The Future of Cyber Criminology: Challenges and Opportunities1
K. Jaishankar · International journal of cyber criminology · 2010
Internet technology and development of cyberspace have taken society to next level of evolution. Cyberspace has defied boundaries and has made geography (or place) irrelevant. Cyberspace presents myriad potential opportunities for society in new millennium. In 1990s, a new era was ushered in, in which Internet technology reigned supreme. However, increase in netizens has dwarfed technology to a mere medium. Additionally, perpetrators who attacked machines through machines have started attacking real humans through machines. This radical development led criminologists to address need for a discipline to study and analyze criminal behavior in cyberspace. The crimes, offender behaviors, and victimization that occur in cyberspace needed to be studied from a social science versus a technological perspective. In this backdrop, I established cyber criminology as a sub discipline within larger ambit of Criminology in 2007, with launch of International Journal of Criminology (http://www.cybercrimejournal.com), an online open access journal. In 2008, I also developed a theory to further discipline of cyber criminology. The theory is called transition theory, and it explains causation of crimes in cyberspace (Jaishankar, 2007, 2008).Cyber criminology is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses researchers from various fields such as criminology, victimology, sociology, Internet science, and computer science. I define cyber criminology as the study of causation of crimes that occur in cyberspace and its impact in physical space (Jaishankar, 2007, para 1). I academically coined term cyber criminology for two reasons. First, body of knowledge that deals with cyber crimes should not be confused with investigation and be merged with cyber forensics; second, there should be an independent discipline to study and explore cyber crimes from a social science perspective.Since launch of International Journal of Criminology, term cyber criminology has taken its academic roots in online as well as offline academic circles (Jaishankar, 2007; Nhan & Bachmann, 2010). According to Nhan and Bachmann (2010), Cyber criminology is slowly emerging from a niche area that is often marginalized by mainstream criminology to one of high importance (p. 175). Although cyber criminology is gaining hold within mainstream field of criminology, big question is, Will it evolve as a separate discipline? There are many such criminologies that have not become separate disciplines (e.g., green criminology, bio-criminology, environmental criminology). One reason could be that in spite of their research scope, they lacked content that could be taught. However, cyber criminology has potential to become an independent discipline because of its dynamic expansion of exceptional interdisciplinary content in teaching and research.If cyber criminology is to be established as a separate discipline, various challenges face modern-day cyber criminologists. These challenges include (a) issues in teaching, (b) research in cyber criminology, and (c) professionalization of discipline.1. Issues in TeachingMany of universities in United States and United Kingdom offer criminology programs with a course in cyber crime. Recently, some universities in United Kingdom-such as Canterbury Christ Church University; University College, Dublin; and University of Bedfordshire-have started offering master of science (MSc) courses in cyber crime forensics and forensic computing. The mushrooming courses on cyber forensics prove that universities are more interested in practical investigative part of cyber crimes than causation of cyber crimes. Although practical part is important, neglecting theoretical issues behind cyber crimes would not compliment a holistic understanding of cyber crimes. Hence, courses should be offered as an MSc in cyber criminology and forensics; this will enable a combination of both theoretical and practical aspects of cyber crimes. …