M.K.E.

S COLLEGE OF LAW

Name of Student : Anup Narendra Pathak

Roll No : 113

Class : S.Y.LLB

Semester : Sem – IV (2020-2021)

Subject : Criminology

Topic : Set A – Causes of Crime / Set B – Cyber Crime

Name of Professor : Prof. Mahendra S. Yadav

i
 SET A – CAUSES OF CRIME

1. Concept of Crime:

Unlike torts, crime is not just a wrong against an individual but is also a wrong committed against the
society or a public wrong and includes acts like murder, rape and theft to mention a few. It is not a
case of differences between two parties but is a case between the wrongdoer and the state. The
definition of the concept of crime is important; of course, because of the types of questions it directs
attention to and the order of phenomena it leads one to investigate. A definition of crime establishes
the subject matter of the discipline of criminology and sets limits on what is to be considered
criminological work. Therefore, a humanistic criminology can only be developed if an appropriately
humanistic definition of crime is used as its initial point of departure. The most commonly accepted
definition of crime is ‘an act that is capable of being followed by criminal proceedings’, which
provides us with a wide classification of the term in that the only common element of crime is that
previous legal proceedings have outlined it as such.

The idea of the need for punishment is a common element to defining crime; however it may also
include any action or omission which causes harm to person or property or in any way violates the
criminal law. The concept of crime often, but not necessarily, involves violation of moral codes
followed by some level of social disapproval but is it important to recognize that not all crimes are
disapproved of by all people.

It is possible to determine four main frameworks in which it is possible to make sense of the ways
crime can be defined, although each demonstrates noticeable difficulties associated with defining the
concept of crime. The first of these is crime as a social construction; this poses a difficulty for creating
a general definition of crime as it varies across cultures. The second framework is crime as defined by
religious doctrine or authority; within this context there is both a conflict between what would be
considered a crime by society and religion but also between religions themselves. Although less
prominent in modern day society, a crime can be defined as an action that goes against the law of God.
Sharia Law in Middle East is one such example. In Saudi Arabia, even in this day and age, a woman
driving is a crime and even though this law is absurd, that is the law. Honor killings and domestic
abuse are examples of behavior, which may be sanctioned within a particular religion but would
disagree with basic state law, most commonly in westernized societies.

Crime can also be understood as a reflection of the law of a particular nation-state; an act can only be
defined as criminal in accordance to the laws of the state in which it was committed. This creates a

1
 difficulty in defining crime as what may be considered a criminal action in one state or country may
not be viewed the same way in another.

Finally, more recently, concepts of crime have emerged that are formed beyond the constraints of
specific nation-state laws from general social and political theory. In most western societies, crime is
of individualistic responsibility and so places blame on individuals rather than the systems they are
contained within. However, by viewing crime in relation to social and political theory it is possible to
look at the causes of a person’s behavior, which may render them irresponsible for their actions, and
also to define actions as crimes, which may not be considered so within the society itself. For example,
during the reign of Hitler in Nazi Germany,

2. Causes of Crime:

Crime spares no continent, country, state, city or street. Crime is a concept that exists along with the
creation of mankind. It is an act or omission of an act which causes harm to the society as a whole and
causes disturbance and panic in the society. Such an act is punishable by the criminal laws. Over the
ages, the amount and types of crimes changed and to deal with them appropriate laws has been made.
Now crime can even take place in the virtual world and can make the same type of impact in the
society. The techniques and methods of committing crime have changed and so has the factors that
cause crime.

There are certain categories that specify some of the main causes of crime. They are as follows :

2.1. Lack of Education:

The most commonly seen causes of crime are lack of educational values. It is not that people who get
education doesn’t commit crime, it just means that people with lack of education tend to fall for
criminal trap easily, lack of education leads to less chances in getting jobs which leads a person to
choose the wrong path for earning easy money. Also only serving bookish knowledge to kids doesn’t
help them in overall development of their inner selves unless they are given proper knowledge about
values and ethics as well.

2.2.Ineffective Legal System:

Even now whenever a dispute arises people say the term that “I’ll see you in court” but long delay in
the decision making system and sometimes a little slack in the duties of the investigators leads to the
person actually liable, roam around freely. Rich and powerful convicts don’t even have to spend time
in the jails they just get bail or stay out in probation and our law fails to provide justice to the aggrieved.

2
 Corruption is the main element here in such cases. This feeling of getting away for whatever they have
done encourages the wrong doer to continue their filthy actions and spread crime and terror.

2.3. Poverty:

The main reason for poverty is unemployment. With increase in population it is getting harder for
people to find jobs. With no jobs and no means to earn a square meal a day people resort to alternate
solutions which are not always legal. Poverty is a true evil for the society as it gives rise to not one but
a large number of problems.

2.4. Alcohol and Drugs:

Even after multiple restrictions people still get their hands on alcohol and various kinds of drugs.
Underage drinking is common nowadays. The youth who got addicted to drugs gets involved in illicit
selling and buying of drugs. These items make people lose their sense of rationality and hence a lot of
crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Alcohol gives rise to a number to
different crimes such as drinking and driving, domestic violence, murder etc. Drugs are also used by
criminals to make people delusional and then commit crime against them. It example can be rape,
robbery, kidnapping etc.

2.5. Virtual World:

Earlier there were no laws against crimes committed in virtual world but now law regards cyber-crimes
equally as punishable as any other crimes as it have the same disastrous effect on a human beings life.
“The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow’s terrorists may be able
to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb.”[v] Hacking, fraud, impersonation etc. are
some crimes that take place online.

It should be noted that it is not necessary that the every aforementioned conditions is the only cause
of crime. There is always an external factor that affects a person and makes them act in such a way.
We cannot predict the exact situation that may have triggered the criminals mind. These specific
conditions are different in every case and hence they cannot be removed from any system.

3
3. Types of Crimes:

There are various types of crime in the society. Following are a few examples of types of Crime: -

3.1. Crime against Human Body:

These are the crime that is inflicted upon a person or a group of persons by another person or group
of persons. These are the crimes that are mostly related to a certain body injury. Such grievous injuries
are caused by rash driving, negligence etc.

3.2. Violent Crimes:

These crimes are those that are of extreme violent in nature. These crimes include murder, kidnapping
and abduction. In crime statistics it was seen that main cause behind 5,179 murder cases was personal
vendetta and enmity.

3.3. Crime against morality:

Crimes against morality are also called victimless crimes because there is no complainant or victim.
Prostitution, illegal gambling, and illegal drug use are all examples of victimless crimes.

3.4. Crime against women:

These type of crime includes ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’, assault on women with intent to
outrage her modesty’, kidnapping or abduction and rape. Rape is described as the most common crime
against women.

3.5. Crime against Property:

Mostly this includes destruction, degradation or stealing of properties of others.

3.6. Cyber Crimes:

The crimes committed in the cyber world are covered under this category. Such crime can be
committed for illegal gains, revenge, insulting women’s modesty etc.

Though it is impossible to accurately define what may drive a person to commit any crime. Sometimes
situations that seem normal may have a different impact on a person and it depends on that person’s
mental stability and condition that how they react about it. Not everyone has criminal tendencies but
what situation might trigger such behaviour it is hard to tell.

4
 Illustrations:

1) ‘A’ and ‘B’ were a married couple in an educationally backward state. ‘A’ died early and his wife was
‘B’ was sacrificed along his dead body as following a very old ritual called ‘Sati Pratha’. Due to lack
of education and knowledge about laws they believe their actions are legit. But they have committed
a crime by killing the innocent wife.

2) ‘V’ had an account on social media. ‘C’ with his knowledge in computer science illegally accessed
‘V’s account and posted some derogatory posts. Here ‘C’ has committed a type of cyber-crime by
hacking into ‘V’s account and impersonating him.

3) ‘A’, a teenager is hooked to a violent TV show that shows extreme crime and offences going on. ‘A’
started to have this mind-set that those actions are cool and legit and he can also use them, and by that
he assaulted ‘B’, his classmate, for a petty reason. Here the shoe had a bad impact on the mind of ‘A’
which made him commit a crime.

4. Theories of causation of crime:

4.1. Biological theories:

Criminal manners result from a complicated interaction of biological factors. The term ‘biological’
and genetic are often confused, in part since they represent the overlapping sources of influence.
Biological factors are more comprehensive, comprising physiological, biochemical, neurological, and
genetic factors. Genetic factors refer to biological, and hereditary factors. Until recently, the bulk of
criminological analysis focused only on social contributors, either reducing or negating the
significance of genetic and biological upon criminal manner. Within the past fifteen years, however,
an oversized body of proof has been collected that the etiology of criminal behavior is also understood
when genetic and biological factors are also taken under consideration. Evidence for the role of genetic
factors in the etiology of criminal manner carries the belief that biological factors intermediate this
relationship.

5
4.2. Economic theories:

The roots of crime are several and a discipline like economics, predicated on rational behavior, is also
at something of an obstacle in explaining an irrational occurrence. Describing the worldly trend in
crime rates in most industrialized economies is the most difficult task. Many social researchers argued
that crime is closely connected with work, education, and penury and that wagging, youth
unemployment, and crime are the side-effects or even count of social exclusion.

4.3. Psychological theories:

It is very hard to define distinctively psychological theories of crime. The psychological theories
especially concentrate on the importance of individual and family factors on offending. Psychological
theories are usually developed, trying to describe the evolution of offending from childhood to
adulthood, hence based on longitudinal education that follows up every individual overtime. The
importance of such theories is on continuity rather than discontinuity from childhood to adulthood. A
basic presumption is that the order of individuals on an underlying construct such as illegal potential
is relatively constant over time.

Psychologists inspect offending as a kind of behavior that is alike in many regards to unfriendly
behavior. Therefore, the theories, systems, and information about other types of unfriendly behavior
can be utilized to the study of crime. Lee Robins spread the theory that offending is one of the elements
of a giant sign of unfriendly behavior, including heavy drinking, drug-taking, reckless driving,
institutional problems, job problems, problems, etc.

Generally, psychologists are committed to the scientific study of human behavior, with its emphasis
on theories that can be tested and falsified using empirical, quantitative data, collected experiments,
systematic observation, valid and reliable measures, etc. The following parts discuss the most
important categories of risk factors that influence crime:

Family impacts, like broken homes, poor child-rearing methods, and criminal parents.

Individual impacts such as personality. The foremost important personality thinking about relevance
crime is abandoned, while the most influential theory of the link between personality and crime is
recommended by Hans Eysenck.

6
4.4.Sociological theories:

There are three important sociological theories: strain, social learning, and control theories.

(a) Strain theory:

According to the strain theory people get engaged in crime because they experience a lot of stress or
strain, they become upset and feel negativity around them, and they sometimes get involved or connect
with some crime as a result. They may be involved in crime to reduce their stain which they are
experiencing. For instance, for reducing their financial problems they may steal, end harassment from
others they may involve in violence, escape from abusive parents they may run away from home or
may commit injury to themselves. They may be also involved in crime to take revenge against those
who have done wrong to them. To make himself/themselves feel better they may start using illicit
drugs.

(b) Social learning theory:

According to social learning theory, people engage in crime because they learn to involve in crime
through their friends, and others. They learn that they are favorable to crime and get exposed to
criminal models. According to this theory, juveniles learn to involve in crime in the same way as they
learn through association with others. Primary groups like the family, friends, and peer group have a
large impact on what they learn. However, one does not have to be directly linked with others to learn
from them.

(c) Control theory.

Unlike the theorists of strain and social learning, control theorists take crime for granted. They argued
that every person has some needs and desires that can be easily fulfilled through the crime as compared
to legal channels.

4.5. Political theories:

It is given that any method of crime may be given to have an agreement with some political philosophy,
it reflects that any theory may be used for political objectives. During this general sense, therefore,
any orientation of crime is a political theory. And any type of crime may be of political consequence.
Certainly, radical criminologists have sometimes disputed that every crime is political. And some
theorists have offered explanations of crime that support conservative or liberal political perspectives
7
and agendas. An alternative conception of political theories of crime caution is that which are
identified by their accent on the social dispute and government relations.

Although theories, which we have seen, might be utilized to form any of a crime, they didn’t focus
historically on solving individual criminal behavior, but rather have concentrated on explanation
variations in crime rates, and particularly on the different risks of being labeled as a criminal. In so far
because the criminal law policy is seen as a tool of political power or repression, the politicization of
all sins is intended. It has been infrequently held that political sins are uniquely agreeable to display
by labeling and dispute theories, but the counter-argument is that any theory with an attachment to
political philosophy is often invoked to account for political criminality.

Given harmony between political beliefs and crime causation theories, it is going to be suspected that
the more explicitly political philosophy, the more likely it is to allocate political significance to
criminality. Theories having sympathy with conservation and radicalism appear to be more reasonable
than theories with sympathy to liberalism to clarify the crime and criminals in political words, whether
as threats to political resistance to the political violation. Consequently, conservatives will find the
diagnostics of political offenders, liberals will find that political offenders are often normal but they
misguided people who are responding to the strains inflicted on them by weak social organizations,
and extremists will find that political offenders are reasoning people who recognize and maintain the
suffocating and exploitative nature of abundant democratic capitalist society.

8
 SET B- CYBER CRIME

INTRODUCTION:

Cybercrime, also called computer crime, the use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal
ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and intellectual property, stealing
identities, or violating privacy. Cybercrime, especially through the Internet, has grown in importance
as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment, and government.

Because of the early and widespread adoption of computers and the Internet in the United States, most
of the earliest victims and villains of cybercrime were Americans. By the 21st century, though, hardly
a hamlet remained anywhere in the world that had not been touched by cybercrime of one sort or
another.

In simple term we can describe “Cyber Crime” are the offences or crimes that takes place over
electronic communications or information systems. These types of crimes are basically the illegal
activities in which a computer and a network are involved. Due of the development of the internet, the
volumes of the cybercrime activities are also increasing because when committing a crime there is no
longer a need for the physical present of the criminal.

The unusual characteristic of cybercrime is that the victim and the offender may never come into direct
contact. Cybercriminals often opt to operate from countries with non-existent or weak cybercrime laws
in order to reduce the chances of detection and prosecution. There is a myth among the people that
Cyber Crimes can only be committed over the cyberspace or the internet.

The necessity of internet connectivity has enabled an increase in the volume and pace of cybercrime
activities because the criminal no longer needs to be physically present when committing a crime. The
internet's speed, convenience, anonymity and lack of borders make computer-based variations of
financial crimes -- such as ransomware, fraud and money laundering, as well as crimes such as stalking
and bullying -- easier to carry out.

OBJECTIVE:

The principle target is to spread the knowledge of the crimes or offences that take place through the
internet or the cyberspace, along with the laws that are imposed against those crimes and criminals.
We are additionally trying to focus on the safety in cyberspace.

9
 Classifications of Cyber Crime:

Cyber Crime can be classified into four major categories.

They are as follows:

1) Cyber Crime against individuals:

Crimes that are committed by the cyber criminals against an individual or a person. A few Cyber
Crime against individuals are:

a) Email spoofing: This technique is a forgery of an email header. This means that the message appears
to have received from someone or somewhere other than the genuine or actual source. These tactics
are usually used in spam campaigns or in phishing, because people are probably going to open an
electronic mail or an email when they think that the email has been sent by a legitimate source.

b) Spamming: Email spam which is otherwise called as junk email. It is unsought mass message sent
through email. The uses of spam have become popular in the Mid 1990 and it is a problem faced by
most email users now a days. Recipient’s email addresses are obtained by spam bots, which are
automated programs that crawls the internet in search of email addresses. The spammers use spam
bots to create email distribution lists. With the expectation of receiving a few number of respond a
spammer typically sends an email to millions of email addresses.

c) Cyber defamation: Cyber defamation means the harm that is brought on the reputation of an
individual in the eyes of other individual through the cyber space. The purpose of making defamatory
statement is to bring down the reputation of the individual.

d) IRC Crime (Internet Relay Chat): IRC servers allow the people around the world to come together
under a single platform which is sometime called as rooms and they chat to each other.

- Cyber Criminals basically uses it for meeting.

- Hacker uses it for discussing their techniques.

- Paedophiles use it to allure small children.

A few reasons behind IRC Crime:

10
 (a) Chat to win ones confidence and later starts to harass sexually, and then blackmail people for
ransom, and if the victim denied paying the amount, criminal starts threatening to upload victim’s
nude photographs or video on the internet.

(b) A few are Paedophiles, they harass children for their own benefits.

(c) A few uses IRC by offering fake jobs and sometime fake lottery and earns money.

e) Phishing: In this type of crimes or fraud the attackers tries to gain information such as login
information or account’s information by masquerading as a reputable individual or entity in various
communication channels or in email.

Some other Cyber Crimes against individuals includes Net extortion, Hacking, Indecent exposure,
Trafficking, Distribution, Posting, Credit Card, Malicious code etc. The potential harm of such a
malefaction to an individual person can scarcely be bigger.

2) Cyber Crime against property:

These types of crimes includes vandalism of computers, Intellectual (Copyright, patented, trademark
etc.) Property Crimes,

Online threatening etc. Intellectual property crime includes:

a) Software piracy: It can be describes as the copying of software unauthorized.

b) Copyright infringement: It can be described as the infringements of an individual or
organization's copyright. In simple term it can also be describes as the using of copyright
materials unauthorized such as music, software, text etc.
c) Trademark infringement: It can be described as the using of a service mark or trademark
unauthorized.
3) Cyber Crime against organization:

Cyber Crimes against organization are as follows:

- Unauthorized changing or deleting of data.

- Reading or copying of confidential information unauthorized, but the data are neither being change
nor deleted.

- DOS attack: In this attack, the attacker floods the servers, systems or networks with traffic in order
to overwhelm the victim resources and make it infeasible or difficult for the users to use them

11
 - Email bombing: It is a type of Net Abuse, where huge numbers of emails are sent to an email
address in order to overflow or flood the mailbox with mails or to flood the server where the email
address is.

- Salami attack: The other name of Salami attack is Salami slicing. In this attack, the attackers use
an online database in order to seize the customer’s information like bank details, credit card details
etc. Attacker deduces very little amounts from every account over a period of time. In this attack, no
complaint is file and the hackers remain free from detection as the clients remain unaware of the
slicing.

Some other Cyber Crimes against organization includes Logical bomb, Torjan horse, Data diddling
etc.

4) Cyber Crime against society:

Cyber Crime against society includes:

- Forgery: Forgery means making of false document, signature, currency, revenue stamp etc.

- Web jacking: The term Web jacking has been derived from hi jacking. In this offence the attacker
creates a fake website and when the victim opens the link a new page appears with the message and
they need to click another link. If the victim clicks the link that looks real he will redirected to a fake
page. These types of attacks are done to get entrance or to get access and controls the site of another.
The attacker may also change the information of the victim’s webpage, etc.

12
CONCLUSION:

In the above discussion, we study about crime causation, its various theories which tell us about how
crimes are caused in our society that cause damages to every person in society. These theories help to
know how every individual is engaged in crime and how they respond to the social environment. The
biological theory concentrates on the genetic, neurological, psychological, and biochemical factors
that influence a criminal manner. On the surface of economic theory, crime appears unusual,
predicated on the model of rational behaviour. The economic model of crime that every individual
chooses between criminal and legal manner based on various factors. The psychological theory study
in particular two factors one is family influences, and another is individual influences. The political
theory recognizes that any crime may be connected with some political ideology and therefore may be
used for some political purpose. Similarly, sociological theory study about the three main theories-
strain, social learning, and control theory all these explain crime in terms of social environmental
factors or primary factors such as family, friends, community, etc.

My main purpose of writing this presentation is to spread the content of Cyber Crime among the
common people. At the end of this paper “A brief study on Cyber Crime and Cyber Laws of India”
we want to say Cyber Crimes can never be acknowledged. The necessity of internet connectivity has
enabled an increase in the volume and pace of cybercrime activities because the criminal no longer
needs to be physically present when committing a crime. The internet's speed, convenience, anonymity
and lack of borders make computer-based variations of financial crimes -- such as ransomware, fraud
and money laundering, as well as crimes such as stalking and bullying -- easier to carry out. If anyone
falls in the prey of Cyber Attack, please come forward and register a case in your nearest police station.
If the criminals won’t get punishment for their deed, they will never stop.

13