Digital Realism and the Governance of Spam as Cybercrime

Spamming is a major threat to the formation of public trust in the Internet and discourages broader civil participation in the emerging information society. To the individual, spams are usually little more than a nuisance, but collectively they expose Internet users to a panoply of new risks while threatening the communications and commercial infrastructure. Spamming also raises important questions of criminological interest. On the one hand it is an example of a pure cybercrime – a harmful behaviour mediated by the Internet that is the subject of criminal law, while on the other hand, it is a behaviour that has in practice been most effectively contained technologically by the manipulation of ‘code’ – but at what cost? Because there is not an agreed meaning as to what constitutes ‘online order’ that renders it simply and uncritically reducible to a set of formulae and algorithms that can be subsequently imposed (surreptitiously) by technological processes. The imposition of order online, as it is offline, needs to be subject to critical discussion and also checks and balances that have their origins in the authority of law. This article deconstructs and analyses spamming behaviour, before exploring the boundaries between law and code (technology) as governance in order to inform and stimulate the debate over the embedding of cybercrime prevention policy within the code itself.     

论网络电子数据收集程序的完善

电子数据收集程序的规范对于保障网络犯罪案件处理的质量有着重要意义。有别于传统的刑事证据,电子数据具有收集主体多元化、收集范围广泛化、收集方法科技化的特点。从我国当前司法实践情况来看,电子数据在收集过程中存在一系列问题。当前可参照他国立法经验,通过明确第三方的技术协助义务和保密义务、规定全面收集原则、确立快速保护机制、建立提交技术鉴定的标准这四个方面对我国电子数据收集程序予以规范。     

信息时代犯罪定量标准的体系化构建

伴随着信息技术和互联网的迅猛发展,传统的犯罪定量标准体系在信息时代日渐滞后,难以适用于网络空间和网络犯罪。司法实践中对于犯罪定量标准在"点"上有所探索,但是在"面"上整体滞后,缺乏成体系的犯罪定量标准体系,根本无法对于信息时代不断增长和变异的新型犯罪进行公正、高效的定量评价。信息时代犯罪定量标准的整体创建遭遇着惯性阻碍,表现在信息时代犯罪定量标准体系的单一化倾向与数量化倾向。对于网络犯罪创建体系化的犯罪定量标准是当务之急;而创新全新定量标准体系的整体发展路径,是在采用复合化方案与情节化方案。     

Criminal Careers in Cyberspace: Examining Website Failure within Child Exploitation Networks

Publically accessible, illegal, websites represent an additional challenge for control agencies, but also an opportunity for researchers to monitor, in real time, changes in criminal careers. Using a repeated measures design, we examine evolution in the networks that form around child exploitation (CE) websites, over a period of 60 weeks, and determine which criminal career dimensions predict website failure. Network data were collected using a custom-designed web-crawler. Baseline survival rates were compared to networks surrounding (legal) sexuality and sports websites. Websites containing CE material were no more likely to fail than comparisons. Cox regression analyses suggest that increased volumes of CE code words and images are associated with premature failure. Websites that are more popular have higher odds of survival. We show that traditional criminal career dimensions can be transferred to the context of online CE and constitute some of the key determinants of an interrupted career.     

Expanding the Boundaries of Criminal Justice: Emphasizing the “S” in the Criminal Justice Sciences through Interdisciplinary Efforts

At its very core, the phrase “criminal justice sciences” points to the interdisciplinary nature of our field. However, efforts to promote and support interdisciplinary teaching and research face significant barriers. In this paper, I address how interdisciplinarity is conceptualized, the history of criminal justice as an interdisciplinary field, why we should promote interdisicplinarity, barriers we confront in interdisciplinary efforts, the degree to which ACJS members engage in interdisciplinary practices, factors related to interdisciplinarity, and opportunities for increased interdisciplinary research in criminal justice. To grow as an academic field, I conclude that we must look to other disciplines such as biology, computer science, policy, and women’s studies as we expand our disciplinary boundaries.     

预防青少年网络犯罪之立法反思与重构

目前我国针对青少年犯罪问题的法律体系不完善,专门针对青少年网络犯罪的法律法规更加落后、缺失。国家相关部门应该抓紧网络法律法规体系的建设,积极补漏补缺,把和网络相关的法律体系完善起来。对于预防青少年网络犯罪,完善法律并不是仅仅在刑事法律上的完善,对网络犯罪的刑法治理要基于其他相关民事、经济、行政法规对网络行为的规制,完善整个网络法律体系。     

The Cybercrime Convention Committee's 2017 Guidance Note on Production Orders: Unilateralist transborder access to electronic evidence promoted via soft law

This article provides a critical analysis of the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee's Guidance Note of Production Orders, published on 1 March 2017. The article looks at the legal controversies surrounding production orders with a cross-border element. It explains the Guidance Note's background and origins, the basic provisions in the Cybercrime Convention allowing the law enforcement authorities to order and obtain certain information and discusses the requirements that follow from the relevant provisions of the Convention. This analysis is complemented by four critical remarks on the way the Guidance Note pushes the boundaries of acceptable treaty interpretation on the necessity of the Guidance Note, its position in regard to extraterritorial enforcement jurisdiction and sovereignty, its reticence towards fundamental rights and its refusal to define or clarify the important notion of “subscriber information”. The article argues that unilateralism is not a solution. Instead of soft law plumbing, what is needed is an agreement between sovereign states checked by their constituencies.     

How organised is organised cybercrime?

To some writers and commentators, fully fledged organised cybercrime is currently emerging. Law enforcement spokesmen and Internet security firms have even made comparisons between the structure of cybercriminal enterprises and organisations like La Cosa Nostra. But, in reality, conventional criminal labels applied to cybercrime are themselves often poorly understood by those who employ them. The purpose of this research note is to apply scholarly rigor to the question of whether profit-driven cybercrime can fit underneath formal definitions of organised crime and mafias. It proceeds in three sections: the first section outlines academic definitions of organised crime, mafias and cybercrime; the second section assesses whether online cybercriminal trading forums, perhaps the most visible and documented examples of cybercriminal organisation, might constitute mafias as some contend; the third section briefly discusses some other less documented examples of ‘organised’ cybercrime and assesses the broader possibility of online groups being classified as organised crime groups.     

Trust in the world of cybercrime

For cybercriminals, the anonymity of the Internet offers not only opportunities but also challenges. Where one does not truly know whom one is doing business with, it makes it difficult to assess trustworthiness or to retaliate should dealings go sour and agreements need to be enforced. This creates a large deficit of trust, beyond even that common among conventional criminals, and makes cybercriminal transactions very unstable. As a result, it might be expected that cybercriminals would often act alone. But, in reality, cybercriminals collaborate quite widely. This is the puzzle that this article addresses. In order to overcome the major challenges of online anonymity, and to capitalise on its benefits, cybercriminals have developed a range of mechanisms that buttress trust. These include mechanisms relating to (1) establishing cybercriminal identities; (2) assessing cybercriminal attributes; and (3) extra-legal governance.