Tuesday, 12/6 Agenda
Finish Cyber-Crime
Terrorism
Crimes of the Powerful
Administrative
• Extra credit option is posted on course page
• Updated schedule
– Final two classes = slides/lecture only
– No reading assignments
– Material will still be on exam
• Study guide to be provided for final exam
– Will post on web next week
– Exam not cumulative
Cyber-Crime
• Crime that occurs over the internet using a
computer
– Cyber markets
– Fraud
– Development of criminal communities
Cyber-Markets
• Piracy
– Software, Music, Movies, Television Broadcasts,
Books…
• Requires minimal skill, but does entail some risks (viruses,
lawsuits, etc.)
• Estimates vary, but roughly 1/3 of Americans report pirating
• Higher estimates among youth, especially COLLEGE KIDS!
• Music and video piracy appears to be declining…why?
• Beyond pirating—use of legitimate (eBay, Craig's
list) and illegitimate sites to engage in crime (sell
stolen goods, trade in illicit drugs/sex).
Cyber pornography market
• Defining “pornography” has always been
problematic
• Other major issues
– Access by Minors
– Unwanted solicitation
– Child pornography
• Federal legislation has had limited success…
– Communications Decency act of 1996
– Child Online Protection Act (COPA) of 1998
– Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000
Cyber Fraud
• Traditional Fraud Scams
– A friend from Nigeria wished to transfer a million
dollars into your account
• Phishing and Pharming scams
– Your Ebay account has been compromised!
• Hacking
• Major concern with many of these techniques is
identity theft
– Use your information to take out loans, get credit
cards, etc.
Identity Theft
• The unlawful use of another person’s
identifying information
– Use of name, DOB, social security number, credit
card number…to commit fraud or other crimes
– Internet and information age has made this much
easier
Combating Identity Theft
• State Legislation
– “Freeze laws” – stops access to credit reports
– Laws to redact fraudulent transactions from credit
reports
– Disclosure laws—if your info has been compromised
• New emphasis on information privacy
• Risk minimization
– Guard SS# and other private info, look at credit reports,
shred sensitive paper, don’t open suspicious email…
Cybercrime Communities
• Anonymity of cyberspace
– Deviant Subcultures have arena to share
information and engage in crime
• Child Pornography
• Drug Distribution
Terrorism
• Definitions Vary Widely
– The use of violence to influence the political,
social, or religious attitudes and/or behaviors of
others
– Premeditated, politically motivated violence,
designed to spread fear and perpetrated against
civilians
“START” DATA
• National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and
Response to Terrorism
– University of Maryland
• Convergence of several databases + new additions from media
– What qualifies:
• Intend to coerce/intimidate/convey message beyond immediate
victims
• Aimed at attaining political/social/religious goal
• Context outside of legitimate warfare
– Almost 100,000 terrorist incidents between 1970 and 2010
• 43,000 bombings, 14,000 assassinations, and 4,700 kidnappings
Interactive Chart
Thinking about Terrorism
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Political/Secular vs. Religious
Organization and Support
Domestic Terrorism
Response to Terrorism
Political vs. Secular
• Motivations of terrorists
– Those with political agenda may be more selective
regarding civilian casualties
• Logic = the non-believers are all enemies
• HOWEVER, it is sometimes difficult to
separate the religious from the secular
• Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks had both a
religious and political/secular component
Terrorist “Cells”
• Cell Structure
– Chain of command at the top (hierarchy), but
operation in smaller, tightly kit “cells”
• Cells independent of each other, somewhat
autonomous
• Cells have limited or no contact with leaders of terror
group
– Long history of use
• Irish Republican Army
Types of Terrorism
• Domestic terrorism
– U.S.
• Left Wing (Weathermen, Eco-Terrorism)
• Right Wing (Militias, Timothy McVeigh)
• State terrorism
– Against domestic or foreign “enemies”
• German atrocities against Jews circa WWII
• Assassination of foreign leaders
Terrorism and the Media
• Scholars have pointed out that there is a
natural match
– Terrorists depend on media
• Use event to coerce larger audience: high visibility
targets, graphic acts, pre-event contact with media
outlets, post-event videos
– Media as a natural venue for terrorism
• Dramatic, violent, visual, timely (vs. wars which are
protracted, highly complex…)
• HIGH RATINGS
Response to Terrorism
• Difficult balance
– Aggressive response  detection deterrence
– Concern  civil rights, overreaching
• Examples
– USA Patriot Act
• Warrantless search and seizures, wiretapping, etc.
– Global War on Terror
• Interrogation techniques, use of drones to assasinate,
etc.
Crimes of the Powerful
• Organized Crime
• White Collar Crime
– Occupational Crime
– Corporate Crime
Organized Crime
• Criminal activity committed by groups with
some manner of formalized structure
– Primary goal is typically money and power
• Some ambiguity here
– Street gangs versus drug cartels
– Terrorist groups
Just how organized is it?
• The Alien Conspiracy Model (foreign criminals)
– Highly organized and centralized
– Sicilian “Mafia” (La Cosa Nostra) as poster child
• Mafia code (loyalty, respect, discipline), secret oaths,
traditions, etc
• Local, ethnic group model
– Strong family ties and obligations related to kinship
and ethnicity
• Distrust of outsiders and government
• Capacity for organization and cooperation among groups
• Ability to cultivate good will of local residents
– Influence limited to cities/geographical areas
Crimes of the organized
• Illegal Industries
– Gambling, narcotics distribution, loan sharking,
extortion, insurance scams, fencing…
– Violence associated with enforcement
• Legitimate industry
– Used to launder money + create monopolies + extort
• Restaurants/food, garbage disposal, garment manufacturing,
labor unions, construction…
• Political
– Bribery, fixing elections, coercing agents of criminal
justice, etc.
The Mafia
• Mafia is often used as general term
– Usually refers to Italian Americans (Sicilian), or La Cosa
Nostra (“our thing” in Italian)
• Fodder for entertainment media (Sopranos, The Godfather,
Goodfellas)
• Famous New York crime families (Gambino, Genovese)]
• Joseph Valachi testimony (1963) before the Senate
– The organization and crime families do exist, but the level of
organization often exaggerated
– Does “stand apart” because of its pervasiveness,
control over illegitimate markets, and penetration into
legitimate industry
Law Enforcement Methods
• Headhunting
– Target heads of organized crime families, use
informants + surveillance to indict
– Successful?
• Fairly successful at knocking off “heads” but still
organized crime
• Organized Crime Control Act (1970)
– Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
(RICO) Statutes
– Prosecutor ability to provide witness protection
The Russian Mafia
• The new media darling
– Law and Order, more recent movies
• Similar to Italian Mafia
• Both began by extorting money from fellow immigrants and
quickly moved into other areas, and both have reputation
for violence
• Differences
– Less cultural/ethnic loyalty, partnerships more
opportunistic
• Fewer “bosses” who collect a cut of illicit ventures, greater
flexibility
White Collar Crime
• Edwin Sutherland
– “A crime committed by a person of respectability and
high social status in the course of his occupation”
• Urged criminologists to focus on crimes of the upper class,
as opposed to street crime (still an issue today)
• What is “counted” counts
– Sutherland’s study of 70 largest corporations: official records
revealed over 980 law violations (fraud, bribery, antitrust)
» Much “War Profiteering”
• A BIT better with NIBRS data, but nowhere near as good as
“street crime” data
More recent typology of WCC
• Occupational Crime
– Crimes committed by individuals in the course of their
occupation for personal gain
• Theft/embezzlement, medical fraud by physicians, therapist having
sex with client…
• Corporate or Organizational Crime
– Crimes committed by corporations (and their executives)
for the benefit of the corporation
• Organizations include small business and blue collar endeavors
(auto repair shops)
Occupational Crimes
• Employee embezzlement and pilferage
– Collective embezzlement
• Savings and Loans crime wave in the 1980s (land flips)
• Professional Fraud
– Lawyers, Physicians
• How many hours to bill clients
• Unnecessary procedures and surgeries,
Medicaid/Medicare fraud
Organizational Crime
• Many organizational crimes are “blue collar”
– Auto repair, appliance repair
• 20/20 and 60 minutes stings
– Fraudulent businesses (roofing, blacktop)
– Small businesses
Corporate Crime
• Fraud, Cheating, Corruption
– The Enron Scandal
• Not alone—the most egregious of the 1990s/2000s era
– Halliburton, WorldCom, Rite Aid, Adelphia…
• Enron = cooking books to artificially inflate the value of their
stocks (overstate earnings, hide losses), manipulation of
California’s energy market to drive up costs
– Accounting firm (Arthur Anderson) complicit the fraud
– 31 people indicted (Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay)
– The “Great Recession”?
• Housing bubble (mortgage industry) + mortgage backed
securities + bailout…
Corporate Crime II
• Other financial
– Price Fixing / Collusion (gas prices)
– False advertising (bait and switch)
• Corporate Violence
– Unsafe work conditions (miners, asbestos)
– Unsafe products (contaminated food)
• FORD PINTO CASE
• PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY (Dalkon Shield)
– Pollution
Cost of WCC
• Cost MUCH higher than street crime
– $17 billion vs. roughly $400 billion
– 16,000 homicides vs. 100,000 unnecessary deaths
What causes WCC?
• Lenience?
– Double standard embedded in culture—not “real”
criminals
• Weak/absent regulations –rely on “ethics” and selfregulation
• Difficulty in proving crime (complex, good lawyers, lack
resources to prosecute)
– SEC  over 10 years, 600 cases referred for prosecution, and less
than 1/3 resulted in convictions with less than 1/6 resulting in jail
or prison time
• Weak punishment  civil settlements with no admission of
wrongdoing
– Fines often less than 1% of corporate PROFITS for a year
Irony
• Conservatives cry out for punishment for
street crimes, but believe that much corporate
“crime” can be cured by self-regulation
• Liberals decry harsh punishment, especially
for non-violent offenders, but believe that
WCC could be reduced greatly through prison
time
– Corporations more “rational” than individuls?
Psycho Corporations
• Psychopaths:
– Insensitive, Manipulative, Superficial charm,
Above-average intelligence, Absence of psychotic
symptoms, Absence of anxiety, Lack of remorse,
Failure to learn from experience, Egocentric, Lack
of emotional depth
– Corporations are not supposed to be
compassionate or think of long-term
consequences