Emerging Crimes and Criminal Behavior Theories

Emerging Crimes and Criminal Behavior Theories

Introduction

For years, people working in the field of psychology and related to or working on this field have tried to explain why people commit crimes or engage in deviant behaviors. As time has progressed, the types of crimes that people commit have unfortunately also evolved. Some criminal activities that are taking place in the world today did not exist a few years ago and as time goes on new types of crimes will keep on appearing. Two types of crimes or criminal activities that have appeared and increased in intensity and complexity in the past few years are terrorism and cyber crimes.

Terrorism

The Code of Federal Regulations (FBI) defines terrorism as using unlawful force and violence with people or against property to intimidate or force a government or people for political or social interest (http://www.fbi.gov/). Whittaker (2004) suggests following aspects about terrorism. It is a calculated act and planned activity with goals, targets, means and access defined. Also, it is usually a group activity, and is fast becoming a transnational activity with its consequences defying the boundaries between countries. Today, terrorism has become a global criminal threat as terrorists from one geographical area can target other areas or the consequences of terrorism in one area can be felt in or affect other regions too (Whittaker, 2004). The increasing form of terrorism that is being faced by the world today has as its backdrop religion (Martin, 2010).

Cybercrimes

There is no doubt that advancement in technology that brought revolutions like the internet has made life easier. But with this revolution, a new type of crime called cyber crime has also come into existence. Cybercrimes are simply crimes committed through the cyberspace. Cybercrimes started with online fraud, phishing scams, money theft, information theft, hacking, virus ...