Impact of Crimes on Individuals and Society-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Identity crimes and their impact on individuals and society. 2.Discuss aobut the Myopic panopticon and effect of use of CCTV on commission of crimes. Answers: 1.The term identity crime is used to refer to acts of using a fabricated, manipulated or stolen identity of either a real person or a false person with the intent of facilitating unlawful, anti-social activities. The concept of identity crime encompasses three different concepts of identity related crimes. Firstly, identity theft which occurs when a person steals or assumes, without consent, a significant portion of the identity of an actual person. Secondly, identity deception which occurs when a person assumes a fictitious identity, created by using features of some aspects of an actual person who may be dead or alive and without consent. Thirdly, identity fraud which is a concept which encompasses both the aforementioned categories, except it involves further making use of the fabricated or stolen identity to perpetrate crimes while staying under cover of the created or stolen identity (Wall2013). Identity crimes can thus be categorized into two groups. Firstly, acts of assuming an identity which is not ones own. Secondly, acts of using another identity to commit criminal activities. The first category does not necessarily imply any harm to society, for a person could seek to assume a different identity for various reasons which may not necessarily be harmful others. However, predominantly, identity crimes are committed with the intent to evade the law enforcers, for they may have been committed to facilitate other crimes such as financial fraud, money laundering, trafficking, smuggling and even terrorism (Smith and Hutchings 2014). The incidence of identity crimes is reportedly one of the leading categories of crime in Australia with financial fraud arising in consequence to identity fraud having a rate of 4%-5% per year as per the AIC Identity Crime and Misuse survey report in 2016.It was further reportedly found by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey in 2015 that 6.4% of the population who were over the age of fifteen have allegedly been victimized by some kind of identity fraud in the year 2014 to 2015.Unsurprisingly, it has also been observed that 96% of the respondents of the survey have remarked that perceive misuse of their personal information to be a significant concern. According to the report, Identity-crime-and-misuse-in-Australia-2016, released by the Attorney-Generals Department, there has been of losses amounting to more than $1.6 billion each year, with identity crimes such as credit fraud and scams arising out of identity deception and theft accounting for about $900m of the total estimates per year. It was also stated that identity crime is a key facilitator of organized crimes which pose serious security threats to society and the costs have been estimated to be close to around $15 billion per. It is thus clear that identity crimes pose a serious threat to individuals and puts burden on society at large on multiple levels in terms of mortal, financial as well as psychological security. 2.In the latter half of the eighteenth century, an English philosopher called Jeremy Bentham had devised a design of a correctional institution called Panopticon, whereby the inmates could be kept under constant surveillance by the personnel in charge. The rationale behind such a structure was explained as having the inmates be aware of being under surveillance but not of when they are actually being spied upon would enforce a sense of caution and invoke a conscious effort to stay adhering to the standards of disciple expected of them. The idea has sparked many discussions on the topic of asserting power and exercising control over a populace by merely the keeping a surveillance upon their activities. It is this concept of Panopticon coupled with the myopic view of daily life as made possible through CCTV surveillance that has made the realization of the idea as a means to enforce law and order a real possibility (Sheridan2016). This approach to instill discipline in society is what is referred to as Myopic Panopticon. Closed circuit television or CCTV is a popular tool to deter and reduce crime around the world. It is generally expected that the myopic view, presented by CCTVs to the law enforcement authorities would work to at least bring to justice those who may break the law if not put a deterrent to potential law breakers. There have been many attempts to verify whether CCTVs have in fact been able to achieve success in deterring crime. According to a review on the topic, based on a Campbell Collaboration Systematic Review by the College of Policing, UK in 2013, it was reported that CCTVs can in fact lead to a small reduction in crimes. It also stated that impact of CCTV surveillance is crime specific and although it can help to deter crimes like theft, it has little effect on incidence of violent crimes (What-works-briefing-effects-of-CCTV-2013 2013). Although there have been no definitive conclusions drawn about the matter, it has been induced that there may be positive results depending on the kind of crime and location of the CCTV, for instance, in 2017, in his review of seven studies for his research on how surveillance cameras affect crime reduction, Gustav Alexandrie, reported that 24 to 28% reduction in crimes with regard to streets and urban subways have been reported in those studies. However, little difference has been noticed in the case of parking lots and suburban subways. Additionally he reported of reduction in disorderly behavior in sports stadiums as well as cases of theft in crowded marketplaces (Alexandrie 2017). Effectiveness of CCTV as counter terrorism measure is however a matter which is still under investigation. A Surveillance system primarily plays the role of a deterrent in such cases. However, CCTV footage had played a key role for catching the perpetrators of the London bombing in July 2005 (Stutzer and Zehndern2013).Overall, CCTVs have proved to be beneficial in maintaining public order to a certain level for specific sets of crimes. References Alexandrie, G., 2017. Surveillance cameras and crime: a review of randomized and natural experiments.Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention,18(2), pp.210-222. Identity-crime-and-misuse-in-Australia-2016., 2016. [ebook] Commonwealth of Australia, p.5. Available at: https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/IdentitySecurity/Documents/Identity-crime-and-misuse-in-Australia-2016.pdf [Accessed 8 Feb. 2018]. Kille, L. and Maximino, M.,2014.The effect of CCTV on public safety: Research roundup - Journalist's Resource. [online] Journalist's Resource. Available at: https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/surveillance-cameras-and-crime [Accessed 8 Feb. 2018]. Sheridan, C., 2016. Foucault, Power and the Modern Panopticon. Smith, R.G. and Hutchings, A., 2014. Identity crime and misuse in Australia: Results of the 2013 online survey.AIC reports. Research and Public Policy series., p.v. Stutzer, A. and Zehnder, M., 2013. Is camera surveillance an effective measure of counterterrorism?.Defence and Peace Economics,24(1), pp.1-14. Wall, D.S., 2013. Policing identity crimes.Policing and Society,23(4), pp.437-460. What-works-briefing-effects-of-CCTV-2013., 2013. [ebook] College of Policing, pp.1-3. Available at: https://library.college.police.uk/docs/what-works/What-works-briefing-effects-of-CCTV-2013.pdf [Accessed 8 Feb. 2018].