Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age

How has the internet transformed criminal behaviour? What is different about cybercrime compared with traditional criminal activity? What new criminal opportunities have arisen? What impact might cybercrime have on public security?

In this exciting new text, David Wall carefully examines these and other important issues. He discusses what is known about cybercrime, disentangling the rhetoric of risk assessment from its reality.

Looking at the full range of cybercrime, he shows how the increase in personal computing power available within a globalized communications network has affected the nature of and response to criminal activities. Drawing on empirical research findings and multidisciplinary sources he goes on to argue that we are beginning to experience a new generation of automated cybercrimes, which are almost completely mediated by networked technologies that are themselves converging.

We have now entered the world of low impact, multiple victim crimes in which bank robbers, for example, no longer have to meticulously plan the theft of millions of dollars. New technological capabilities at their disposal now mean that one person can effectively commit millions of robberies of one dollar each. Against this background, David Wall scrutinizes the regulatory challenges that cybercrime poses for the criminal (and civil) justice processes, at both the national and the international levels.

This book offers the most comprehensive, and intellectually robust, account of cybercrime currently available. It is suitable for use on courses across the social sciences, and in computer science, and will appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students.