Crime Prevention Publicity Campaigns, Research Paper Example

At the moment, everyone is aware that social media has tremendously affected the culture and business of people inAmerican society and the world as a whole. In fact, social media sites have gained the greatest popularity on the internet today. The mode of communication and socialization has been significantly affected by social media sites at present (Garfinkel, 2012). A majority of people are currently browsing these sites to connect with other people across the globe and access the international community instantaneously. One important achievement that can be associated with the proliferation of social media sites is creation of cultural diversity, thus enriching our cultural heritage. Cultural knowledge and social skills have thus been enhanced among the teens for their positive benefit.

Additionally, most individuals can now make friends much easier (Moore, 2008). The world of social networking has opened the doors towards connection among individuals coming from different regions of the world. Making friends across national borders and even across local regions without necessarily meeting each other in person has become a common ground of development among nations at present; however, not all of these connections are designed to provide a distinct sense of positivity. The truth is, most of the results coming from these connections result to conflicts; one that puts one end of the party at a jeopardized position especially when it comes to determining their safety and security from being protected against scrupulous relationships in the internet that carries on to dangerous encounters offline. This discussion shall focus on how social media has actually created a massive impact on how crimes develop at present as well as to how they impact the general population of human individuals all around the globe.

The truth is that the proliferation of social media sites has been associated with a significant rise in the rate of crimes in the recent years. In excess of 16,000 allegations of criminal activities have been reported in connection with the use of Twitter and Facebook even within the course of one year (Barthe, 2006). Law enforcement officers have witnessed a drastic increase in the number of reported complaints relating to abuse, harassment, as well as threatening with the use of the popular sites in social media. The high number of crimes that have been associated with Twitter and Facebook has been a source of escalating pressure on the law enforcers who are already pressed by other issues. Over 20,000 cases involving social media were investigated during the past three years (Barthe, 2006). The police chiefs expressed deep concern over the resources being drained as a result of investigation of the internet based crimes. This prompted the Crown Prosecution Service to design some guidelines that define the threshold limits for a comment that has been posted in social media to qualify as a crime.

The internet has been used successfully as an innovative tool to commit a crime. The crimes committed on the internet encompass propagation of fraud and the unlawful sale of drugs and guns among other unlawful activities. The United States leads the world in internet crimes because it has the most laws intended to curb such computer crimes. It has witnessed many more cyber-crimes since the advent of computer technology as compared to any other country. The signing of the 1998 Identity Theft Act indicated the beginning of the war against internet crimes concerning identity theft (Johnson, 2001). Furthermore, many other states signed laws defining identity theft including the associated punitive measures. Such states include Arizona, Connecticut and New York (Schmalleger,F. & Hall, 2013).

The last half of 1990s saw the arrest and prosecution of Adam Quinn Pletcher who tried to extort $5.25 million from Bill Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft. The accused used an online dating website, NetGirl, to send threatening messages to the victim. The criminal’s arrest occurred when he sent an erased disk to Mr. Gates (Garfinkel, 2012). It is evident that the United States witnessed a rapid increase in computer crimes in the 1960s and 1970s due to the advent of computer technology; advancements in technology in the U.S. has lead to more cybercrime (Schmalleger,F. & Hall, 2013).Traditional tools were used to prosecute criminals prior to the development of statutes governing computer crimes. In the 1960s, Robert F. Hancock was arrested for theft of computer programs. The U.S. has led in wars against cybercrimes around the globe (Garfinkel, 2012). For instance, recent headlines indicate the latest battle against internet crime; where the U.S. has played a major part in disrupting the internet crime that had involved theft of confidential banking details and cyber extortion. America has four times as many crimes as those committed in Germany, the country that ranks second in the list. From the outlook, it may appear that the U.S. exhibits more cyber crimes than any other country in the world. However, the high prevalence of cyber crimes is associated to the large population of U.S. citizens that are subjected to computer use (Johnson, 2001). This can be considered as a good example in computer crimes. Although the accountability of these crimes could be dependent on the fact that the American population has a great impact to such results, it could not be denied that the distinct sense of control on such matters could be judged based on the way democratic value in computing culture has been fully accounted for in the American society (Johnson, 2001).

True to its sense, everything has a good and bad side. Noticeably, the introduction of social media as aided by the internet has created a great sense of control on how people all around the globe get connected between each other. Nevertheless, there are some negative matters of the said innovation as well; the use of social media has been largely associated with some merits as well as demerits alike as can be revealed in this paper. The users of social media sites have the greatest obligation to make a wise use of these sites in the enhancement of their social lives as well as professions. Everybody must also take due diligence to avoid falling into the trap of online danger. The online communities can embrace the spirit of self-regulating and remove the behaviors that appear to be unacceptable. It is imperative that a way is established that can help in differentiating between constructive behaviors and those behaviors that require the intervention of law enforcement officers. With the help of legal guidelines and sanctions, it could be understood that the fight against the failure of social media to promote positive social developments could be battled successfully.

Work Cited

Barthe, Emmanuel. Crime Prevention Publicity Campaigns. U.S. Department of Justice. 2006, p.9

Garfinkel S.L., Inside Risks, The Cybersecurity Risk, Communications of the ACM, Vol 55 (6), p29 – 32, 2012

Johnson, C. M., “A survey of current research on online communities of practice”. Internet and Higher Education, 4, 45 – 60, 2001.

Moore, B. Using technology to promote communities of practice (CoP) in social work education. Social Work Education, 27(6), 592-600, 2008.

Schmalleger,F. & Hall, D. Criminal Law Today. Prentice Hall, 2013. Print