Ellen Foster Object Relations Essay

Ellen Foster is a ten-year-old, Caucasian, female who experiences a series of traumatic events during her childhood. These traumatic events include her witnessing domestic violence in the home, her mother’s suicide and subsequent physical, sexual and psychological abuse by her alcoholic father, her maternal grandmother and other relatives (aunts and cousins on the mother’s side). Ellen shuttled from home to home, staying for a short time at the home of her teacher, then to different relatives’ homes, to finally a foster home where she eventually resides. Ellen’s â€Å"new mama†, as she refers to her, is a much better role model then she has ever experienced before. New Mama is supportive and nurturing towards Ellen. Ellen reports that government and church funding support the foster family. She has no siblings. Ellen is intelligent and enjoys doing art. She often rides a pony at her new foster home. Ellen misses her mother, and longed for a caregiver before she had new mama. This is evident when she reports eaves dropping on a â€Å"colored† family and â€Å"started making a list of all that a family should have. Of course, there is the mama and the daddy but if one has to be missing then it is OK if the one left can count for two. But not just anybody can count or more than his or herself (p. 67)†. She often sought help from her Aunt Betsey and neighbors. Her mother, father and grandmother, or â€Å"mama’s mama† as Ellen calls her, are all deceased. The grandmother was old and abusive towards Ellen forcing her to work the fields with the â€Å"colored† field hands on her farms in the middle of a sweltering hot summer until school started. Ellen eventually becomes the caregiver and housemaid to mama’s mama after the grandmother fires all of her household servants. Despite Ellen’s care and good works for her, the grandmother despises her because she is convinced that Ellen was in â€Å"cahoots† with her father in abusing her daughter, taking her revenge out on Ellen since the father is dead. Ellen has a best friend, an African American girl named Starletta, Since Ellen likes Starletta, and she struggles with her own burgeoning racism. She has beliefs about African Americans that are mainly negative. Ellen eventually realizes that race makes no difference in the quality of the person. Ellen enjoys art and playing with her microscope often fantasying about being a scientist on the brink of a new discovery that will change mankind. She sees a counselor at school on Wednesdays. Ellen does not enjoy doing therapy and has negative transference towards her counselor. Presently she is seeing me for therapy. She can be aggressive, defensive and competitive at times at school. During one session Ellen reported that her counselor asked her about her last name because â€Å"Foster† isn’t her real last name. She did not want to discuss it any further. Perhaps she chose the last name â€Å"Foster† from her label as a foster child. Object Relations As stated by Lesser and Pope (2011) according to object relations theory, â€Å"human development takes place within the context of relationships (p. 69)†. British object relation theorists, Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn, and Harry Guntrip introduce definite and functional ideas about what internal object world, or the inner world, consists of. The inner world includes representations of self and other, representations structured by thoughts, recollections, and occurrences within the external world. A representation has a lasting continuance in the inner world and although it begins as a cognitive structure, it eventually takes on a profound emotional meaning for the person (Berzoff, Melano-Flanagan, & Hertz 1996). The word object is set apart from the subject. The subject is the self and the object is the part outside the self, the object is what the self identifies with, encounters, wants, has uncertainties about, feels denial about, or absorbs. In Freudian drive theory and in ego psychology, the term object is sometimes used in reference to people. The word, object, in drive theory can be to some extent depersonalized, because the word essentially does exemplify a thing not a person as in: â€Å"the object of oral impulse can literally be the breast†(citation). In psychodynamic theory the word object, usually refers to people, but other objects such as cooking, art, pets, or can become objects when they are profoundly and representatively connected to powerful object experiences in the inner world. Some of Ellen’s physical objects are her microscope, her encyclopedias, her money, and her art supply. A conjecture about Ellen’s inner world and what these object represent is that her money could represent an insurance plan, in case things go wrong. And her microscope, her art, and her encyclopedias represent an escape for her and they also represent hopes for the future. Klein (1948) was the first theorist to revise Freud’s notion of the object by giving more consideration to the interpersonal environment in deciding its influence in developing personality. She amongst other object relations’ theorists now defined the target of relational needs as a concept known as relationship seeking. Klee 2005 stated that relationship seeking is the belief that through relationships with significant people in our lives, we take in parts of others (objects) and gradually develop a self-structure that we ultimately call a personality . This mental process by which a person changes the regulatory features of her environment into internal regulations and features is called internalizing (Lesser & Pope 2011). D. W. Winnicot (1958), a pediatrician and psychoanalyst, is influential in the field of object relations theory, gave great consideration to the notion of being alone. He believes that the ability to abide, take pleasure in, and utilize healthy solitude could be refined, ironically, only in the proximity of another. If aloneness is experienced as desolate, isolated, or miserable, it becomes agonizing. This can happen is a child has been neglected. In this situation, the inner world is not filled with enough soothing figures. On the contrary, aloneness becomes too excruciating or insufferable for the child, if the inner world is too crowed with threatening and abusive figures who offer neither protection, reassurance, nor tranquility. The ideal environment for the growing child to share experiences with the soothing figure for a period of time and to experience time alone to reflect and to adventure on the child’s own (Berzoff et al. 1996). Klein (1948) described six early processes and primitive defenses developed from early infant years. Projection is when the infant believes an object has characteristics that are in fact the infant’s own feelings. Introjection is the mental desire in which the infant consumes the perceived in the world. Projective identification is creatively splitting off a part of oneself and ascribing it to another in order to control the other (Berzoff et al. 1996). Splitting occurs when a child cannot separate conflicting thoughts or feelings in the mind at the same time, and therefore instead of integrating the two thoughts or feelings the child focuses on just one of them. A split can take any form, from visual appearance to concepts and ideas. For example, a frequent split is into good and bad. The good part is preserved and cherished at the same time the bad part is wrestled with or repressed. In extreme case of schizophrenia, when a part of the self linked with one of the separate thoughts, and another part of the self is linked with another, the person is then split (Berzoff et al. 1996). Idealization is a defense used to keep painful and unacceptable feelings out of consciousness. The feelings that are troublesome are usually the same feelings that people often want to reject: â€Å"anger, disappointment, envy, sadness, desire, and greed (p. 145)†. Devaluation is the opposite of idealization and is a defense mechanism used to reject troublesome feelings such as â€Å"neediness, weakness, insecurity, envy, or desire (p. 146)†. A person who denies desire through devaluation ends up feeling smug and superior but quite alone (Berzoff et al. 1996). An important developmental point in object relations is the depressive position according to Klein (1948). The depressive position is constantly maturing throughout a person’s lifetime. Feelings of remorse, grief, and the yearning for atonement take hold in the developing mind in the depressive position. The person now recognizes the ability to cause harm or push away a person who one undecidedly loves. The defenses attributed to the depressive position include the manic defenses, such as preoccupation for reparation. As the depressive position causes growing integration in the ego, prior defenses shift in the character, becoming less powerful, allowing the character to move into psychic reality (Berzoff et al. 1996). Throughout this turbulent time in Ellen’s life she is experiencing many new relationships and is relationship seeking with many adults. These adults are supposed to be caregivers for her. These people are her mother, father, her grandmother, Julia, Aunt Betsy, Aunt Nadine, and new mama. There is a time after Ellen’s mother dies that I feel she is too alone, in agreement with Winnicot (1958). Ellen often reports that when she would come home from school â€Å"it was already dark and he had the lights on. I went in and did not speak to him. I did not speak to him or else I stayed outside most of the time (p. 24)†. She said that her father was drunk all the time, often passed out, she was alone and eventually she had to take care of the bills. There are other times when Ellen’s life is overflowing with abusive adult figures in her life. On New Years Eve, Ellen claimed that a bunch of black drunk men came into her house with father. â€Å"My daddy showed up at my house less and less†¦he did show up on New Years Eve. Of course I went and hid when I heard him and a whole pack of colored men come in the door (p. 36)†. Ellen is frightened when this happens often trying to escape through a window in her room. In accordance with Winnicot (1958), aloneness becomes too much too bare for Ellen and she feels the need to hide. Her inner world is too crowed with threatening and abusive figures who are threatening her safety. The whole mother’s side of the family overcrowds Ellen’s inner world too. This is a risk for Ellen, because disruptions in object relations may result in an inability to fall in love, emotional coldness, apathy or withdrawal from interaction with others, co-dependency, and/or extreme need to control relationships (Berzoff et al. 1996:70). Ellen attempts to control Starletta as much as she can through projective identification; she splits off a part of herself and attempts to control Starletta. Ellen often tells Starletta what to do, for example one day when Ellen was over Starletta’s house and she wanted to play, however Ellen thought to herself and told Starletta the following: â€Å"Starletta still had on her nightgown and she needed to be washed. ‘You got to wash before I will play with you’ is what I told her (p. 31). She taped Starletta’s crayons back together after she broke them. She would often talk down to Starletta: â€Å"’Tell your Mama I thank her’ I said to her. Say it over in your head and out loud so it will not leave your head (p. 52)†. This relationship may unconsciously aim to get rid of unmanageable feelings for Ellen and help her deal with these feelings. Ellen’s relationship with grandmother is toxic at best. In the beginning, Ellen thought that her grandmother might like having a girl around the house, even though she is not a â€Å"vision†(pg), but Ellen said she had good intentions. In my opinion, â€Å"good intentions† meant she wanted to have a relationship with her grandmother. The grandmother wanted to punish Ellen for Ellen and her father causing her daughter’s suicide. Ellen confronts her grandmother, asking her why she hates her so much. Ellen asked her grandmother: â€Å"Well I know you hated my daddy but what about me? Why can’t you see that I am not like him? (p. 78)†. The grandma lashes out at Ellen with an onslaught of abusive hurtful words directed towards Ellen to break her down. Ultimately, that is what Ellen does she shuts down. â€Å"So I decided to spend the rest of my life making up for it. Whatever it was. Whatever I decided I one day I actually did (p. 78-79)†. Ellen is in the depressive position, she feels guilty about everything for her mothers death, for her fathers death, and then for the grandmother’s death when she passes. Ellen utilizes her manic defenses, in my opinion, when she finds the grandmother dead and decides to dress her in her â€Å"Sunday’s best† clothes and surround her with flowers in order to make amends with her guilty feelings. â€Å"I made her like a present to Jesus so maybe he would take her. Take this one I got prettied up and mark it down by name to balance against the one I held from you before†¦. be sure I get the credit for it and if you can please show me some way that you and me are even now (p. 92). Ellen becomes slightly preoccupied with reparation. Ellen begins to move past this phase when she moves in the home of her Aunt Nadine. Object relations can be applied to Ellen’s traumatic past and helps to identify some significant points in her life that she would like to work in future treatment. A pleasant thing about object relations is that as the therapist and patient collectively examine the patient’s internal world and its effect on the patient’s relationships, the patient and therapist are in a relationship as well. In this way, patient and therapist have an existing shared connection that both can study and learn from (Berzoff et al. 996). Sociocultural Theory Sociocultural theory stemmed from the work of psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky (1934/1986) felt that human cognition was innately social and language based. Vygotsky believed inner speech is qualitatively distinct from normal external speech. It is language, advanced during the earlier years, and progressively improved during the middle years ( where Ellen’s age lies) that actually aids in giving the older child the capability to organize things mentally rather than by using concrete items (Lesser & Pope 2011). As Berk 2003 stated: Vytgotsky felt that children speak to themselves for self-guidance; he felt language was the foundation for all high cognitive processes, including control attention, deliberate memorization and recall, categorization, planning, problem solving, abstract reasoning, and self-reflection (p. 257). One of Vygotsky’s concepts is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference between what a child can achieve when working by themselves and what the same child can achieve when given assistance from someone with the necessary knowledge (Wertsch 1985). Vygotsky viewed the ZPD as a way to better explain the relation between children’s learning and cognitive development. The lower limit of ZPD is the level of skill attained by the child working alone; this lower limit can also be accredited to as the child’s actual developmental level. The upper limit is the level of latent skill that the child is able to reach with the assistance of a more capable instructor (Wertsch 1985).. A concept associated with ZPD is the concept scaffolding. It is essential to make a note that Vygotksy never used this concept in his writing; introduced by David Wood, Jerome S. Bruner, and Gail Ross (1976). Scaffolding is a process through which a mentor or more competent peer helps a person in his or her ZPD learn for as long as necessary and tapers off until the student no longer needs the mentor, much like a scaffold is detached from a building when construction is finished or deemed stable (Wood et al. 1976). Vygotsky viewed make-believe play as the vital context for development of self-regulation. Despite the fact that Ellen is ten years old going on eleven years old, this still pertains to her. Make-believe is full of shared dialogue and development-enhancing skills. Vygotsky takes make-believe to the next level making it a important part of development a distinguishing, experiential ZPD in which children try out a wide range of difficult skills and learn culturally valued skills developing a significantly stronger capacity for self-regulation

How Society Shapes the Beliefs of Our Children

We live in a context and not a vacuum. Our culture and the society around us play a very dominant role in the values we choose. Sometimes this is planned, overt, and intentional. Sometimes it is unplanned, unseen and unintentional. Sometimes we choose to accept the values of others. Sometimes we choose to rebel against them. Either way they are influential. The nuclear family is the first part of society that shapes us. Our parents and siblings (good, bad, indifferent) play a major role in how we choose to live. The great poem Children Learn What They Live, by Dorathy Law Nolte expresses this truth very well.Here are just a couple of lines for example. If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, they learn to fight†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness. If children live with fairness, they learn justice. Perhaps the second most influential institution beyond the nuclear family is our educational system. We lo ok up to our teachers and for the most part take what they say and the information in our text books as valid and valuable. However, there may come a time that we don’t agree with what we are being taught.Yet even here our rebellion is in the context of society. Often we know more what we are against than what we are for. The presence or absence of faith and religion in our lives is another source within society that shapes our personal values. Sooner or later you will have contact with a wide variety of spiritual choices. Each exists in our culture and society. Each is a positive or negative influence towards our personal values. Let us not forget advertizing. â€Å"You deserve a break today. † This is a value statement if there ever was one. Who says you deserve a break? Do you agree or disagree with this value?Do you value faster and faster high tech communication? Is it important to be sexy? Do you value professional sports enough to invest in a big screen TV? Last , but not least, nor even finally there is societal politics. Do you value spending or saving? Do you like taxes or austerity? Do you have more kids so you can get more welfare? Do you give to charity so you can have a bigger write-off? These days many people think they are not accepting societal values. â€Å"I pick and choose what I want. † However, even such a view of choice is a current Post Modern societal value. Similar essay: Our Changing Society

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The Hegemony Debate in International Relations Essay

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The Undead Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Marketing Mix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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The Evolution of Federalism Essay Example for Free

The Evolution of Federalism Essay Federalism is the current type of government used in the United States. In this system of government, there is distribution of power between central authority or the national government and the local political units. The framers of the United States Constitution decided that a federalist government would work best for the country because it can lead to a stronger and unified government thereby giving focus to the needs of each state and the country as a whole. Every type of government is unique in its own way and each has its own pros and cons. The evolution of a federal type of government has both positive and negative effects. Aside from unifying the government, the local government’s independence results in efficiency due to fast decision-making. The federal system provides convenience to the citizens because they can compare the structure in different states thereby giving them the ultimate decision where they want to live in. A federalist government has a greater chance for progress because their system allows them to strategize and formulate different approaches in their economic and political framework. The existence of a federal government avoids and reduces the risk of authoritarianism (Walker, 2001). There are also several disadvantages of the federal government such as the incoherence or overlapping of several policies among different states and the tendency for unhealthy competition among states due to the difference of governance. For its continued existence, the government needs to formulate a system regardless of the form. No type of government guarantees the success of a nation. At present, different structures of government are being used all throughout the world and by far, the only key to a progressive and successful society lies not in the government itself but the people behind it. References Walker, G. (2001). Ten advantages of a federal constitution. On Line Opinion. Retrieved April 20, 2009 from http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=1265page=3

Challenges to Defining Cybercrime

Challenges to Defining Cybercrime What is Cybercrime? At this point of time there is no commonly agreed definition of ‘Cybercrime’. The area of Cybercrime is very broad and the technical nature of the subject has made extremely difficult for authorities to come up with a precise definition of Cybercrime. The British police have defined Cybercrime as ‘use of any computer network for crime’ and council of Europe has defined Cybercrime as ‘any criminal offence against or with help of computer network. The two definitions offered by the British police and council of Europe are both very broad and they offer very little insight into the nature of conduct which falls under the defined term. Most of us do a vague idea what Cybercrime means but it seems that it is very to difficult to pinpoint the exact conduct which can be regarded as Cybercrime. For the purposes of the dissertation, I shall attempt to come up with my own definition of Cybercrime; the available definitions do not adequately explain the concept of Cybercrime. In order to understand and provide better insight into nature of Cybercrime, it will be a good idea to divide Cybercrime into two categories because computers can be used in two ways to commit Cybercrime. The first category will include crimes in which the computer was used as tool to commit the offence. The computer has enabled criminals to use the technology to commit crimes such as fraud and copyright privacy. The computer can be exploited just as another technical device which can be exploited, for e.g. a phone can be used to verbally abuse someone or stalk someone, someway the internet can be used to stalk someone or verbally abuse someone. The second category will include offences which are committed with intention of damaging or modifying computers. In this category the target of the crime is the computer itself, offences such as hacking. Whichever categories the offence committed falls in, ultimately it are us the humans who have to suffer the consequences of Cybercrime. Now we know that there are two ways in which the computer can be used to commit offences, my definition of Cybercrime would be: â€Å"Illegal acts using the computer as instrument to commit an offence, or targeting a computer network to damage or modifying computers for malicious purposes† Even my definition cannot be regarded as precise, as pointed earlier that due to the broad and technical nature of Cybercrime, it almost impossible to come up with a precise definition. The term Cybercrime is a social term to describe criminal activities which take place in world of computers; it is not an established term within the criminal law. The fact that there is no legal definition of Cybercrime within criminal law makes the whole area of Cybercrime very complicated for concerned authorities and the general public, it creates confusion such as what constitutes as Cybercrime and if Cybercrime cannot be defined properly how will the victims report the crime? The lack of proper definition means that majority of the Cybercrime which takes place is unreported as the victims and the authorities are not sure whether the conduct is a Cybercrime. It is estimated that 90% of the Cybercrime which occurs is unreported. Types of Cybercrime Computer can be used to commit various crimes, in order to have a better understanding of Cybercrime; we shall look at individually the types of crimes which are committed in the world of computers. It will not possible to describe every type of Cybercrime which exists due to the word limit, we will only concentrate on crimes which are considered to be major threats to our security. First Category Fraud Fraud can be defined as use of deception for direct or indirect financial or monetary gain. The internet can be used as means targeting the victim by replicating â€Å"real world† frauds such as get rich quick schemes which don’t exist, emails which demand an additional fee to be paid via credit card to stop loss of service such as internet or banking. The increasing availability of the internet means that fraudsters can carry out fraudulent activities on a grand scale. Fraud is a traditional crime which has existed for centuries and internet is merely a tool by which the fraudsters actions are carried out. Fraud has become a serious threat to e-commerce and other online transactions. Statistics suggest that internet only accounts for 3% of credit card fraud, credit card fraud is one of the more difficult frauds to commit on the internet, however other forms of fraud such as phising are more easier to carry out using the internet and equally lucrative. Phising is a form of fraud which is rapidly increasing. Phising is when you get emails from commercial organizations such your bank and other financial institutions, they would ask you to update your details, emails look genuine and it is a scam to trick people on giving their details. There are no official figures available on ‘phishing scams’ but on average I receive about three emails everyday asking me to update my bank account details. Recently there was email going around asking the staff members and students of LSBU to update their personal details, the email looked genuine but the ICT staff informed students/staff to ignore as it was a trick to gain personal information. Since the advancement of technology, it is has become easier and cheaper to communicate and fraudsters are also taking advantage of technology because it is easier to exploit the internet and it is cheaper than other alternatives such as phone and postal mail. There are other forms of fraud such as auction fraud, it is when buy goods in auction and you pay for the item but your item will never turn up. Fraud is one of the lucrative crimes on the internet; experts suggest that it is more than trafficking drugs. The reasons why fraudsters prefer internet is because: Internet has made mass communication easy and it is cheap, same email can be sent to millions of people very easily and cheaply with just one click of button. Majority of users do not have adequate knowledge on how technology works, this makes it easy for fraudsters to fool innocent people into taking an action such as giving their personal details. Internet users are considered naà ¯ve in the sense that they have too much faith in the information they receive via the internet, therefore, they do not take necessary steps to verify the information and often get tricked in handing out their credit card or personal details. Offences against person(s) Offence against a person can either be physical or mental, it is not possible to cause direct physical harm to a person using a computer but it is possible to cause mental harm such as anxiety, distress or psychological harm. It can be done by sending abusive or threatening emails or posting derogatory information online. Stalking is a crime which is done to harass another person repeatedly. As the number of user on the internet increased, the opportunities for abuse have also increased. It is possible to use internet as a tool for sending abusive emails, leaving offensive messages on guestbooks, or posting misinformation on blogs. In some cases, cyberstalkers have morphed images of their victims onto pornographic images and then emailing the pictures to relative and work colleagues to cause embarrassment. There are mainly three reasons for committing a crime such as stalking, Main reason is usually when relationships fail, former intimates usually target their ex-boyfriend/girlfriend to get revenge. Second reason for cyberstalking is boredom; some people usually pick random people and target them by sending them abusive and threatening emails just for fun. Cyberstalkers take advantage of anonymity of the internet to cause distress to their victim’s life. Hate and racist speech is also a form of crime which escalated since the introduction of the internet; it can cause traumatic experience and mental distress to those who are targeted. Post 9/11, there have been many websites set up to mock the religion Islam, such as www.laughingatislam.com, this website has been cause of distress to many Muslims around the world. Sexual offences This category includes offences which have sexual element, such as making undesired sexual approaches in chat-rooms and paedophiles harrasing children. Child pornography and child protection are one of the main concerns on the internet. Paedophiles are taking full advantage to exploit the technology for viewing and exchanging child pornography. Paedophiles use the internet to their advantage, they use chat rooms and other popular social networks such as facebook to entice and lure children into meeting them. Many popular chat rooms such as MSN Chat and Yahoo chat have closed down their chat rooms to protect young children but closure of popular chat rooms have not stopped paedophiles from using less popular chat rooms and other social networks. Second category Hacking related offences Hacking can be defined as gaining unauthorised access to a computer system. As soon as we hear the word ‘hacking’, we tend to think that it is a crime, it should be noted that hacking started of as show of skill to gain temporary access to computer systems. It was rather an intellectual challenge than a criminal motive. But now, many hackers misuse their skills to inflict damage and destruction. Examples of hacking include stealing confident information such credit card details. In a recent incident of hacking, Harriet Harman whose is a politician, taking part in upcoming elections. Her website was hacked and the blog section of her website encouraged the audience to vote for Boris Johnson whose is a competitor of Harman Harriet. Boris Johnson has also complained that his email account was hacked recently. Most politicians believe that internet as a medium will be a major part of election campaigns and activities such as hacking can sabotage election campaigns by posting disinformation on candidate’s websites. Virus and Other Malicious Programs Virus is a malicious code or program that replicates itself and inserts copies or new versions onto other programs, affecting computer systems. Viruses are designed to modify computer systems without the consent of the owner or operator. Viruses are created to inflict senseless damage to computer system. It is a widely accepted perception that crime is committed in times economic distress. Criminals do not gain any monetary benefit; it is simply done to show off their computer skills. Some viruses are failed programs or accidental releases. The most famous virus which was released is the I LOVE YOU virus or commonly known as the ‘love bug’. The virus damaged millions of computers worldwide; it caused damage worth of $8.5bn, the author of the virus claims that it was released to impress his girlfriend. Legislation on Cybercrime It is often believed that the internet is just like the ‘wild west’ where there no rules and regulations and people are free to carry out illegal activities. Fortunately, this is not true at all; there is legislation which exists to protect us from cybercrimes. Type of crime Legislation Fraud Fraud Act 2006(Covers all types of possible frauds) Offences against person(s) The Public Order Act 1986(Hate speech) Sexual Offences The Protection of children Act 1978 The Criminal Justice Act 1988 The Criminal Justice an Public Order Act 1988 Sexual Offences Act 2003 After carefully reviewing all pieces of legislations mentioned above, I can conclude by saying that legislation we have at the moment is adequate enough to protect us from any sort of traditional crime carried out using computers. There were few anomalies which have been removed now. Anomalies The Theft Act 1968 which previously covered fraud has been replaced by Fraud Act 2006 to cover anomaly under the previous legislation. In the case of Clayman, it was held that it is not unlawful to defraud a computer; the courts do not regard computers as deceivable as the process is fully automated. In theory if we apply the principle deriving from the Clayman case then it will not be unlawful to false credit card number when signing up for an online service such as subscription to a newsgroup or online gaming. There is only exception to this rule that it will not apply if deception involves licensed telecommunications services, such as dial-up chat lines pay-per-view TV. Second anomaly before us was that information was not regarded property. In the case of Oxford v Moss, in this case a student took a copy of forthcoming exam from a lecturer’s desk and made a photocopy of that exam paper, it was held that the student cannot be charged under the theft act as he did not deprive the owner of the asset, a copy had simply been taken. Computers only contain information, by applying the principle deriving from this case, it means that it is acceptable to print other people’s files as long they do not deprive the owner of the file by deleting it, one would only be prosecuted if he/she steals trade secret or confidential information. Decisions in both cases mentioned above are absurd, both of them were decided in 1970s, the only possible reason for reaching absurd decision could only be lack of knowledge on technology. Previous legislation took into account the consequences of the fraudster’s activities when deciding whether the conduct in question is an offence. The Fraud Act 2006 aims to prosecute the fraudsters on the basis of their actual conduct rather than the consequences of their activities. How serious is the threat? In order to determine the seriousness of the threat, it is important to look at the statistics available on cybercrime. Type of crime Number of cases reported Fraud 299,000 Offences against the person 1,944000 Sexual offences 850,238 Computer Misuse(Hacking) 144,500 Virus related incidents 6,000000 Total number of cases reported 9,237738 Source of statistics: Garlik According to the figures, they were approximately 9.23 million incidents of cybercrime reported in the year 2006. Statistics show that 15% of the population of the UK was affected by cybercrime in someway, after looking at these figures; one can easily conclude that we are having an epidemic of cybercrime. These statistics could only the tip of the iceberg of the totality of cybercrime; experts believe that real figure could be 10 times higher as cybercrime is massively under-reported. Reasons for under-reporting Reporting any crime involves a three stage process: The conduct needs to be observed. The conduct needs to categorised as criminal. The relevant authorities need to be informed of the criminal conduct. A particular crime will not be reported if there is failure in any of the stages, therefore the relevant authorities will not take action against the criminal. There are certain factors which affect reporting of cybercrime, factors include: Sometimes the criminal conduct is not noticed, internet fraud usually comprises of low-value transactions across a bulk body of victims, and victims are not always able to spot discrepancy in their bank accounts. Lack of awareness means that the victims may not know whether the conduct in question is a crime. Victims of viruses don’t see them as victims of crime, people tend to see viruses as technical issue, and therefore, the victim would believe that no one has broken the law. Most victims don’t know which authorities they should contact to report cybercrime. Police officers have inadequate amount of resources and don’t have the expertise to deal with cybercrime at the moment, therefore, pursuing a formal complaint can be a difficult process. Once I tried reporting a cybercrime, a laptop was purchased on EBay but the seller took my money and never sent the laptop, this is a common case of auction fraud. I did try to make a complain, the whole process was extremely slow, the officer dealing with me had no clue what EBay is, I was able to register a complaint but it has been two years and my complain is still unresolved. Under-reporting is factor which contributes towards increase in cybercrime, under-reporting mean that criminals will have less fear of getting caught and therefore, they are more likely to commit illegal acts online. People’s attitude towards cybercrime Traditional crimes such as murder, rape and robbery can have serious effects on the victim’s life; in some cases the victim may not be able to lead a normal life after being a victim of crime. In contrast to cybercrime, the impact is not that serious, majority of users have insurance against financial frauds, and frauds are usually of low-value. Viruses can easily be filtered using antivirus software. Other offences such as cyberstalking usually cause some anxiety and distress. Only crimes such as child pornography have a greater impact, it is the only the crime which can have a serious consequences on the victims life. A recent survey suggest that only 37% are afraid to use the internet after being a victim of crime, majority of the users do continue to use the internet after being a victim. Cybercrime and e-commerce Cybercrime is a growing concern for all of us, however, the effects of cybercrime are not hindering the growth of the internet, and the effects of cybercrime on the e-commerce have not been drastic. Financial transactions over the internet are on the rise, number of people using internet for shopping is increase day by day and over one third of population is using internet banking. One of the reasons why cybercrime spiraling out of control is the fact that it is very easy to commit if have the technical knowledge, all you need is a computer connected to the internet, the crimes on the internet are hard to detect. It can be committed from anywhere in the world, the criminal could sitting in Africa and targeting his victim in Australia. In the next chapter, we shall examine the problems faced by authorities when investigating cybercrime. Jurisdiction Jurisdictional issues and the cyberspace Cyberspace is a world without defined boundaries; anyone can access any website using his computer. It can very difficult to locate the source of crime in cyberspace because relative anonymity and as easy way to shield identity. Even if the relevant authorities are able to identify the source of crime, it is not always easy to prosecute the criminal. Double criminality When dealing cross border crime, it is imperative that both countries should recognise the conduct as illegal in both jurisdictions. The principle of double criminality prohibits the extradition of a person, if the conduct in question is not recognized as a criminal offence by the country receiving the request for jurisdiction. Imagine a situation where a computer programmer from Zimbabwe sends Barclays bank a virus which causes the computers in Barclays bank to malfunction, the bank cannot carry out their business for 1 hour and as a result they lose about $1 million worth of revenue. English authorities would want to extradite the offender to England so they could prosecute the offender. In an action for extradition, the applicant is required to show that actions of the accused constitute a criminal offence exceeding a minimum level of seriousness in both jurisdictions. Imagine now that they are no laws on spreading viruses in Zimbabwe, therefore it will not possible to show offender’s action constitute as criminal behavior. If they are no laws regarding on cybercrime in Zimbabwe then he cannot be extradited and he will walk free after deliberately causing damage to Barclays bank. Cybercrime has an international dimension, it is imperative that legal protection is harmonised internationally. There are still about 33 countries such as Albania, Yugoslavia and Malta; they have no laws on cybercrimes. If there are no laws then those countries are considered as computer crime havens. The perpetrator of ‘I LOVE YOU’ virus which caused $8.5 billion worth damage was caught in Philippines but he could not be prosecuted as Philippines had no laws on cybercrime. Cybercrime is global issue and the world will need to work together in order to tackle cybercrime. How real world crime dealt across borders? In relation to real world crime which transcended national borders, an idiosyncratic network of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties(MLATs) bound various countries to assist each other in investigating real world crime, such as drug trafficking. If there was no treaty agreement between two countries then they would contact the relevant authorities to ask for assistance and obtain evidence, this mechanism was sufficient in dealing with real world crime. This mechanism can only work if both countries have similar cybercrime laws; if any country lacks cybercrime laws then the process would fail. How should Jurisdiction be approached in Cybercrime? In a case of cyberstalking, An Australian man was stalking a Canadian Actress. The man harassed the actress by sending unsolicited emails. Australian Supreme Court of Victoria held that crimes ‘committed over the internet knows no borders’ and ‘State and national boundaries do not concern them’, therefore, jurisdiction should not be the issue. He was convicted. This case was straightforward as both nations recognise stalking as a criminal offence, however, there can be conflicts if both nations do not recognize the act as criminal. In Licra v Yahoo, French courts tried to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was accused of Nazi memorabilia contrary to Article R645-1 of the French Criminal Code. Yahoo argued that there are not in breach of Article R645-1 as they were conducting the auction under the jurisdiction of USA and it is not illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia under the American law. In order to prove that Yahoo is subject American jurisdiction, they argued the following points: Yahoo servers are located in US territory. Services of Yahoo are primarily aimed at US citizens. According to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed and any attempt to enforce judgement which restricts freedom of speech and expression would fail for unconstitutionality. The court ruled that they have full jurisdiction over Yahoo because: The auction was open to worldwide bidders, including France. It is possible to view the auction in France, viewing and displaying Nazi memorabilia causes public nuisance and it is offence to public nuisance under the French law. Yahoo had a customer base in France, the advertisements were in French. Yahoo did have knowledge that French citizens use their site; therefore they should not do anything to offend French citizens. Yahoo ignored the French court ruling and kept saying that they French court does not have the right to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was warned that they would have to pay heavy fines if they don’t comply. In the end Yahoo owners did comply with the judgement they had substantial assets in France which were at risk of being confiscated if they don’t claim. The sole reason why French courts were able to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo because it is a multinational company with large presence in France. Imagine instead of France, if the action would have been taken by courts of Saudi Arabia on auctioning playboy magazines, under the Saudi Arabian Sharia law, it is illegal to view or buy pornography. Saudi Arabia court would have failed to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo as they don’t have any presence in Saudi Arabia but it was possible to view Yahoo auctions from Saudi Arabia. The case of Yahoo is a rare example where a court was able to exercise jurisdiction over a foreign company. In majority of the cases concerning individuals, courts trying to exercise jurisdiction over foreign elements are usually ignored. In the case of Nottinghamshire County Council v. Gwatkin (UK), injunctions were issued against many journalists to prevent them from publishing disseminating a leaked report that strongly criticises [the Councils] handling of allegations of satanic abuse of children in the 1980s. Despite the injunctions, a report appeared on an American website. The website refused to respect the English jurisdiction as they argued that the report was a public document. The Nottinghamshire had no option then to drop the case. Cybercrime has an international dimension. International law is complicated area, it can be very difficult to co-operate with authorities if there is no or weak diplomatic ties, for e.g. Pakistan and Israel have no diplomatic ties, if a situation arises where Israeli citizen hacks into State bank of Pakistan steals millions of dollars from the bank, in a situation like this, one easily assume that both countries would not co-operate with each other even though both countries recognise hacking as a offence but they do not have diplomatic ties with each other, most probably the hacker would get away with the crime. A case involving Russian hackers, they hacked into Paypal and stole 53,000 credit card details. Paypal is an American company. The Russian hackers blackmailed Paypal and asked for a substantial amount of money, they threatened they would publish the details of 53,000 credit cards if they do not receive the money. Russia and American both have signed extradition treaty but still Russian authorities failed to take action, it is still not clear why they did not take appropriate action against the Russian hackers. Both nations struggled to gain jurisdiction over each other. FBI decided to take things into their own hands by setting up a secret operation, undercover agents posed as reprenstatives of a bogus security firm Invita. The bogus security firm invited the Russian hackers to US with prospects of employment. When the interview for employment by the bogus firm Invita was being carried out, the Russian hackers were asked to display there hacking skills, one of the hackers accessed his own system in Russia to show off his skills, the FBI recorded every keystroke and later arrested the Russian hackers for multiple offences such as hacking, fraud and extortion. The keystrokes recorded were later used to hack into one of the hacker’s computer in Russia to access incriminating evidence. All this took place without the knowledge of Russian authorities. When Russian authorities came to know about whole incident, they were furious and argued that US misused their authority and infringing on another sovereign nation’s jurisdiction. Lack of co-operation in relation to jurisdiction can lead to serious problems between nations, in order to avoid such conflicts, there is need to address the jurisdiction issue and come up with a mechanism which ensures that countries co-operate with each other. Where is the Jurisdiction? In the real world crime, the conduct and the effect of the conduct are easy to pin down because we can visibly see the human carrying out the conduct and the effect of the conduct is also visible. The location of the offence and the location of the perpetrator can easily be identified. Imagine a situation in which a shooter in Canada shots an American across Niagara Falls, it is clear from the example that the conduct took place in Canada and the effect of the conduct took place in Canada. Cyberspace is not real, people say that events on cyberspace occur everywhere and nowhere, a man disseminating a virus could release a virus which travel through servers of many different country before reaching the victim, for e.g. a person makes a racist website targeting Jews in Malta, uploads the website on American servers and the website is available for everyone to see, a Jewish living in Israel comes across the website and gets offended. In a situation like this where would you bring an action, should you bring an action in Malta because the perpetrator is based over there, would bring an action in America where the server is hosted or would bring the action in Israel where the victim is? There are specific laws regarding jurisdiction issues on the internet, the world is still struggling to come up with a solution which would solve the problem of jurisdiction. Positive or Negative Jurisdiction? The principle of negative jurisdiction occurs when no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction for a cybercrime. Cybercrime can have multiple victims in different countries; the ‘love bug’ caused damage in many different countries including USA, UK, France and Germany. If the damage is caused to multiple countries then who should claim jurisdiction over the cybercrime, should it by prioritised by the amount of damage suffered by each country. If the effected countries decide not to take action against the perpetrator because it is not in their best interest, the country may be occupied by other internal problems. If no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction over a cybercrime then the perpetrator would walk free. Positive jurisdiction is opposite of negative jurisdiction, how will the issue of jurisdiction be decided if more than two countries want to exercise t Challenges to Defining Cybercrime Challenges to Defining Cybercrime What is Cybercrime? At this point of time there is no commonly agreed definition of ‘Cybercrime’. The area of Cybercrime is very broad and the technical nature of the subject has made extremely difficult for authorities to come up with a precise definition of Cybercrime. The British police have defined Cybercrime as ‘use of any computer network for crime’ and council of Europe has defined Cybercrime as ‘any criminal offence against or with help of computer network. The two definitions offered by the British police and council of Europe are both very broad and they offer very little insight into the nature of conduct which falls under the defined term. Most of us do a vague idea what Cybercrime means but it seems that it is very to difficult to pinpoint the exact conduct which can be regarded as Cybercrime. For the purposes of the dissertation, I shall attempt to come up with my own definition of Cybercrime; the available definitions do not adequately explain the concept of Cybercrime. In order to understand and provide better insight into nature of Cybercrime, it will be a good idea to divide Cybercrime into two categories because computers can be used in two ways to commit Cybercrime. The first category will include crimes in which the computer was used as tool to commit the offence. The computer has enabled criminals to use the technology to commit crimes such as fraud and copyright privacy. The computer can be exploited just as another technical device which can be exploited, for e.g. a phone can be used to verbally abuse someone or stalk someone, someway the internet can be used to stalk someone or verbally abuse someone. The second category will include offences which are committed with intention of damaging or modifying computers. In this category the target of the crime is the computer itself, offences such as hacking. Whichever categories the offence committed falls in, ultimately it are us the humans who have to suffer the consequences of Cybercrime. Now we know that there are two ways in which the computer can be used to commit offences, my definition of Cybercrime would be: â€Å"Illegal acts using the computer as instrument to commit an offence, or targeting a computer network to damage or modifying computers for malicious purposes† Even my definition cannot be regarded as precise, as pointed earlier that due to the broad and technical nature of Cybercrime, it almost impossible to come up with a precise definition. The term Cybercrime is a social term to describe criminal activities which take place in world of computers; it is not an established term within the criminal law. The fact that there is no legal definition of Cybercrime within criminal law makes the whole area of Cybercrime very complicated for concerned authorities and the general public, it creates confusion such as what constitutes as Cybercrime and if Cybercrime cannot be defined properly how will the victims report the crime? The lack of proper definition means that majority of the Cybercrime which takes place is unreported as the victims and the authorities are not sure whether the conduct is a Cybercrime. It is estimated that 90% of the Cybercrime which occurs is unreported. Types of Cybercrime Computer can be used to commit various crimes, in order to have a better understanding of Cybercrime; we shall look at individually the types of crimes which are committed in the world of computers. It will not possible to describe every type of Cybercrime which exists due to the word limit, we will only concentrate on crimes which are considered to be major threats to our security. First Category Fraud Fraud can be defined as use of deception for direct or indirect financial or monetary gain. The internet can be used as means targeting the victim by replicating â€Å"real world† frauds such as get rich quick schemes which don’t exist, emails which demand an additional fee to be paid via credit card to stop loss of service such as internet or banking. The increasing availability of the internet means that fraudsters can carry out fraudulent activities on a grand scale. Fraud is a traditional crime which has existed for centuries and internet is merely a tool by which the fraudsters actions are carried out. Fraud has become a serious threat to e-commerce and other online transactions. Statistics suggest that internet only accounts for 3% of credit card fraud, credit card fraud is one of the more difficult frauds to commit on the internet, however other forms of fraud such as phising are more easier to carry out using the internet and equally lucrative. Phising is a form of fraud which is rapidly increasing. Phising is when you get emails from commercial organizations such your bank and other financial institutions, they would ask you to update your details, emails look genuine and it is a scam to trick people on giving their details. There are no official figures available on ‘phishing scams’ but on average I receive about three emails everyday asking me to update my bank account details. Recently there was email going around asking the staff members and students of LSBU to update their personal details, the email looked genuine but the ICT staff informed students/staff to ignore as it was a trick to gain personal information. Since the advancement of technology, it is has become easier and cheaper to communicate and fraudsters are also taking advantage of technology because it is easier to exploit the internet and it is cheaper than other alternatives such as phone and postal mail. There are other forms of fraud such as auction fraud, it is when buy goods in auction and you pay for the item but your item will never turn up. Fraud is one of the lucrative crimes on the internet; experts suggest that it is more than trafficking drugs. The reasons why fraudsters prefer internet is because: Internet has made mass communication easy and it is cheap, same email can be sent to millions of people very easily and cheaply with just one click of button. Majority of users do not have adequate knowledge on how technology works, this makes it easy for fraudsters to fool innocent people into taking an action such as giving their personal details. Internet users are considered naà ¯ve in the sense that they have too much faith in the information they receive via the internet, therefore, they do not take necessary steps to verify the information and often get tricked in handing out their credit card or personal details. Offences against person(s) Offence against a person can either be physical or mental, it is not possible to cause direct physical harm to a person using a computer but it is possible to cause mental harm such as anxiety, distress or psychological harm. It can be done by sending abusive or threatening emails or posting derogatory information online. Stalking is a crime which is done to harass another person repeatedly. As the number of user on the internet increased, the opportunities for abuse have also increased. It is possible to use internet as a tool for sending abusive emails, leaving offensive messages on guestbooks, or posting misinformation on blogs. In some cases, cyberstalkers have morphed images of their victims onto pornographic images and then emailing the pictures to relative and work colleagues to cause embarrassment. There are mainly three reasons for committing a crime such as stalking, Main reason is usually when relationships fail, former intimates usually target their ex-boyfriend/girlfriend to get revenge. Second reason for cyberstalking is boredom; some people usually pick random people and target them by sending them abusive and threatening emails just for fun. Cyberstalkers take advantage of anonymity of the internet to cause distress to their victim’s life. Hate and racist speech is also a form of crime which escalated since the introduction of the internet; it can cause traumatic experience and mental distress to those who are targeted. Post 9/11, there have been many websites set up to mock the religion Islam, such as www.laughingatislam.com, this website has been cause of distress to many Muslims around the world. Sexual offences This category includes offences which have sexual element, such as making undesired sexual approaches in chat-rooms and paedophiles harrasing children. Child pornography and child protection are one of the main concerns on the internet. Paedophiles are taking full advantage to exploit the technology for viewing and exchanging child pornography. Paedophiles use the internet to their advantage, they use chat rooms and other popular social networks such as facebook to entice and lure children into meeting them. Many popular chat rooms such as MSN Chat and Yahoo chat have closed down their chat rooms to protect young children but closure of popular chat rooms have not stopped paedophiles from using less popular chat rooms and other social networks. Second category Hacking related offences Hacking can be defined as gaining unauthorised access to a computer system. As soon as we hear the word ‘hacking’, we tend to think that it is a crime, it should be noted that hacking started of as show of skill to gain temporary access to computer systems. It was rather an intellectual challenge than a criminal motive. But now, many hackers misuse their skills to inflict damage and destruction. Examples of hacking include stealing confident information such credit card details. In a recent incident of hacking, Harriet Harman whose is a politician, taking part in upcoming elections. Her website was hacked and the blog section of her website encouraged the audience to vote for Boris Johnson whose is a competitor of Harman Harriet. Boris Johnson has also complained that his email account was hacked recently. Most politicians believe that internet as a medium will be a major part of election campaigns and activities such as hacking can sabotage election campaigns by posting disinformation on candidate’s websites. Virus and Other Malicious Programs Virus is a malicious code or program that replicates itself and inserts copies or new versions onto other programs, affecting computer systems. Viruses are designed to modify computer systems without the consent of the owner or operator. Viruses are created to inflict senseless damage to computer system. It is a widely accepted perception that crime is committed in times economic distress. Criminals do not gain any monetary benefit; it is simply done to show off their computer skills. Some viruses are failed programs or accidental releases. The most famous virus which was released is the I LOVE YOU virus or commonly known as the ‘love bug’. The virus damaged millions of computers worldwide; it caused damage worth of $8.5bn, the author of the virus claims that it was released to impress his girlfriend. Legislation on Cybercrime It is often believed that the internet is just like the ‘wild west’ where there no rules and regulations and people are free to carry out illegal activities. Fortunately, this is not true at all; there is legislation which exists to protect us from cybercrimes. Type of crime Legislation Fraud Fraud Act 2006(Covers all types of possible frauds) Offences against person(s) The Public Order Act 1986(Hate speech) Sexual Offences The Protection of children Act 1978 The Criminal Justice Act 1988 The Criminal Justice an Public Order Act 1988 Sexual Offences Act 2003 After carefully reviewing all pieces of legislations mentioned above, I can conclude by saying that legislation we have at the moment is adequate enough to protect us from any sort of traditional crime carried out using computers. There were few anomalies which have been removed now. Anomalies The Theft Act 1968 which previously covered fraud has been replaced by Fraud Act 2006 to cover anomaly under the previous legislation. In the case of Clayman, it was held that it is not unlawful to defraud a computer; the courts do not regard computers as deceivable as the process is fully automated. In theory if we apply the principle deriving from the Clayman case then it will not be unlawful to false credit card number when signing up for an online service such as subscription to a newsgroup or online gaming. There is only exception to this rule that it will not apply if deception involves licensed telecommunications services, such as dial-up chat lines pay-per-view TV. Second anomaly before us was that information was not regarded property. In the case of Oxford v Moss, in this case a student took a copy of forthcoming exam from a lecturer’s desk and made a photocopy of that exam paper, it was held that the student cannot be charged under the theft act as he did not deprive the owner of the asset, a copy had simply been taken. Computers only contain information, by applying the principle deriving from this case, it means that it is acceptable to print other people’s files as long they do not deprive the owner of the file by deleting it, one would only be prosecuted if he/she steals trade secret or confidential information. Decisions in both cases mentioned above are absurd, both of them were decided in 1970s, the only possible reason for reaching absurd decision could only be lack of knowledge on technology. Previous legislation took into account the consequences of the fraudster’s activities when deciding whether the conduct in question is an offence. The Fraud Act 2006 aims to prosecute the fraudsters on the basis of their actual conduct rather than the consequences of their activities. How serious is the threat? In order to determine the seriousness of the threat, it is important to look at the statistics available on cybercrime. Type of crime Number of cases reported Fraud 299,000 Offences against the person 1,944000 Sexual offences 850,238 Computer Misuse(Hacking) 144,500 Virus related incidents 6,000000 Total number of cases reported 9,237738 Source of statistics: Garlik According to the figures, they were approximately 9.23 million incidents of cybercrime reported in the year 2006. Statistics show that 15% of the population of the UK was affected by cybercrime in someway, after looking at these figures; one can easily conclude that we are having an epidemic of cybercrime. These statistics could only the tip of the iceberg of the totality of cybercrime; experts believe that real figure could be 10 times higher as cybercrime is massively under-reported. Reasons for under-reporting Reporting any crime involves a three stage process: The conduct needs to be observed. The conduct needs to categorised as criminal. The relevant authorities need to be informed of the criminal conduct. A particular crime will not be reported if there is failure in any of the stages, therefore the relevant authorities will not take action against the criminal. There are certain factors which affect reporting of cybercrime, factors include: Sometimes the criminal conduct is not noticed, internet fraud usually comprises of low-value transactions across a bulk body of victims, and victims are not always able to spot discrepancy in their bank accounts. Lack of awareness means that the victims may not know whether the conduct in question is a crime. Victims of viruses don’t see them as victims of crime, people tend to see viruses as technical issue, and therefore, the victim would believe that no one has broken the law. Most victims don’t know which authorities they should contact to report cybercrime. Police officers have inadequate amount of resources and don’t have the expertise to deal with cybercrime at the moment, therefore, pursuing a formal complaint can be a difficult process. Once I tried reporting a cybercrime, a laptop was purchased on EBay but the seller took my money and never sent the laptop, this is a common case of auction fraud. I did try to make a complain, the whole process was extremely slow, the officer dealing with me had no clue what EBay is, I was able to register a complaint but it has been two years and my complain is still unresolved. Under-reporting is factor which contributes towards increase in cybercrime, under-reporting mean that criminals will have less fear of getting caught and therefore, they are more likely to commit illegal acts online. People’s attitude towards cybercrime Traditional crimes such as murder, rape and robbery can have serious effects on the victim’s life; in some cases the victim may not be able to lead a normal life after being a victim of crime. In contrast to cybercrime, the impact is not that serious, majority of users have insurance against financial frauds, and frauds are usually of low-value. Viruses can easily be filtered using antivirus software. Other offences such as cyberstalking usually cause some anxiety and distress. Only crimes such as child pornography have a greater impact, it is the only the crime which can have a serious consequences on the victims life. A recent survey suggest that only 37% are afraid to use the internet after being a victim of crime, majority of the users do continue to use the internet after being a victim. Cybercrime and e-commerce Cybercrime is a growing concern for all of us, however, the effects of cybercrime are not hindering the growth of the internet, and the effects of cybercrime on the e-commerce have not been drastic. Financial transactions over the internet are on the rise, number of people using internet for shopping is increase day by day and over one third of population is using internet banking. One of the reasons why cybercrime spiraling out of control is the fact that it is very easy to commit if have the technical knowledge, all you need is a computer connected to the internet, the crimes on the internet are hard to detect. It can be committed from anywhere in the world, the criminal could sitting in Africa and targeting his victim in Australia. In the next chapter, we shall examine the problems faced by authorities when investigating cybercrime. Jurisdiction Jurisdictional issues and the cyberspace Cyberspace is a world without defined boundaries; anyone can access any website using his computer. It can very difficult to locate the source of crime in cyberspace because relative anonymity and as easy way to shield identity. Even if the relevant authorities are able to identify the source of crime, it is not always easy to prosecute the criminal. Double criminality When dealing cross border crime, it is imperative that both countries should recognise the conduct as illegal in both jurisdictions. The principle of double criminality prohibits the extradition of a person, if the conduct in question is not recognized as a criminal offence by the country receiving the request for jurisdiction. Imagine a situation where a computer programmer from Zimbabwe sends Barclays bank a virus which causes the computers in Barclays bank to malfunction, the bank cannot carry out their business for 1 hour and as a result they lose about $1 million worth of revenue. English authorities would want to extradite the offender to England so they could prosecute the offender. In an action for extradition, the applicant is required to show that actions of the accused constitute a criminal offence exceeding a minimum level of seriousness in both jurisdictions. Imagine now that they are no laws on spreading viruses in Zimbabwe, therefore it will not possible to show offender’s action constitute as criminal behavior. If they are no laws regarding on cybercrime in Zimbabwe then he cannot be extradited and he will walk free after deliberately causing damage to Barclays bank. Cybercrime has an international dimension, it is imperative that legal protection is harmonised internationally. There are still about 33 countries such as Albania, Yugoslavia and Malta; they have no laws on cybercrimes. If there are no laws then those countries are considered as computer crime havens. The perpetrator of ‘I LOVE YOU’ virus which caused $8.5 billion worth damage was caught in Philippines but he could not be prosecuted as Philippines had no laws on cybercrime. Cybercrime is global issue and the world will need to work together in order to tackle cybercrime. How real world crime dealt across borders? In relation to real world crime which transcended national borders, an idiosyncratic network of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties(MLATs) bound various countries to assist each other in investigating real world crime, such as drug trafficking. If there was no treaty agreement between two countries then they would contact the relevant authorities to ask for assistance and obtain evidence, this mechanism was sufficient in dealing with real world crime. This mechanism can only work if both countries have similar cybercrime laws; if any country lacks cybercrime laws then the process would fail. How should Jurisdiction be approached in Cybercrime? In a case of cyberstalking, An Australian man was stalking a Canadian Actress. The man harassed the actress by sending unsolicited emails. Australian Supreme Court of Victoria held that crimes ‘committed over the internet knows no borders’ and ‘State and national boundaries do not concern them’, therefore, jurisdiction should not be the issue. He was convicted. This case was straightforward as both nations recognise stalking as a criminal offence, however, there can be conflicts if both nations do not recognize the act as criminal. In Licra v Yahoo, French courts tried to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was accused of Nazi memorabilia contrary to Article R645-1 of the French Criminal Code. Yahoo argued that there are not in breach of Article R645-1 as they were conducting the auction under the jurisdiction of USA and it is not illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia under the American law. In order to prove that Yahoo is subject American jurisdiction, they argued the following points: Yahoo servers are located in US territory. Services of Yahoo are primarily aimed at US citizens. According to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed and any attempt to enforce judgement which restricts freedom of speech and expression would fail for unconstitutionality. The court ruled that they have full jurisdiction over Yahoo because: The auction was open to worldwide bidders, including France. It is possible to view the auction in France, viewing and displaying Nazi memorabilia causes public nuisance and it is offence to public nuisance under the French law. Yahoo had a customer base in France, the advertisements were in French. Yahoo did have knowledge that French citizens use their site; therefore they should not do anything to offend French citizens. Yahoo ignored the French court ruling and kept saying that they French court does not have the right to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was warned that they would have to pay heavy fines if they don’t comply. In the end Yahoo owners did comply with the judgement they had substantial assets in France which were at risk of being confiscated if they don’t claim. The sole reason why French courts were able to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo because it is a multinational company with large presence in France. Imagine instead of France, if the action would have been taken by courts of Saudi Arabia on auctioning playboy magazines, under the Saudi Arabian Sharia law, it is illegal to view or buy pornography. Saudi Arabia court would have failed to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo as they don’t have any presence in Saudi Arabia but it was possible to view Yahoo auctions from Saudi Arabia. The case of Yahoo is a rare example where a court was able to exercise jurisdiction over a foreign company. In majority of the cases concerning individuals, courts trying to exercise jurisdiction over foreign elements are usually ignored. In the case of Nottinghamshire County Council v. Gwatkin (UK), injunctions were issued against many journalists to prevent them from publishing disseminating a leaked report that strongly criticises [the Councils] handling of allegations of satanic abuse of children in the 1980s. Despite the injunctions, a report appeared on an American website. The website refused to respect the English jurisdiction as they argued that the report was a public document. The Nottinghamshire had no option then to drop the case. Cybercrime has an international dimension. International law is complicated area, it can be very difficult to co-operate with authorities if there is no or weak diplomatic ties, for e.g. Pakistan and Israel have no diplomatic ties, if a situation arises where Israeli citizen hacks into State bank of Pakistan steals millions of dollars from the bank, in a situation like this, one easily assume that both countries would not co-operate with each other even though both countries recognise hacking as a offence but they do not have diplomatic ties with each other, most probably the hacker would get away with the crime. A case involving Russian hackers, they hacked into Paypal and stole 53,000 credit card details. Paypal is an American company. The Russian hackers blackmailed Paypal and asked for a substantial amount of money, they threatened they would publish the details of 53,000 credit cards if they do not receive the money. Russia and American both have signed extradition treaty but still Russian authorities failed to take action, it is still not clear why they did not take appropriate action against the Russian hackers. Both nations struggled to gain jurisdiction over each other. FBI decided to take things into their own hands by setting up a secret operation, undercover agents posed as reprenstatives of a bogus security firm Invita. The bogus security firm invited the Russian hackers to US with prospects of employment. When the interview for employment by the bogus firm Invita was being carried out, the Russian hackers were asked to display there hacking skills, one of the hackers accessed his own system in Russia to show off his skills, the FBI recorded every keystroke and later arrested the Russian hackers for multiple offences such as hacking, fraud and extortion. The keystrokes recorded were later used to hack into one of the hacker’s computer in Russia to access incriminating evidence. All this took place without the knowledge of Russian authorities. When Russian authorities came to know about whole incident, they were furious and argued that US misused their authority and infringing on another sovereign nation’s jurisdiction. Lack of co-operation in relation to jurisdiction can lead to serious problems between nations, in order to avoid such conflicts, there is need to address the jurisdiction issue and come up with a mechanism which ensures that countries co-operate with each other. Where is the Jurisdiction? In the real world crime, the conduct and the effect of the conduct are easy to pin down because we can visibly see the human carrying out the conduct and the effect of the conduct is also visible. The location of the offence and the location of the perpetrator can easily be identified. Imagine a situation in which a shooter in Canada shots an American across Niagara Falls, it is clear from the example that the conduct took place in Canada and the effect of the conduct took place in Canada. Cyberspace is not real, people say that events on cyberspace occur everywhere and nowhere, a man disseminating a virus could release a virus which travel through servers of many different country before reaching the victim, for e.g. a person makes a racist website targeting Jews in Malta, uploads the website on American servers and the website is available for everyone to see, a Jewish living in Israel comes across the website and gets offended. In a situation like this where would you bring an action, should you bring an action in Malta because the perpetrator is based over there, would bring an action in America where the server is hosted or would bring the action in Israel where the victim is? There are specific laws regarding jurisdiction issues on the internet, the world is still struggling to come up with a solution which would solve the problem of jurisdiction. Positive or Negative Jurisdiction? The principle of negative jurisdiction occurs when no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction for a cybercrime. Cybercrime can have multiple victims in different countries; the ‘love bug’ caused damage in many different countries including USA, UK, France and Germany. If the damage is caused to multiple countries then who should claim jurisdiction over the cybercrime, should it by prioritised by the amount of damage suffered by each country. If the effected countries decide not to take action against the perpetrator because it is not in their best interest, the country may be occupied by other internal problems. If no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction over a cybercrime then the perpetrator would walk free. Positive jurisdiction is opposite of negative jurisdiction, how will the issue of jurisdiction be decided if more than two countries want to exercise t

Daddy Yankee :: essays research papers

Daddy Yankee With over 15 years of upward growth in the entertainment industry and the Latin music scene, Daddy Yankee has developed to be one of the most respected and influential reggaeton artists. Yankee’s carefully crafted lyrics and his free-style abilities have allowed him to share his views and reach the masses, regardless of his intentions. From love to socially-saturated comments on the everyday Puerto Rican culture, many of his songs have remained solid in the club scene and are considered reggaeton classics. Daddy Yankee’s constant focus and rapid development have allowed him to collaborate with artists such as NAS (they recorded â€Å"The Profecy† together) and a track with mix tape legend and acclaimed Dj Tony Touch for his â€Å"The Peace Maker† album. Daddy was also invited for a cameo appearance in Terror Squad’s video â€Å"100% Percent† while his â€Å"Posicion† track was also included in â€Å"One Tough Cop† soundtrack. Without a doubt, Daddy Yankee's record sales confirm his success and popularity within Latin Music. All of his albums, "El Cartel de Yankee"; "El Cartel de Yankee II"; "El Cangri.com" and "Los Homerunes", have all received platinum status. In 2002, â€Å"El Cangri.com† was the biggest selling album in Puerto Rico, his hometown and one of the most prestigious markets within Latin Music. 2003 was one of the most important years in Daddy Yankee’s career. Shortly after â€Å"Los Homerun-es† album achieved record-breaking sales, one his life-long dreams came true†¦ a full house (12,000+) danced along with him in Puerto Rico’s historic Roberto Clemente Coliseum. The fans went wild as the press acclaimed his ability to bring the house down with his outstanding ability to free-style and his energetic stage performance. The show titled â€Å"Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri† quickly turned into Yankee’s most important and a historic moment in reggaeton music. Without a doubt, his fan’s support along with his personal desire to share his vision with upcoming artists have been key in his development as â€Å"El Cangri’s Inc.† and â€Å"El Cartel Records† founder and lead producer. Currently, Daddy Yankee has been touring Latin America and The United States gathering thousands of fans in each region. Just recently in Colombia, Yankee performed in front of over 60,000 screaming fans. Also, his energy and dedication to his career have allowed him to record over 130 tracks in as many as 70 feature reggaeton albums. Finally, in July of 2004, arrives Barrio Fino, the most anticipated album launch in Reggaeton music. Daddy Yankee :: essays research papers Daddy Yankee With over 15 years of upward growth in the entertainment industry and the Latin music scene, Daddy Yankee has developed to be one of the most respected and influential reggaeton artists. Yankee’s carefully crafted lyrics and his free-style abilities have allowed him to share his views and reach the masses, regardless of his intentions. From love to socially-saturated comments on the everyday Puerto Rican culture, many of his songs have remained solid in the club scene and are considered reggaeton classics. Daddy Yankee’s constant focus and rapid development have allowed him to collaborate with artists such as NAS (they recorded â€Å"The Profecy† together) and a track with mix tape legend and acclaimed Dj Tony Touch for his â€Å"The Peace Maker† album. Daddy was also invited for a cameo appearance in Terror Squad’s video â€Å"100% Percent† while his â€Å"Posicion† track was also included in â€Å"One Tough Cop† soundtrack. Without a doubt, Daddy Yankee's record sales confirm his success and popularity within Latin Music. All of his albums, "El Cartel de Yankee"; "El Cartel de Yankee II"; "El Cangri.com" and "Los Homerunes", have all received platinum status. In 2002, â€Å"El Cangri.com† was the biggest selling album in Puerto Rico, his hometown and one of the most prestigious markets within Latin Music. 2003 was one of the most important years in Daddy Yankee’s career. Shortly after â€Å"Los Homerun-es† album achieved record-breaking sales, one his life-long dreams came true†¦ a full house (12,000+) danced along with him in Puerto Rico’s historic Roberto Clemente Coliseum. The fans went wild as the press acclaimed his ability to bring the house down with his outstanding ability to free-style and his energetic stage performance. The show titled â€Å"Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri† quickly turned into Yankee’s most important and a historic moment in reggaeton music. Without a doubt, his fan’s support along with his personal desire to share his vision with upcoming artists have been key in his development as â€Å"El Cangri’s Inc.† and â€Å"El Cartel Records† founder and lead producer. Currently, Daddy Yankee has been touring Latin America and The United States gathering thousands of fans in each region. Just recently in Colombia, Yankee performed in front of over 60,000 screaming fans. Also, his energy and dedication to his career have allowed him to record over 130 tracks in as many as 70 feature reggaeton albums. Finally, in July of 2004, arrives Barrio Fino, the most anticipated album launch in Reggaeton music.