K. Jaishankar

Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior

Victimization through the Internet is becoming more prevalent as cyber criminals have developed more effective ways to remain anonymous. And as more personal information than ever is stored on networked computers, even the occasional or non-user is at risk. A collection of contributions from worldwide experts and emerging researchers, Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior explores todays interface of computer science, Internet science, and criminology. Topics discussed include: The growing menace of cyber crime in Nigeria Internet gambling and digital piracy Sexual addiction on the Internet, child pornography, and online exploitation of children Terrorist use of the Internet Cyber stalking and cyber bullying The victimization of women on social networking websites Malware victimization and hacking The Islamic world in cyberspace and the propagation of Islamic ideology via the Internet Human rights concerns that the digital age has created Approaching the topic from a social science perspective, the book explores methods for determining the causes of computer crime victimization by examining an individuals lifestyle patterns. It also publishes the findings of a study conducted on college students about online victimization. Advances in information and communications technologies have created a range of new crime problems that did not exist two decades ago. Opportunities for various criminal activities to pervade the Internet have led to the growth and development of cyber criminology as a distinct discipline within the criminology framework. This volume explores all aspects of this nascent field and provides a window on the future of Internet crimes and theories behind their origins. K. Jaishankar was the General Chair of the First International Conference of the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (SASCV), held January 15-17, 2011 at the Hotel Jaipur Greens in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.

Views on the death penalty among college students in India

While research abounds on attitudes toward capital punishment in the United States, such work has been lacking in non-western nations — particularly in India, the worlds largest democracy. Data recently collected have revealed variance in levels of support for the death penalty among Indian college students: 44 percent express some degree of opposition, 13 percent are uncertain, and 43 percent express some degree of support. Reasons for support or opposition also exhibited variance. According to a multivariate analysis, statistically significant reasons for support included retribution, instrumentalist goals, and incapacitation; while significant reasons for opposition included morality and the belief that deterrence could be achieved by imposing sentences of life without parole.

Cyber Gender Harassment and Secondary Victimization: A Comparative Analysis of the United States, the UK, and India

Abstract Gender harassment through cyberspace has become a common phenomenon in the internet era (Citron, 2009a). But harassment is worsened when victims face further victimization due to denial of justice at the hands of the criminal justice system. Countries such as the United States, the UK, and India have codified laws dealing with cybercrimes and cyber-harassment to protect the victim. Ironically, the same systems pave the way for secondary victimization. Citron (2009b) had pointed out that trivialization of the problems by laws or criminal justice systems further victimize the crime victim. The questions that arise from this are several. Why does the criminal justice system fail to help victims in certain cyber-harassment cases? How are the victims of such crimes dealt with by criminal justice systems and Internet Service Providers (ISPs)? What could be done to end this harassment? This article will try to answer these questions from a comparative perspective of the situations in the United States, the UK, and India.

Revenge Porn by Teens in the United States and India: A Socio-Legal Analysis

Sexting among teens has become a phenomenon problem in the US as well as in India. This has given birth to numerous issues including issues related to child pornography, exploitation of images by perpetrators and revenge porn. While in the US laws are being created and tested for regulating sexting in relation to revenge porn, the situation is quite different in India. This paper emphasises upon the fact that there is a lacuna in dealing with adolescent sexual behaviour including revenge taking mentality with the help of sexted images. This paper argues that instead of dealing the issue of revenge porn by teens in the traditional procedural ways as has been laid down in the legal provisions or by way of rusticating the children (including the perpetrators and the victim) from the school as has happened in India in several occasions, Therapeutic Jurisprudence approach should be taken up.

Property Rights of Hindu Women: A Feminist Review of Succession Laws of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India

Hindu womens legal right to inherit property has been restricted from the earliest times in Indian culture. In the ancient text Manusmriti , Manu writes: “Her father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in youth and her sons protect her in old age; a woman is never fit for independence.” However, women were not always excluded from inheriting movable or immovable property from ancestral and marital families. But their proportion of share in the property was far less than that of their male counterparts. Throughout history, restrictions on Hindu womens property rights have undergone change, and current laws governing these rights are more liberal than those of ancient Hindu society. Patriarchal Hindu society provided women with property known as stridhan (literally, womens property or fortune), and it mainly came from marriage gifts (clothes, jewelry, and in some rare cases, landed properties). However, women were denied property rights to the ancestral or marital landed property, and their right over succession of the landed family property was limited. With the emergence of different schools of Hindu law, the concept of stridhan started expanding its literal and legal meaning, granting women more rights to certain forms of property. Later, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the passage of several pieces of legislation that were intended to remove more of the barriers to full and equal property rights for Hindu women. Most recently, sexual discrimination in Hindu succession rules was mostly discontinued by the recent Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act (2005).

Support for community policing in India and the US: an exploratory study among college students

Purpose – While there is a growing body of studies on the peoples views of community policing, there have been a very few cross-national studies. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast students’ views on community policing from India and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The data were from a survey from a total of 434 Indian and 484 US college students. Findings – Punitive orientation had a significant effect on attitudes toward community policing, but was related to an increase in the support in India and reduction of support in the USA. Among the Indian respondents, concern for crime and support for aggressive policing had positive associations with support for community policing, and police involvement in the community had a negative association. Among the US respondents, age, educational level, and perceptions of police effectiveness had positive associations with support for community policing, and holding a punitive orientation had a negative association. Originality/value – This...

An Exploratory Comparison of Policing Views Between Indian and U.S. College Students

While there is a large amount of research on public attitudes toward the police, far fewer studies have examined citizen’s views of the police in non-Western nations. Even less is known regarding Indian citizens’ perceptions of the police. Based on survey data collected from over 900 college students, this exploratory study compared and contrasted college students’ views of policing in India and the United States. The results uncovered both intranational and international differences in three areas of views of the police, including general satisfaction with the police, support for aggressive policing, and support for community policing. Indian students in general were less satisfied with the performance of the police; yet, more supportive of both aggressive policing and community policing than their U.S. counterparts. Perceptions of the police varied somewhat by gender, age, and academic level.

Comparing and Contrasting the Formal and Informal Crime Control Views of Indian and U.S. College Students A Preliminary Study

This study examined the importance of formal and informal crime control in the United States and India. Formal crime control relies on the law and official government agencies to deter criminal actions and to respond to criminal activity. Informal crime control relies on moral and social institutions (e.g., family, peers, and neighbors) to promote lawful behavior. Using the data collected from 928 college students, the study found that the Indian and U.S. respondents differed on most of the formal and informal control measures. Overall, the Indian respondents were more likely to rank informal control as more important than were their U.S. counterparts. Although there were differences, both groups of respondents shared similar views on the importance of both forms of crime control and held that family was the most important form of crime control.

Crime, Criminals, Treatment, and Punishment An Exploratory Study of Views Among College Students in India and the United States

Views toward crime, criminals, punishment, and treatment are shaped by social forces, which differ across nations. Most of the research in this area has been conducted among citizens of Western nations, yet crime and responding to it is a worldwide occurrence. This study compared the crime views of Indian and U.S. college students. It was found that there were significant differences between Indian and U.S. respondents in their views toward crime, criminals, punishment, and treatment. There were mixed views on punishment and rehabilitation among both groups of students. In a multivariate analysis controlling for gender, age, academic level, and religious saliency, nation of the respondent was one of the best predictors for these views. The differences in views were attributed partly to the cultural differences between the two nations.

Comparing the impacts of community policing in the cities of Nagpur and Tirunelveli: an empirical study

Community policing is a philosophically right strategy, but as yet its feasibility remains to be adequately established through scientific procedures. Impact assessment of community policing is much needed in contemporary literature. This paper comparatively examines the community policing movement between Mitra Police (Nagpur) and Friends of Police (Tirunelveli) (‘FOP’). The findings of this study will assist in identifying which of the two has a better strategy and the reason for this. The variables are divided into input, supervision and outcome categories. This comparative study examined 240 respondents taken through a purposive method to compare the outcome of Mitra Police and FOP using SPSS. Overall, the inputs made into FOP were comparatively better than those for Mitra Police, but it is still lacking on many fronts. Lack of proper supervision process is found to be a major downfall of Mitra Police in Nagpur. In both cities community policing fails to improve police image. This study indicates important variables that are having significant impact on community policing effectiveness, and policy makers should factor in these findings to further refine community policing strategy in their locality.