and virtual worlds. (Neal, 2009, p.101). The player is being allowed to adopt a virtual identity and had become a way of depicting social harm and criminal activity. The characteristics the characters hold are often stereotypes of certain ethnic minorities and gang cultures with violence, carrying out criminal activities. Often these virtual games and the gaming industry creators in some sense are mirroring the social problems and social divisions faced in the real world and sell it to people, children and adults packaging it as entertainment. (Neal, 2009, p.101).
Crime and miscarriages of Justice can open up many different meanings to different people in different societies and countries. Campaigners for justices are going on all over the world can be seen in one such campaign in which the trafficking of people especially the business of the trafficking of vulnerable children. According to Save the Children UK (2007b.p.1), 218 million children throughout the world are being forced to work long hours for little or no pay and left vulnerable to ‘extreme harm, violence and rape’. Muncie et al, 2009, p.24). The children involved are seen as a commodity that can be traded across all continents. The West has laws against forcing children to work and the act of doing it is seen as a criminal offence. The scale of trafficking is difficult to calculate and is in part because if the definition throughout the world that trafficking as a crime has as in some countries it is not seen as one.
In some countries like Asia, poor families may be induced to sell or hire their children or young children to go to work or trafficked in order to survive and to give the family a better life. (Westmarland, 2009, p.118-129). The social harm this causes by children working in these poor conditions and for the long hours for pitiful monetary rewards is bad enough but they can also experience violence and demeaning treatment. There are questions if this treatment and the high volume of child labour are connected to the Wests demand for cheaper high volume goods. (Tombs, Whyte, 2009, p.139). This is classed as corporate harm and corporate crime.
Some companies in the West are aware of this kind of transgressions of these harms regarding children and young children working in these countries and there are suggestions that the most serious social, environmental and economic harm operate beyond the borders of the nation state. (Muncie et al, 2009, p.31).
The human rights aspects of these workers are ignored as long as the demand for the products is met regardless if lives are at risk. The Bhopal disaster in India is a prime example of the lack of safety conditions provided to the workers in the factories. The factory was purely being operated for profit with no consideration to its workers or the local communities. A United States Company Union Carbide in Bhopal, India was a company jointly owned with an Indian subsidiary, had a major gas leak and this gas leak caused thousands of deaths and even though the workers deaths was the fault of the company who caused this terrible violation to their safety it was protected by the law. Not many people to date have been convicted of negligence linked to the gas leak. (www.bbc.co.uk; Bhopal, news report 1984). Crimes committed by large companies and corporations do seem to be above reproach criminally for any unlawful acts they are involved in.
Social harms can be connected to how power can corrupt societies and companies and how power can be abused. The capital of Nicaragua, Managua, has experienced such corruption and abuses of power after having gone through many significant changes politically through leadership changes and violence and revolution. (Rodgers 2007, 2008, in Mooney,and Talbot 2009, p.58). Many parts of Managua is poor and in poverty and had experienced much intervention from the United States. A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption and the regimes in Managua has meant that the people there especially the poor ones in the run down areas never have improved accommodation and better infrastructure and the leaders who promise these changes are the only ones who profit from selling off the companies and land. (Mooney and Talbot,2009, p.58-9). The American government’s intervention in the regimes encouraged a change from left wing to right wing rulers. The money in all this was invested in redeveloping and building roads that connected businesses with gated communities and 4 x 4 vehicles were able to drive around avoiding the poor areas where the poor where excluded from these areas by private security and the network of the roads. Crime spread throughout many areas and these areas where fought over. The cities, for most people were developing globally but some moved from the countryside to these developed cities and some immigrated to other countries but they found some urban areas overcrowded and saw forced segregation for the poor, middle class and the wealthy that lived within the gated communities. (Mooney and Talbot, 2009, p.59).
The powerful and financially influential residents mostly created this segregated zones and the social and economic situation of the individuals and families was dependent on how they see living in the city to be. The people living in the gated communities are looking for the security it provides and feel that the protection offered from the deprivation and crime they perceive from external threats from the urban spaces. (Jewkes, 2008). The differences are manifested by segregated housing with the poor on one side and gated communities on the other. Studies of the global slums and gated communities have higlighted that the slum areas in some cases are areas of crime and violence but the residents still get on with their lives and survive. (Mooney and Talbot, 2009, p.61). The gated communities can be areas that are a façade for crimes such as the sexual exploitation, slavery and sadistic violence. (Davis 2006b, p.64 in Mooney and Talbot, 2009, p.63) The boundaries between the two different populations are porous and interact in daily life through cultural exchanges and economic activity. This encourages new struggles of harm, power and violence.
In conclusion, looking back at what has been discussed, the issue of cybercrime and it being part of developing virtual world, crime and social harm takes on many different forms. The opportunities it offers for anonymity is so readily available, it has opened the doors for those who wish to commit crimes of fraud and their identity is shielded from those who fall victim to the crimes. The emergence of violent virtual world games is allowing players to exercise their fantasies and enact violent behaviour. There is a real need for more stringent controls and surveillance, which is being implemented already by some governments. Previously, China acted to this need with extreme controls and used it to hide behind the human rights violations that were going on. The Western societies which allow more freedom in cyberspace have to contend with the extreme criminal behaviour displayed in the areas of child pornography and also within fraudulent acts. Agencies that regulate and try to intercept those that cause harm have an enormous task in doing so. Social harm and violence and the power it holds can be seen within cyberspace and the new unconventional crimes that are committed through the internet will only grow globally.
I also discussed corporate harm and how negligence caused deaths and suffering to many and how the corporate crime of negligence may more that often is not treated in the law as criminal and criminal charge and punishment of the corporations is not up held. The global corporations use their power and financial position to hide behind as in Bhopal.
Using the example of Managua, the regimes where highlighted and the changes that occurred did not necessarily help the population as a whole. Even though the changes were intended to improve lives to those in the city, it faltered when it was confronted by the challenges from the right wing regimes and external influence of the US. The state crime was seen to be violating many human rights of the citizens in order to get deviant organisational targets.
Using the evidence, looking at social harms and trying to understand the relationship of power and the powerful, it can aid our understanding of the complexities of crime and how the concept of crime differs greatly between different societies and social groups, locally and globally.
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References
Moon, G and Talbot, D. (2009) ‘ Global cities, segregation and transgression’ in environments’ in Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. (eds) Crime: Local and Global, Cullompton, Willan Publishing/Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. (2009) ‘Interrogating crime’ in Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. (eds) Crime: Local and Global, Cullompton, Willan Publishing/Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Neal, S. (2009) ‘Cybercrime, transgression and virtual environments’ in Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. (eds) Crime: Local and Global, Cullompton, Willan Publishing/Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2009) ‘Crime, harm and corporate power’ trafficking’ in Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. (eds) Crime: Local and Global, Cullompton, Willan Publishing/Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Westmarland, L. (2009) ‘Gender abuse and people trafficking’ in Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. (eds) Crime: Local and Global, Cullompton, Willan Publishing/Milton Keynes, The Open University.
(Accessed 29 November 2009)