Criminology
Ways in Which Media and Technology Have Contributed to Increase in Crime
The information age is birthed by high technological advances and internet connection availability across the world. Every form of service delivery is digitized in the corporate world industries, including transactions and communication. This development goes hand in hand with modern crime and the accessibility and efficiency of the internet, media, and information technologies. It gives rise and facilitates new age crimes, which is shown below.
Cybercrime is mediated by networked technology, old crimes such as theft, fraud, and harassment find new forms in cyberspace and new technologies, crimes such as internet solicited prostitution takes place more easily and can and spread across in the face of the authorities in their acquired cyberspaces This majorly is so due to use of advanced technology (Salter, 2016).
Social media has become part of the daily norm, even to criminals. It facilitates new crimes such as revenging porn and cyberbullying. These criminals also use social media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook to track potential victims and their possessions, thus helping them to plan and commit robberies, kidnappings and even murder as they can access valuable information from the unsuspecting victims (Salter, 2016).
In addition, hacking involving malware, ransomware or worms are constructed as forms of resisting unfair government or business practices. Hackers also invade personal bank accounts and even corporate business data, putting them entirely at the risk of high loss. Technological advances have empowered this as maintaining anonymity or bogus identities during the commission of crimes is easier in virtual spaces than physical spaces. The use of apps, avatars, disposable devices, and deep web, where search engines cannot detect websites dues to an added layer of security, facilitate concealment of criminal transactions and activities, giving rise to crime rates (Marsh &Melville 2019).
How A Social Structure Theorists Can Explain the Presence of White-Collar Crime in Affluent Neighborhoods.
White-collar crime is a nonviolent crime committed for financial gain. It is associated with the educated and affluent, who are persons of high respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation. This type of crime ranges from individual-based crime to corporate-based crimes and, more often than not, always go undetected as well as the offenders being protected by the law (Levi, 2016). These crimes can be explained in the following ways.
One of the crimes involves duping the would-be investors and consumers by misrepresenting the information they use to make decisions. This gives rise to either security fraud or commodities fraud. The perpetrators are individuals such as a stockbroker, who frauds through schemes like insider trading, or an organization, such as a brokerage firm, corporation, or investment bank (Levi, 2009.)
White-collar crime also exists among the affluent as money laundering. This is the process of taking cash earned from illicit activities such as drug trafficking and making the cash appear to be earnings from legal business activity. These proceeds are derived from healthcare fraud, human and narcotics trafficking, public corruption, and terrorism. The money can be laundered through the use of the real estate, precious metals, and virtual currency. An instance is when the organization owns a restaurant, it might inflate the daily cash receipts to funnel its illegal cash through the restaurant into the bank (Salter, 2016).
The presence of self-dealing also explains the presence of white-collar crime. Self-dealing is when a fiduciary acts in their own best interest in a transaction rather than their clients’ best interest. This represents a conflict of interest and an illegal act. In the event of these taking place in an affluent neighborhood, it clearly explains the running of white-collar crimes (Dimarino & Roberson, 2013).