The Role of the Internet and Crime

The Role of the Internet and Crime

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The Role of the Internet and Crime

The internet has aided criminal activities in the world today through enhancing communication between persons in different locations. With the help of the internet, people can now comfortably communicate irrespective of their geographical position. As much as this has had several advantages in various industries such as economic sector, health and education, it has also brought about increase in fraud, identity theft and besides compromised privacy.  Contrary to the United States constitution, the internet has allowed access to frightening information and even government records. Criminal activities aided by the internet have even spread to include increase of child pornography, trafficking, indecent exposure and harassment. In addition, the internet has made it possible for people to have access to personal information, poison recipes and even bomb making instructions which have not been easily accessible before. With the wide spread of the internet, religious cults and other extremists ideologies such as organized crime has also increased (Brenner, 2007).

Identity theft, cyber stalking and computer viruses are some of the main examples of internet aided criminal activities. Identity theft involves serious fraud cases whereby someone steals money though by false identity. It mainly focuses on the internet based money transfers or payment method whereby someone receives money by pretending to be another. Financial identity thefts are also highly associated with other criminal activities such as illegal migration, blackmailing and terrorism (Williams, 2006). Cyber stalking, another common internet criminal activity involves continuous use of the internet to communicate to another person further resulting to torture. The illegal method of communication brings about criminal activities such as false accusations, data destruction and transmission of threats. In most cases cyber stalking is encouraged by chat rooms, social network sites and online forums. In the recent past cyber st.............