The Infuence Of Technology On Criminal Behavior

The Infuence Of Technology On Criminal Behavior â€Å"That technology influences criminal behaviour in all its aspects can hardly be disputed. If mobile phones and laptop computers are available for seizure by thieves and robbers, technology in the form of anti-theft devices for vehicles and burglar alarms for buildings have also played their part in deterring the felons.† The advancement of technology clearly alters and extends crime and criminal behaviour and has resulted in new offences coming into existence. In turn, criminal detection and legislation has reacted to the effects of technology upon crime, often by adopting new technology and including reference to technology in legislation and judgments. Offences such as fraud have developed through technological advancement resulting in offences becoming much easier to perpetrate: â€Å"The requirement that a person be outside his place of abode when going equipped [to commit fraud] may have worked in 1968, but in the modern world, with computers, fraud may be perpetrat ed by a person sitting at his computer terminal in his home.† Nicholas Yeo highlights how the adapting legislation attempting to tackle the effects of technology upon crime have resulted in Prosecutors having a â€Å"wide palette of overlapping offences, from which to select†. This demonstrates the extent to which the Criminal Justice system is adapting to accommodate technological advances in crime. But what of offences pertaining to the person such as assault and sexual offences? Technology has greatly extended our understanding of what constitutes a sexual offence predominately through the medium of the internet. This form of technology allows sexual offenders to commit offences against children without having to be in the childs presence. It is arguably the internet which most illustrates the extension of the human body which technology may allow. The internet has implications for other crimes against the person, notably the offence of harassment arguably bordering on assault. This essay will assess the implications of the internet illustrated through the offences of sexual grooming and harassment to demonstrate the extent to which technology effects crimes against the person both the offender and the victim. Where crimes develop, clearly crime detection and control must evolve to match this development. Crime control has developed significantly through time, no more than in recent years, due to the advancement of technology. This essay will focus upon the replacement of traditional â€Å"bobbies walking the beat† with CCTV and Electronic witness statement recording. In addition, the methods used to tackle the modern effects of the internet and other technologies upon crime will be considered. Technology has acted to extend criminal activity beyond what was previously physically possible but it has also extended the capabilities of police officers and criminal agencies beyond what was traditionally achievable utilising man power alone. As Richard Card highlights, â€Å"Paedophiles have not been slow to make use of the internet to gain the trust and confidence of children in â€Å"Chat room conversations† for their own purposes.† In light of this, the criminal justice system has legislated, though the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to protect children form internet grooming. S 15(1) provides that an offence is committed should an adult communicate with a child under 16 and intentionally uses this communication to meet with a child to commission an offence. â€Å"Communication† extends to the use of the internet. Under the 2003 Act, for an offence to be committed, the offender must meet with the child and then commit a further sexual offence. However, of course there is the inchoate offence of attempting to â€Å"groom† a child and this sexual offence can be committed purely through the use of the internet. This is an illustrative example of sex offenders using the internet not only as a tool to commit physical crimes but to gain sexual gratification in and of the act itself. However, the Judgment in R v Bollingbroke demonstrates that the Judiciary is aware of the effect of technology upon sexual offences committed and facilitated through the internet and the potential complexities arising in relation to sentencing. Measures have been taken in recent years to combat the use of the internet in child abuse and attempted child abuse cases. In 2007, the then Home Secretary, John Reid announced the Governments intention to curb internet grooming through measures requiring internet paedophiles to register their online identities with the authorities so as to be more easily tracked. These measures received justified criticism in that they would be useless against any paedophile who desired to hide their identity as alternative computers and email accounts could easily be set up. This provides an example of how difficult, if not impossible it is for the authorities to prevent determined internet offenders. By extending the range of offences and the means of offending, modern sexual offenders and child groomers are far ahead of crime control measures. Another cause of this is that victims of internet grooming are not only arguably easy targets but the majority of children use the internet as a social for um and are readily willing to talk with strangers on the internet: â€Å"70% of young people aged between 16 and 24 are using social networking sites; one in 12 children has met someone offline with whom they initially engaged online; and 31% of young people have received unwanted sexual comment online or by text message.† However, as Andrew Joint highlights: â€Å"The growing frequency of the reporting of such incidents [online grooming] highlights the fact that the UKs existing regulation of this area is inadequate to keep up with the variety of ways in which child abusers are using technology to reach their targets.† A further reason why internet grooming is so difficult to control and detect is the ability for groomers to commit offences internationally. However, though the internet makes the potential for grooming very high, research would suggest that in reality the offences committed are quite low. This may suggest that whilst technology extends offenders ability to converse with children, the progression of this to actually physical abuse is still limited. However, the distribution of indecent images of children is greatly increased by the medium of the internet. This issue will not be widely considered in this work as the distribution of images is more removed from the question of using the internet as an extension of the body. Though the images themselves give sexual gratification to the offender, the victim need not have had direct contact with the abuser (the viewer of the images not the maker of the images) through any technological means. This is supported by appeal judgments overturning sentences for public protection in cases involving indecent images of children but actual physical abuse or grooming of children. Though there are obvious difficulties in controlling internet grooming, the National Hi- Tech Crime Unit has been set up in the UK to work with local units in tackling this issue directly. Clearly specified technology units are required to deal with technology based offences. It has been suggested that as the Government is failing to control and keep up with the technological sophistication of internet offenders, it is beginning to rely on Internet Service Providers to assist them. However, this measure also appears to have little impact on the number of sexual offences committed through the internet. The 2005 Cabinet paper, â€Å"Connecting the UK: the digital strategy† established a multi-agency national internet safety centre attached to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Some thinkers believed this to be a turning point in the control of internet crime and internet crimes against children in particular. However, in reality this measure was merely an extension of the metho ds already in place and acted to incorporate SOCA into more areas of law rather than progress the tackling of online grooming. Another offence which has been greatly facilitated by the internet is harassment. Like offences relating to the distribution of indecent images of children, this offence is not as physical as other internet offences. However, legislation used to tackle this offence illustrates how the Criminal Justice system is reacting to offenders use of the internet as an extension of more traditional means. The Malicious Communications Act 1988 was amended in 2001 to include electronic communications and s1 of the Harassment Act 1997 applies directly to the internet. The consideration of internet sexual offences has illustrated that whilst criminals are adopting technological methods to extend the range of crimes they can commit, crime control has attempted to adapt to counter this. Whilst we have seen that in the case of internet grooming, technology benefits the criminal more than it benefits the authorities, there are many examples of crime control being greatly developed and enhanced by technology. In the past, crime control was very much in the hands of the police officers themselves. However, the advancement of Closed Circuit Television and other technological breakthroughs have resulted in modern policing relaying ever less on man power and ever more on technology. The UK has more than 4 million CCTV cameras acting throughout the country as the eyes of the constabulary. This has both positive and negative implications and effects. From a positive viewpoint, there is a suggestion that CCTV reduces street crime. However, there is no proof of this and the Home Office has conceded that in fact street lighting is more of a deterrent to criminals than CCTV. There are of course negative implications for the wide spread use of CCTV including the much discussed infringement upon civil liberties. The findings of a research paper by The Centre for Criminological Research in Sheffield suggest that the use of CCTV â€Å"represents a shift from formal and legally regulated measures of cr ime control towards private and unaccountable justice†. This may be an extreme view of the use of CCTV but it certainly highlights the potential breaches of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998. There is clearly some contention between what is a public area to be monitored by the police and the extent of ones right to move about the country as a private citizen. Peck v. Brentwood City Council (2003) ECHR suggests that the widespread use of CCTV in the prevention and detection of crime may be acceptable but any other use, such as the release of footage to the media is breaching the subject of the footages right to a private life. A further example of the Police Authorities use of technology to overcome the limitations of the human body is the use of Electronic witness statement recording technology. It has been argued by many prosecution authorities and prosecutors that the taking of witness statements should always be recorded so as to avoid the much relied upon technique of the defence to question the original statement maker and the accuracy of the statement: â€Å"The accuracy of the written statement as a record of what the witness actually said or intended to say is liable to be impugned by a number of factors, such as misapprehension, presupposition and inattention, mainly on the part of the statementtaker. Moreover, the written word is clearly an inadequate instrument for conveying adequately the nuances of meaning through intonation and inflection. The delay involved in statements composed post facto from notes will clearly increase the risk of inaccuracy.† The implication of the electronic ta king of statements may be more successful prosecutions but in light of very few police authorities using these methods, there is a suggestion that the negative implications outweigh the positive. Electronic means are generally used in relation to vulnerable witnesses and in very serious cases such as murder but clearly in practice, the police resort to the traditional methods of handwriting statements. Funding is evidently an issue but there can be little doubt that should the authorities use widespread electronic methods for recording witness statements, the defence will no longer be able to rely on human error in cross examination and perhaps more convictions could be achieved. In conclusion, there can be no argument that technology has allowed criminal behaviour to expand both in quantity and nature. Internet grooming is the best example of technology extending an offence which was previously limited to the physical but which has been adapted and enhanced by technology. Further, it is apparent that whilst crime detection and prevention authorities seek to limit and uncover internet grooming, technology is making it easier to offend and much more difficult for the detecting of such crimes. Technology has not only extended the body of the abuser in that it has allowed offenders to access victims more readily but it has also extended the physical being of the victim by exposing children to new forms of abuse. Whilst technology has increased sexual offending and sexual offences it has been utilised by the police in detecting and preventing crime. Arguably the need for police officers to physically look for crime through patrolling public places has been usurped by the widespread use of CCTV. Whilst many view this as an infringement upon civil liberties, it cannot be argued that CCTV has not had some positive role to play as evidence. Though it could be argue the police are not using technology to the extent of the more criminally minded, there can be little doubt that technology has radically altered to nature of crime and criminal justice.

Incivility in College Classrooms Essay

Incivility thrives through our modern society and into the classrooms and campuses of colleges. Incivility can automatically be thought of as the improper behavior or insulting other people based of race, looks, ect. However, incivility exists in classrooms where the professor experiences disrespect in multiple forms. Colleges obtain a policy towards incivility and proper conduct, however the importance of respect and civility in the actual classroom can be found to be left out. Civility should be a requirement for campuses to preserve courtesy and respect amongst both students and teachers. In particular, California State University San Marcos has a Standards of Student Contact that lists expectations to avoid situations such as cheating, being involved with drugs, lying to police authorities, ect. These policies revolve around acts that result in major punishment, and does not include civility issues of how students treat each other on campus, or more so the respect that should be maintained in a classroom. The importance of civility on campus and in classrooms should be magnified to create a comfortable, mature environment for students and faculty. Professors notice a trend in incivility among students including bullying, disrespect towards professors, and a lack of kindness. These factors are consistently ignored and are not given enough attention. Civility on campus is an unrecognized policy that needs to gain awareness. New college students enter their schools with an attitude of entering the real world of adulthood and independence. Unlike high school, college students go through the process of paying for tuition and other college fees to obtain their desired college degree. As a result of acknowledging their payments towards their classes, a loss of conduct can occur in classrooms. College has a reputation of more freedom when it comes to classrooms. College students know that the classes they go to are being paid for by themselves. Because of this students feel that their choices in college are their own responsibility. They are adults who need to tend for themselves. Although high schools and colleges share a commonality in terms of shaping one’s future, college is its own level of obtaining education. Once a student begins his or her college career, a new world is unraveled. Many of these newcomers in college are not fully aware of the challenges that they are about to face, thus resulting to misfortunate outcomes that would affect them later on in their lives. There are many responsibilities that need tending once you are a college student. For one, the parental supervision that once existed has disappeared, and many simple tasks and duties that seemed unimportant became major responsibilities that require attention. Paying for the necessities that come with the lifestyle of being self-dependent is basically a college student’s standard of living. Unlike high school, college students go through the process of paying for tuition and other college fees to obtain their desired college degree. With that said, they are often faced with the sacrifice of leaving class in order for them to go to work, which ultimately is their temporary solution of funding their tuition. Aside from the financial aspect of being a college student, it is also important to acknowledge the fact that they are fully fledged adults. Furthermore, they are under their own rule, thus whatever decision they decide upon affects their own lives, not the professor. Also, college has standards that are different to that of high schools. Students have the option of leaving whenever they please, because as mentioned earlier, they have many responsibilities that often force them to do so. Though many would concede of such reasons that explain the responsibilities that college students deal on a regular basis, it disregards the larger matter and that is the practice of becoming an adult and how to handle the life ahead of you. This, in fact, is the major weakness of this argument because it only focuses on the notion that is currently present. It neglects to mention that college is a template of adulthood, and that it is often hard to manage because its purpose is to shape you for the future challenges that you may face in life. It is basically set to difficult levels so that it would enable you to become accustomed of the adult lifestyle. Students can misinterpret the idea of â€Å"freedom† in college. Although college is a big step into the adult world versus high school, they may take advantage of that and bring disrespect to campus and the classroom. Maria Shine Stewart notes in her article â€Å"Cropping Out Incivility† how unkindness and hate on campus can escalate to violence. Going into college, some students may feel like they can reform themselves and misuse their high confidence. Immaturity from high school can drag into college and cause bigger problems and even bullying. In high school petty arguments come up, but in college where everyone is expected to act like mature adults words can be taken very offensively and the outcome can be more serious. College is a place for students who want to grow educationally, not a place to be disturbed by those few people who bring interruptions and unnecessary drama. Civility on campus should be an important subject advertised to ensure a pleasant environment for the students to grow successfully. Going from high school to college is a big deal for incoming students. College has grown a reputation of a place to get educated with more freedom. In high school students are used to following strict rules of no cell phones, attendance, and proper behavior. Although college is a place for adults and allows more freedom than high school, a code of conduct has been twisted. Because students pay for college, they feel they have permission to handle the way they learn on their own terms. Leaving class for example is an idea brought to students that is â€Å"o. k† since what they learn or do not learn is on their own shoulders. However, students fail to realize that professors work hard to ensure their lectures and notes push their students in the right direction to succeed in their class. The whole point of a professors job is to educate their students so they can pass their class and move forward. Leaving during class is an unprincipled disturbance to the other students and professor. The professor gives students their time to drive to the campus and try to help educate their students, and leaving in the middle is disrespecting their efforts. Some professors are lenient and allow students to get away with small misbehaviors such as eating in class, texting, talking, and more. Students take their quiet disregards as permission to continue, not realizing the disturbance and disrespect they are giving their professor. Most high schools have a strict no cell phone code, and students entering college believe that cell phones are okay to be freely handled even in class. Even though some professors write in their syllabus â€Å"no cell phones†, students still feel that texting under their desk will be okay with the teacher. Although some professors may look the other way, students fail to realize that professors know when students are occupied with something unrelated to the lecture. By being occupied by something separate from the actual class discourages the professor’s effort on trying to help their students succeed. Students do not recognize that the disrespect towards professors does effect them. Thomas Benton notes in his article â€Å"Remedial Civility Training† how he puts in effort to â€Å"make my classes interesting and relevant† only to have students disregard his class and only see it as an requirement. Civility should be enforced in the classroom to give that respect to professors and other students who are there to succeed in their education. Civility has become so flexible and twisted that the relationship between student and professor has transformed. Professors should be treated with respect, just as any educator feels they deserve to be treated as. However, some students find themselves able to mistreat their professors to an extent. In Marilyn Gilroy’s journal article â€Å"Colleges Grappling with Incivility† she maintains how â€Å"Faculty members have reported numerous confrontations with students over grades† and mistreatment towards professors over grades can become threatening. Although Gilroy writes how a majority of faculty members do not experience threats over grades or a students performance, the fact that even a small percentage receive violent threats is disturbing. A separation between professor and student should be established to prevent such incivility in that relationship. A professor should not receive such extreme blame for a students performance, even if the professor is rightful to be blamed. A discussion would be appropriate rather than a hasty act of threats and accusations. Professors should be allowed the right to preserve the respect in the student-educator relationship. The relationship between the professor and student should be used towards promoting civility in the classroom. To prevent students feeling less involved and under complete authority of the professor, discussion and communication through the class room would produce civility. Mary Deane Sorcinelli’s article â€Å"Dealing with Troublesome Behavior In The Classroom† suggests seeking feedback from students, or allowing classroom policies to be open for discussion amongst students. Sorcinelli claims that by giving the student a voice in the rules, appreciation will be given to the policies set by the professor. Compromise can create a more civil relationship for the students and professor. Incivility is amongst college campuses in multiple forms. Civility should be something strong and advertised on campus to ensure a comfortable learning environment is established. Students should not have to suffer through misdemeanor of other peers. Immaturity and bullying is something college students should not be dealing with when they put their time and money towards their education. Although incivility is for the most part under control on campuses, proper behavior in classrooms has been disregarded. Professors are expressing a concern over students actions during their class time. Students find that because they are paying for college, they have more freedom. Although freedom is given, a certain conduct should be kept within the classroom. Paying attention, being prepared, and attendance should be something students can handle on their own. However, professors notice a lack of civility within their own classroom. Civility should be a policy in colleges to ensure that professors and peers receive respectful treatment.

Changing Role of Women Essay

During the Victorian Era, women often were forced to squander their entire lives conforming to the normalcy of the ideal Victorian woman. Despite Ibsen’s bleak picture of how women are expected to behave, Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, focuses on female sovereignty held by women of heterogeneous socioeconomic backgrounds during the Victorian era. Through thick and thin, it is women like Mrs. Linde and Nora who carry the culture from generation to generation as oppose to men such as Torvald, who are focused solely on suppressing women’s freedoms and opportunities. Similarly, â€Å"Under the 1884 Civil Code, Mexican women had no rights; even moving required a woman to legally obtain the permission of a male guardian: father, husband, brother, or son (â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate†).† As alluded to by Coventry Patmore in his poem, â€Å"The Angel in the House†, the ideal women was expected to be submissive and devoted to her husband and family as a way to keep up appearances. Akin to their British counterparts, Mexican men during the pre-Mexican Revolution Era prevented women’s rights, allotting all home-related responsibilities to women. During times of upheaval, even when men held all of the power in both the public domain and the privacy of the home, male fragility is exposed by female sovereignty because women uphold society. Ibsen said, â€Å"A woman cannot be herself in the society of to-day, which is exclusively a masculine society, with laws written by men, and with accusers and judges who judge feminine conduct from the masculine standpoint.† Men of the Victorian Era held all of the power in both the privacy of the home and the public domain. However, even though men made decisions for society, creating laws for all its’ inhabitants, men of A Doll’s House are not only equally trapped as a result of societal expectations by gender roles, but also weak. Within his own home, Torvald treats Nora as his inferior, mirroring society’s expectations. Torvald once said, â€Å"It is already known at the bank that I mean to dismiss Krogstad. Is it to get about now that the new manager has changed his mind at his wife’s bidding.† (Ibsen, 40). The thought that others could think a woman might have power over him is terrifying to Torvald; he sees this as a great threat to his ego and status. In this traditional patriarchal run society, men are expected to provide for their family. Torvald suffers a great hardship because he is not the flawless breadwinner he should be according to society. Similarly, the men in Like Water for Chocolate are weak and naive as well in comparison to their decisive and stronger female counterparts. Pedro is a chief example of a man with a weak ego; since adolescence, Pedro is captive to his lust and passion for Tita. Unlike Pedro, the rebels and other male figures, Dr. John Brown is far more gender neutral than he is masculine, but equally insignificant. When needed most, Dr. Brown is too incompetent to heal beings such as Pedro after he is burned. It is Tita who takes action, employing techniques and remedies of her maternal grandmother in order to successful heal Pedro. It is combating the unexpected that puts willpower to the test. Society centers around those who change lives and uphold and rid of both culture and tradition; Tita conserves order, unlike men such as Torvald who made clear that he would not sacrifice his honor for the one he claims to love, society deems Nora the bad girl for leaving her husband and children. Nora’s choice to sacrifice a life with her family in pursuit of a finding her identity is beyond what her family, let alone Torvald, can understand. Nora removes herself from under the palm of her controlling husband exemplifying her sovereignty as a woman into the 20th century. Compared to this miserable Victorian image, the role of women in society today has undergone immeasurable metamorphosis. Women have more rights and social mobility than ever before. Conversely, this change has made the lives of women increasingly difficult as women seek to live free of society’s expectations as independent women pursuing their own ambitions, beliefs and identities today. By deciding to leave her family in pursuit of her own identity, beliefs and ambitions, Nora is a prime example of the modern woman. Today, women have more rights and opportunities than ever before; as a result women like Nora challenge societies pre-existing gender limitations every day. With Nora’s departure, Ibsen challenges both the normalcy of the ideal Victorian woman and societal expectations. During Victorian times, a wife’s role was to love, honor and obey her husband. Patmore writes about the â€Å"Angel† being passive and powerless, meek, charming, graceful, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, pious, and above all—pure. (Patmore). Unfortunately for Nora, in the context of the Victorian Era, her decision to leave her husband and family is considered an unforgivable scandal because women were expected to know their place. The relentless societal pressures of Victorian normalcy are what push Nora to the edge, resulting in her quest to find her identity. â€Å"Similarly, both Gertrudis and Tita reach the edge, responding to the changes of the revolution each in their own ways (â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate†).† â€Å"Gertrudis engages in acts of sexual liberation and takes flight from the home in order to participate as an active hand in the Revolution (â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate†).† â€Å"Conversely, Tita’s revolution is one far more personal and is not transparent until the next generation of women, represented by her niece, the narrator (â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate†).† â€Å"However Tita envisions a different future for the child and names her Esperanza, Hope (â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate†).† â€Å"Significantly, it is for Esperanza, and not for Tita, that the traditional happy ending is reserved (â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate†).† Women like Nora and Tita wife strive to defy pre-existing societal stereotypes and expectations for women everywhere and in the process; it makes them stronger as women. When putting gender roles into perspective, it is necessary to discern the diffusion of responsibilities among a family. Today, gender-equality has made separation of duties among men and women possible. During these eras, women were expected to be passive, powerless and self-sacrificing to their husband’s wants and needs. Men were expected to provide for their family through thick and thin, allotting a great amount of hardship to the patriarch of the home. Yet in both A Doll’s House and Like Water for Chocolate, women carry the culture and emotions of one generation to the next through a variety of mediums. Regardless of religion, race and gender, it is in the best interest of mankind to cease the suppression of humans’ rights, allotting equal freedoms and opportunities to both men and women. While patriarchal roots are deep-seeded within western politics, economics and social aspects, men, no different than women, are flawed; it is women who are the immeasurable anchor of society. References: Fadanelli, Guillermo. â€Å"La literatura a la que estamos condenados.† Unomà ¡suno (April 28, 1990):4. â€Å"Like Water for Chocolate† World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historic Events That Influenced Them. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 18 May. 2012 . â€Å"Paterfamilias.† Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 02 June 2012. .

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