CRIME IN CYBER SPACE: TO THE PROBLEM OF UNDERSTANDING THE PERSON OF THE CRIMINAL
03.05.2023 15:57
[1. Information systems and technologies]
Author: Volodymyr Anatolevich Trofymenko, candidate of Legal Sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the Department of Philosophy, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University;
Eduard Anatolevich Kalnytskyy, candidate of Philosophical Sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the Department of Philosophy, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
A person acquires an increasingly vital need to use the opportunities of cyberspace. It simplifies and facilitates her life, fulfills her wishes and saves time. But this space needs certain technical intermediaries, the mastery of which is already becoming necessary and urgent today. As a result of such mastery, a person becomes more educated and begins to understand all aspects of his activity better, in particular, criminal activity. Cybercrime today is spreading both substantively and quantitatively. An example can be the statistics of cybercrime in Ukraine [1]. But technical means cannot analyze the purpose and intent of a person visiting cyberspace. Specialists can create certain technical prohibitive mechanisms and restrictions, but the human aspect of "iron" will still not be able to single out something, but simply limit it. From this it is important to say the following. A person in cyberspace is both an object to which certain cyber actions and transactions are directed, and an entity that uses cyberspace to fulfill its legitimate and illegitimate needs.
Today, the possibilities of cyberspace, especially regarding the anonymity of existence, create favorable conditions for criminal activity. All scientific research today revolves around one of the main questions: what are the similarities between an ordinary "offline" criminal and a cybercriminal?
The Dutch scientist M. Kranenbarg [2] draws attention to the mentioned problem. Cybercrime research, writes the scientist, usually focuses either on the organizational structure of organized cybercrime or on the processes of social learning among individuals. It offers a new perspective on complicity by examining the extent to which individuals are complicit in various types of cybercrimes compared to traditional crimes. In addition, it draws attention to differences in the type of accomplices (friends, family or others) and the relationship between IT knowledge and cyber-complicity. A Dutch researcher concludes that cybercrime and traditional crime show similar patterns of co-offending. Most offenders, he points out, prefer to commit their crimes alone, but some types of crimes are more likely to be committed with accomplices than others. In relation to cybercrime, the results suggest that limitations in an offender's IT skills may be a reason to seek co-offenders with strong IT skills.
The same problem is studied by a group of scientists from the Netherlands and Germany M. Kranenbarg, J. Van Gelder, A. Barends, R. de Vries [3]. Cyberspace, they argue, creates opportunities for new forms of crime that can be linked to specific personality characteristics of offenders. According to their observations, the personality traits of cybercriminals have not been studied enough. The researchers address this gap by comparing a forensic sample of 261 cybercrime suspects to 260 offline crime suspects. This allows them to build a detailed picture of a cybercriminal's personality: Compared to offline crime suspects, the researchers note, cybercriminal suspects score significantly lower on extraversion and significantly higher on conscientiousness and openness to experience. Cybercriminals are more like community members in these core areas of personality. In terms of the main aspects, according to the authors, suspected cybercriminals appear to be unique due to their relatively high level of circumspection. They are more similar to suspected offline offenders in traits that may help them commit criminal activities, such as lower levels of modesty, timidity, and flexibility. However, they are more like a sample of the community in terms of traits that may increase their ability or propensity to commit cybercrime, such as higher levels of patience, perfectionism, and prudence.
An interesting approach to clarifying the similarities and differences of offline and online crime was proposed by Dutch scientists E. Leukfeldt and R. Roks [4]. They explore the intersection of street crime and cybercrime. Firstly, the researchers checked whether the networks in these cases were also involved in other criminal activities besides cybercrime. Secondly, they analyzed the origins and development of these networks, paying particular attention to the role or offline interactions on real streets. Thirdly, they investigated whether the cases contained information that would indicate the existence of a street culture that informs the activities of offenders. Their analysis of both criminal activity and the origins and development of cybercriminal networks showed the continued importance of the offline world. However, the Dutch scientists note, the results shed light not only on the "hidden face of cybercrime". Based on their language practices, motives and neutralizations, they saw examples of how core members, recruiters and money mules are embedded in Dutch street culture in various cases. Thus, as a conclusion, the researchers conclude, cybercrime cases can also be interpreted as a digital diversification of traditional street (economic) street crimes and, thus, as empirical examples of street offenders adapting to the development of technology.
Scientists from the USA, China, and South Korea are trying to answer the question that affects the number of cybercriminals [5]. J. Park, D. Cho, J. Lee, and B. Lee ask the question: Under what conditions is the Internet more likely to be used for criminal activities? Using comprehensive state-level data in the United States from 2004 to 2010, they conclude that there is no clear empirical evidence that Internet penetration rates are related to the number of Internet criminals. However, the authors continue, the activity of cybercriminals depends on socio-economic factors and connection speed. In particular, higher income, more education, lower poverty, and higher inequality are likely to contribute to a more positive association of Internet penetration with cybercriminals, which is indeed different from real-world land-based crime conditions. In addition, unlike narrowband, broadband connections are significantly and positively associated with the number of Internet criminals, the researchers note, and this reinforces the aforementioned effect of socioeconomic status on Internet crime. In general, the researchers conclude, cybercrime requires not only a skilled criminal, but also an infrastructure that will facilitate the profit from the crime.
Considering the above, it can be noted that the problem of cybercrime and cybercriminals is gaining momentum. This is explained by the growth in the volume of cyberspace itself, and the growth of crime in it.
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