Final paper for Crime and delinquency

The Impact of Modern Societal Changes on Crime and Delinquency: A Sociological Analysis Your name Subject and section Professor’s name Date Introduction The contemporary changing of cultures and other technologies, the basic infrastructure of any society, has dramatically altered the nature of crime and the measures used to combat it. Technical advancement and globalization have, therefore, acted as a boost towards old and new methods of facilitating crimes. For example, webcam hacks and fake invoices, Identity theft, credit card fraud, and other cybercrimes, including ransomware attacks or phishing scams, have become significant threats to global citizens, corporations, and governments (INTERPOL, 2022). At the same time, changes in cultural values and social disorganization are other reasons for increased crime levels, especially regarding specific subgroups of society in urbanized societies and areas with high economic differentiation (Antunes & Manasse, 2021). This essay reviews the extent to which contemporary societal changes affect crime and juvenile delinquency based on sociological factors, the influence of technology, structural factors, and culture. Furthermore, they reflect on how these changes affect or support the crime theories or theory of criminal justice and its modern-day policies. Impact of New Technologies on Crime The Rise of Cybercrime Technological advancement brings great chances for vices to exploit the opportunities dearly. Modern cybercrime has become one of the biggest threats facing global societies; these include ransomware, phishing scams, and online fraud (INTERPOL, 2022). The review of the latest INTERPOL (2022) survey indicates that ransomware has emerged as a "high" or even "very high" threat individually in many countries. It has a transnational character due to the international connectivity of the world wide web. According to Chng et al. (2022), hackers use information technology weaknesses to harm people, organizations, and even core assets, including substantial losses. For instance, in 2021, criminals interrupted the healthcare systems in the treatment process and endangered lives – added societal impacts of cybercrimes. Furthermore, the increase in scams as people were locked down economically due to COVID-19 is a perfect example of how twisty cybercriminals are (Lallie et al., 2021). According to INTERPOL (2022), there has been an increase in phishing campaigns, especially because employees at home are not so guarded when it comes to cybersecurity. This trend shows that communities in crisis are more exposed to risks lurking on the virtual horizon. At this rate, cybercrime socially provides a remarkable case in which traditional routine activities theory, whereby crime happens when motivated offenders come across appropriate targets with little or no protection, fails to hold up. In the digital world, however, capable guardianship is rarely present, as the defenses against cyber threats remain somewhat basic and behind the continuously changing growth of threats. Cyber offenders' relative invisibility and size also allow them to work across different jurisdictional boundaries, posing a problem for conventional policing (Leukfeldt & Yar, 2016). Surveillance and Crime Prevention Surveillance instruments, including facial recognition and forensics policing, contributed to the additional security and technological sophistication of crime prevention. Based on artificial intelligence, these tools analyze possible criminal behavior and predict crime rates. As much as they are effective in several ways, they have ethical dilemmas accruing from matters of privacy invasion, as well as racism or discrimination based on race (Lynch, 2024). The opposition mentions that predictive policing merely amplifies existing prejudice involving the police force and addresses minorities most frequently. Furthermore, according to INTERPOL (2022), technology should be effectively utilized to fight crime, which requires synergy between global organizations. This perspective aligns with the sociological point that crime control can only be done effectively by including structures and culture as part of the efforts. Computer Science and Organized Crimes Currently, many criminal organizations have gone high-tech through coded language in communication and virtual currencies like bitcoins. In the assessment of INTERPOL (2022), these networks are very adaptive and innovative, using events such as the COVID-19 pandemic to the credit of criminals to fuel their work. For example, the pandemic saw a rise in fraudulent PPEs and fake vaccine kits associated with general criminality and cybercrime. Sociologically, the mobility of organized crime poses many questions to the orthodox, conventional hypothesis that such networks have strictly demarcated geographical territories. However, this has only expanded their outreach to international levels, demanding international tactics for dismantling the networks. Social Structures and Crime Economic Inequality and Crime Antunes & Manasse (2021) explained that poverty continues to be one of the major causes of crimes in societies, especially those in the process of seeing relative economic differences. According to strain theory formulated by Robert Merton, people with no acceptable way to achieve the culture's success may turn to crime. It can be observed in a high increase of cases of property crimes and fraud in areas that experience economic dichotomy. In its latest report, INTERPOL (2022) outlined how financial crime, incl...