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... hile on probation, these pedophiles go right back on the Internet, and start their stalking again. Some of these newsgroups that cater to the pedophile, have almost 150 to 200 postings to its bulletin board each month. There is no one to watch and monitor these newsgroups, as this is a costly expense to both the probation office and the law enforcement agencies. According to Saul's ( (1993), when law enforcement agencies obtain an search warrant, they must be careful adhere to the established fourth amendment principles. When officials prepare warrants, they must also beware of the Privacy Act of 1980.
Those that they are considering searching and seizures for all criminal activity, whether it be embezzlement, computer viruses, bookkeeping of any matter related to drugs, or any other illegal activity, they have rights under these laws. Officers must establish probable causes on the existence of records there are electronically stored, and that they must specifically describe to the magistrate, these records in their search warrants. Due to records now being electronically stored, when executing an warrant, law officials may need expert advice and guidance in order to successfully search all visible and hidden areas, and then sort through personal and criminal records in question. When considering a search warrant, the Privacy Act of 1980 plays an important part in what a law official may do.
The question that they must ask themselves are, is the information that was prepared for public dissemination and are they in the possession of an innocent third party. When seeking a search warrant, they must try to explain to the magistrate, in laymen's terms so that there is no confusion, how a novel criminal act has been committed by means of a computer. As Saul states, "Magistrates are familiar with the mechanics of how a murder might be committed with a gun, but they may have difficulty understanding haw an embezzlement might be accomplished by means of a computer. " According to Coutorie (1995), there is a difference between hackers and crackers. Hackers are those that try and take out code in a computer program, attempting to improve them, without changing the outcome of that program. A cracker, is the opposite, whereas the intention of this hacker was to damage the program. Coutorie states that Gregson, which is in his bibliography, states that "armed robbers will virtually disappear by 2001 because of a cashless society and the prevalence of electronic fund transfers. " Gregson also predicts that because of the high technology in use today, counterfeiting will increase.
Any property that uses security devices, will be met by counter measures, and all that our law enforcement agencies will be able to do, is take a report. Jay S. Albanese states that changes in our technology will generate more of an opportunity for thefts which will be exploited by criminals for financial gains. Albanese states that "theft has traditionally been a crime of stealth, requiring speed and agility.
The aging of North American population has forced criminals to use fraud as a means of thefts since the now lack this speed and agility and are more educated than their predecessors. " As the article continues, Generation X, having grown up with computers, will use this talent to commit more serious crimes than society has seen. Some of the excerpts used by Coutorie includes the USA Today, which highlighted some of the crimes that have been committed by computers. Some of these crimes are as follows: computer hackers breaking into Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting agencies; two Cornell Universities that created a computer virus that infected computers, Macs" around the world, which wiped out their operating systems; hackers that filed false IRS tax returns, once indicating a return, were able to procure a loan; and disgruntled employee who planted a "logic bomb", which would destroy a computer program months after he was let go, hoping to be brought back as a hero to save the day. The article states that only training and recruiting more individuals who understand the high technology of today, will law enforcement agency's be able to cope with this future problem. There are three criminological theories that can account for crimes with computers. These theories are as follows: conflict theory, social control theory and, social-learning theory.
The following paragraphs will explain what these three theories mean, and then how they apply to the focus of this paper. Conflict theory, which emerged after the labeling theory, has two perspectives, which are conservative and radical. Conflict is a fact of life, where no matter what society or country you may live in, there will always be some type of conflict. The conservative theory has the concept that it uses power and the use of its laws. In society, there are many groups, but usually these groups take sides. Both sides try to exercise control over the other in particular events or situations.
When concerning this approach with conflict theory, this approach uses as a field of battle the social issues of society. Normally the side that usually wins are the most powerful, due to the extensive lobbying. These social issues arise from everyday problems in our society. These issues could concern how a law enforcement agency can perform his job, to the ability to control others to their way of thinking. With this conservative conflict perspective, they believe that there are two classes of people. Those of the middle class, which are usually the dominant, to the lower class of people, which are the minority.
Individuals or classes that oppose the values, beliefs, or other interests of the winners, will find themselves of the wrong side of the winners and find themselves being classified as criminals. As this perspective states "since law embodies the values of those who create it, law will also be more likely to criminalize the actions of those outside the power group. " To state this in layman's terms, very few of the right side of the law will object to the creation of laws that are placed to protect the innocent, where those who do object, are those that may possibly be on the wrong side of the law. With the radical conflict perspective, there is an inequality in the distribution of power, and scarcity of the resources. This inequality is the difference of "power", those with and those without. Within this perspective, there is a class struggle and its effect on crime. There are three different fronts on which crime could be affected.
The first one is that the law in itself is the means in which the ruling party can enforce on others. The second front is according to radical criminologists is the why they view crime in itself. These criminologists believe that the product of class struggle is all crime which in itself causes individualism and competition within themselves. The third front is that a surplus of labor may cause problems. If we have more labors than there are jobs, then these unemployed individuals will turn to whatever means are available to them, to support their families, habits, and themselves. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Law Enforcement Agencies Conflict Perspective
