Computer Crime Essays Examples

The social structure theory describes crime as a learned behavior. it is no different from other socially acceptable behaviors. Individuals, especially young people learn through communicating and participating in groups. The social groups become more influential if a person associates mainly with groups that consider crime as a normal and acceptable behavior. The social networking sites remove psychological and geographical barriers to social relationships and link like-minded people from around the world. Some parts of the internet, particularly Web 2.0, Google groups, blogs, forums and Facebook provide new opportunities for differential association with no geographical limitations . Hacking fits easily within the social structure theory. Hacked accounts describe how hackers learn their behavior from others, through their membership hacking groups.
Innovations in digital crime often originate from countries and populations experiencing rapid social change. The social structure theory provides explanation to various forms of criminal behavior. The best example is the desire of some individuals to promote their criminal activity through social networks. The theory has a direct effect on digital piracy and predicts that imitation is the result of differential association, belief and differential reinforcement. The major limitations that restrict the application of the theory to digital crime are rapid changes in communications technology, distributed and wicked nature of the internet, issues surrounding the cyber laws and scarcity of reliable data surrounding digital crime . The theory fails to explain why people in superficially similar circumstances behave differently. Social structure theory plays a major role in influencing the crimes, offender behaviors and victimization that occur in cyberspace. The internet poses challenges to existing criminological perspectives as it exhibits structural and social features that diverge from the conventional settings.

References

Yar, M. (2013). Cybercrime and Society. Sage Publications.