Open Access Research Article
DECODING THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL VICTIMIZATION
Published Paper
Article Details
DECODING
THE CHALLENGES OF
DIGITAL
VICTIMIZATION
AUTHORED BY
- JOEL JOHN THOMAS,
ABHIJITH TOJO & THERES EMMANUEL
Students, 3rd
Year B. A LLB
Kristu
Jayanti college of Law, Bangalore, Karnataka
Email: joeljohnthomas83@gmail.com
Abstract
21st Century has witnessed a tremendous
increase in the field of science and technology. Great emphasis has been made
on the advancement and the role that cyber space has in the modern world.
Cyberspace is one of the stark realities which determines the importance that
it plays in the digital world. Cyber space has opened avenues of opportunities
which has provided huge benefits to mankind. These opportunities have been
utilised and exploited through various technological methods which has led to
the diverse growth of digital crimes and intercepted the personal privacy of
the individuals. This research paper mainly focuses on e-crimes and the group
of people in which hackers intrude on their sensitive data and blackmails them
through these vital data’s. This paper mainly finds the reasons of
victimization which is been revolving around various digital offences. The
extent of victimization among the innocent people is increasing at a
spontaneous rapid pace rather than decreasing in its trend even though various
laws are placed in accordance with the modern digital society. Likewise, this
research paper also investigates the support and the need to have new laws for
the protection of victims, to tackle the emerging cybercrimes in the digital
world and also to have new technological oriented self-awareness programs so
that cybercrime can be prevented from further unauthorized sources. This study
advocates the principle to have privacy safeguards against commercialization
and exploitation of the victim’s data. Traditional methods shall be replaced
with new modern security measures in order to rectify the loopholes of our
system in the cyber space. This paper stresses the need of the hour in order to
protect the victims from any further challenges or problems through the
invocation of special procedures and to ensure that law enforcement is properly
executed.
Keywords:
Cyberspace, Victims, Digital world, Cybercrime, Privacy.
1.1
Introduction
Science and technology
act has a dominating factor in the present world scenarios which has led to
vertiginous changes in the short span of time. These commendable changes have
led to numerous inventions and innovations which gradually elevated the standard
and lifestyle of human being. These factors have made the life much easier and
simpler but has led to the pleather of opportunities where crimes can take
place. Crimes have shifted from traditional, conventional to modern, Digital,
and electronic offences in the cyber space which has given favourable
inclination to offenders. These offences over a period have initiated and made
a radical rise of shift in the relational paradigm of personal, cultural, and
social interactions in the society which has changed the present world order.
The present proliferation of information, to digital and communication
technologies has led to importance of study of victimological perspectives in
the cyber-World. It is very essential to pay attention to the mode of design of
digital architectures which have paid the path for a notable increase for
criminal offences initiated and conducted by defrauders and criminal offenders
which facilitates for the huge rise in the field of digital victimisation. This
has affected the people day to day life order and has made them more prone to
adapt a risker lifestyle in the society. This research paper does give a
detailed and clear importance in understanding the various forms of challenges
and threats that exist in the cyber space. The study resorts to various
instruments and tools in designing preventive strategies and constructive
measures to tackle the set of changes brought by the digital era. It advocates
the need of protection, safety and security of potential victims who are listed
in the risk category. This study does promote the need to focus on one own
surroundings that can influence the behavioural patterns. thoughts, actions,
and desires of the victims in the digital world. These are plenty of loopholes
present in the legal aspects of cyber laws in our country. The moment has
raised to cement these gaps and tendency of victimisation by promoting,
protecting, and nourishing new methods of defensive modes operand against the
external illicit interventions in our country.
1.2
Literature review
Sara Giro Correa (2019)
mentions about the need to have a proper enforcement and victimization policy
that should be put in proper place because it would hamper the process of
facilitation and delivery of emergency measures which needs to be taken when a
victim is under digital misuse and fraud. It clearly advocates the need of
vulnerability understanding of a victim in a specific situation so that there
can be a proper mechanism of adequate victim response to the digital crimes
which are taking place in the cyber world.
Catherine Bluya -- (2016)
discuss about the growing use of cyberspace among the youth of society which
acts as an important instrument for socialization and for building new
opportunities in cyberworld. At the same time, it acts as a mechanism of both
positive and negative aspects, which is being used for various illegal
activities. There is an urgent need of action regarding educating the society
with the safe use of cyber space.
C. D Marcum (2021) clearly indicates in his
research paper that there are so many hazardous and ripple effects of cyber
victimisation which means that cyber victimisation from one sector can affect
the other people from various sectors. It is one of the most common patterns
which is seen among the group of victims in India. They are cyber of effects
which can undermine the survival and the way existence of the individuals in
the cyber nation.
Thomas.J. Holt (2017)
This research paper analysis that the traditional crime is gradually decreasing
and there is a shift towards modern advanced use of cyberspace. The crime rate
in our country depicts the fact there is a tremendous increase in the cybercrime
rates. There is a need to focus on a separated study between offenders and
victims in order to understand the circumstance which lead to the digital
crime.
Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg
(2017) clearly suggests that the present series of cybercrime it is seen that
victims are themselves to be offenders. Here, the cyber offenders utilize a
high risk of victimization, victimization – offending this mainly happens due
to the law self-control and routine activities that victims do while once they
are generally engaged in the social networking sites. They themselves fall prey
to these high – risk traps. The degree of victimization increases
significantly.
Taher Muhammad (2020)
Mentions the causes of cyber-crime victimization in order to understand the
severity of cybercrime offences. Among the several kinds of users in the cyber
space, adolescents are the most targeted victims of cybercrime. Main cause of
victimization includes law self-control, social inequalities, and more usage of
cybermedia. Preventive measures like sanctions and educational awareness,
warning and many other strategies should be initiated to prevent the threat of
victimization.
James Hawden (2001) This
paper mentions about the important to implement and educate the society
regarding the impacts of digital victimization. There is an urgent need to
introduce and enact victim policies in our cyber law system in order to address
the contemporary knowledge gap in this digital era.
Rachel killean (2022)
which clearly talks about the technology assisted sexual violence which takes
place with the complexities that arise from the cyber victimization. Sexual
violence is not reproduced in physical from but augmented in virtual settings, this
article argues the amplified the traditional understanding of victim and
offender behaviour concerning sexual crimes. It highlights the challenges around
the ideal victim and responsibility of blame and victim offender. Bystanders continuously
which emerge not only within discourses of sexual violence using digital evidence
at trial.
Debarali Halder (2021)
clearly indicates in his research paper that there are some many hazardous and
ripple effects of cyber victimisation which means that cyber victimization from
one sector can affect the other people from various sectors. It is one of the
most common patterns which is seen among the group of victims in India. They
are cycles of effects which can undermine the survival and every existence of
the individual in the cyber world.
1.3 Research Questions
Ø What are the promoting reasons for
the tremendous increase of digital crimes in cyber space?
Ø Is there a need to introduce new
preventive measures to decodes the challenges of digital victimisation?
Ø Whether the present cyber laws
sufficient to tackle the challenges of digital victimisation in the present
scenario in our country?
1.4
Objective
This research paper aims at decoding
the challenges of digital victimisation by examine the various trends of cybercrime
present in our society. The promotes the level of responsibility and analyse
the bar of awareness about the various criminogenic factors that nourishes and
facilities the illicit behaviour that is common among the offenders. It
advocates the need to have better knowledge and sense of awareness about the
existing laws, rights, and the governing principles regarding e-crimes. The
focus relies on the execution and implementation of new approaches and
strategies from the traditional background to a new modern outlook towards the
betterment of the individuals in the cyber space and to strengthen the national
security of the country.
1.5
Methodology
Present study is mainly based in
secondary data collected from various sources about available information on
the given topic also, the secondary data has been collected from different
sources which includes official data, official figures, and official statistics
from the authorised validated sites. The Literature review content for this topic
is mainly taken from different journals, books, articles, newspapers etc. This
paper gives a clear picture on the present challenges that the victims are
facing from cybercrimes in the digital world and due to certain circumstances,
they get into the vicious cycle of victimization. Methods and proper strategies
are implemented to decode these challenges, so that there will be a better
cyber society which is free from the hatched plans and webs created by the
online frauds.
1.6 Study
Result
Reason for the Increase in Digital
crime
It has been observed in the study
that there is a lack of awareness among the group of people which is mainly the
youngsters, women and children who get facilitated with the marvels of
innovation. There is an emergence of cyber culture in which they give less
attention to the basic age of maturity which should have been prominent
important to access the social networking sites. Newest trends show there are
camouflages identities of the individuals which are leading to severe legal
issues and unethical approaches which are imposing direct challenge to the
nation and to the cyber space which includes various other forms of
cyber-attacks etc. Limited opportunity for socialization has led to a special
kind of delinquency among the behavioural pattern of the victims which led us
to the frozen state of mind and makes them more inclines to the cyber space. We
could see a t6endency among the youngsters in which there is a dissociation
between the real self and emergence of creation of a digital self. One of the
most main problems which is observed in this study is that sharing one’s own
personal ID and password and sensitive information to virtual friends in which
they have never seen and allowing them to use it for personal purpose. When it
comes to the children and minors there is a lack of strict vigilance by the
guardians providing g the accessibility of electronic devices to the children.
This research clearly shows that there is a lack of digital knowledge regarding
the safety precautions tools and measures that must be proved while accessing
into the digital space. Due to the mad race of life, people do not read the
rules and regulations, policy guidelines to get into these cyber communities.
Hence due to the lack of reading this can lead to hacking, economic and sexual
crimes. Verbal and child abuses.
Table 1: Awareness of
cyber culture among Indian internet users
|
Awareness of cyber culture among
Indian internet users
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
1. Knowledge of minimum age to join
cyber communities like Facebook, Orkut, Myspace etc
|
56.2%
|
43.8%
|
|
2. Allow others to use one’s own
email id / profile id /passwords etc
|
46.6%
|
53.4%
|
|
3. Use safety tips like filtering
emails, locking personal albums and information, personal walls of social
networking sites etc
|
69.9%
|
30.1%
|
|
4. Mail back to unknown senders of
spam / pornographic / erotic /phishing mails
|
37.0%
|
63.0%
|
|
5. Share personal information /
emotions with virtual friends / chat room partners etc whom you do not know
in real life
|
74.0%
|
26.0%
|
|
6. Believe in controlling free
speech while communicating in the cyber space
|
37.0%
|
63.0%
|
|
7. Read policy guidelines of social
networking sites, ISPs etc
|
28.8%
|
71.1%
|
|
8. Use pseudo names
|
45.2%
|
54.8%
|
Arising need to tackle the challenges
of Digital
This research paper has found in its
observations that there is a trend of continuous sequence of Digital crimes
which is taking place in the digital world which are like hacking, stalking, Impersonation,
phishing, defamation, bullying moreover different forms of victimisation by
virtual friends. In normal instance it has been seen that people are not aware
in taking preventive measures and precautions to safeguard their personal
sensitive data and rights which led a favourable path to the offenders to
conduct digital crimes. People from various age groups fall prey to these
crimes and becomes victims and thus the process of victimisation gradually and
momentously starts its repercussions step by step. Thus, from all these
understanding we can conclude that there is a high need to prevent these forms
of digital victimisation. Due to the lack of awareness of the victims about
phishing attacks, large amount of money is debited from their personal bank
accounts and the money is channelized for illegal purpose including online fraud,
cheating, gambling, dark web etc. Impersonation and passionate tricking individuals
have led to defrauding by making cloned profiles of invalid information in
order to cheat others. This is done through the mode of recourse of interaction
and socialization in social chat rooms and public networking forms. This is
possible because of the very irregular nature of appearing in the cyber space
and using it for professional purposes which can lead unconsented activities.
Data and information miming from social network sites has led to cyber
profanity where there is prodding by creating proxy profiles. People once they
are immersed in their daily activities people often are subjected to defamation
statements against them. Cyber space culture has seen new variants like
receiving bullying messages, flaming words, and morphing pictures of victims. It
has been seen in the due course of study that after the exhibition of personal
information by the victims to the virtual friends they turn out to be online
harassers and questions the existence of survival of the victims. It was
clearly from the study that the victims are failing in reporting to respective
competent legal authorities either due to the lack of courage, fear, and
confidence due to the lack of awareness and otherness of reporting such
incidents where and how.
The table which is given below
delineates the aspect of reporting behaviour and tendency of the victims to the
law enforcement agency.
Table 2: Awareness of
rights and reporting behaviour
|
Awareness of rights and reporting behaviour
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Aware that hacking, creation of
pornography/distributing the same, distribution obscene materials etc are
criminal offences
|
80.8%
|
19.2%
|
|
Aware of his / her legal right to
protect privacy in the cyber space
|
78.1%
|
21.9%
|
|
Aware that cyber bullying, cyber
stalking, sending annoying, defaming messages etc can be penalized
|
19.2%
|
80.8%
|
|
Has reported incidences of cyber
victimization to police / lawyers / courts
|
9.6%
|
90.4%
|
This table clearly depicts that if
proper measures are not taken then there will be huge increase of digital
victimization among the victims.
Sufficiency of cyber laws in the
present scenario
This research paper in its study must
come to understanding that there are many loopholes existing in the cyber laws
which is present in the country. Cyber laws are not adequate and loosely framed
innovations where issues cannot be dealt in a proper manner in the present
legal system. Information and technology Act 2000 act has abominating factor in
the cyber field but due to latest innovation in the cyber spaces there is a
need to introduce ,implement and execute a proper framed law which addresses
all the current issues and tackle all
the challenges of digital victimization such as hacking, violation of one’s own
personal privacy , identity of theft , cyber terrorism, breach of confidential
information , transmitting of publications of sexually explicit materials
cheating by impersonation and various other cyber related offences. It was clear
in the study that there is no proper dissemination of information and lack of
education provided by the governmental and state machineries to the educational
institutions like schools and colleges etc. Where the main cruse of problem begins.
Judicial and Legal Authorities are acting in a lethargic manner to give strict
and stringent punishments to the offenders and harassers. When it comes to
cyber communications the fundamental right given to the citizens of the country
which right to privacy and freedom of speech and expression, right to
navigation and of security rights are being violated in the cyber space which
is a serious threat that the victims facing in order to voice and echoes their
own opinions of the harassment and the intensity of the crime that they have faced.
There are no awareness campaigns conducted in our society about the
illegalities leading to the victimization in the cyber world are comparatively
less than other countries. There is a tendency which is prominent among our
fellow human beings to corner the voice and the stand taken by the victims. Due
to this attitude, they are stuck in the world of victimisation and it is very
difficult to come out from it. There are no proper cybercrime police stations
in major parts of our country to take proper remedial measures and there is a fear
of hegemonism by police authorities which present them from reporting the
various experience of victimization in the cyber world.
|
Awareness of rights and reporting
behaviour
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Aware that hacking, creation of
pornography/distributing the same, distribution obscene materials etc are
criminal offences
|
80.8%
|
19.2%
|
|
Aware of his / her legal right to
protect privacy in the cyber space
|
78.1%
|
21.9%
|
|
Aware that cyber bullying, cyber
stalking, sending annoying, defaming messages etc can be penalized
|
19.2%
|
80.8%
|
|
Has reported incidences of cyber
victimization to police / lawyers / courts
|
9.6%
|
90.4%
|
1.7
Findings
This research paper has exclusively
found out in its abbreviations and findings that there should be a mandatory
need of understanding the importance of reading the terms and conditions and
policy guideline before entering contract in social networking sites so that
online defrauders cannot mime our sensitive data and information. Victims
should be precautious in taking necessary steps while they share their profile,
passwords, and other personal information to the strangers as well as to their
closest friends and relatives so that they will be prevented from further cyber
victimization in the future. While having mutual interactions and connections with
unknown virtual friends they should be vigilant while they chat, talk, socialize,
and mingle with them so that spams, fraudulent activities, misrepresentation,
and email spoofing etc can be detected and prevented at an early stage and
avoid responding to these messages. Victims should not immediately take asylum
with virtual friends when they face any problems because virtual friends tend
to utilize and manipulate their identities and the emotional balance of the
victims. There should be a fostering of a culture of ethics and education in
the minds of victims as well as children and they should be brought up with the
basic principles that they should strictly follow while interacting and
communicating in the cyber world with full knowledge and awareness of the cyber
ethics. It was found in the study that there is a rampant increase of cybercrime
in India like cyber defamation, usage of bulling words, sending threat
messages, digital harassment, Fake accounts etc. In order to prevent these cybercrimes
more the government and the civil society should implement stringent laws so
that to prevent further damage experience by individuals in the cyber world.
Majority of victims are unable to understand the true nature of hacking and
stalking which is taking place in the cyber world and there is a blockade of
process of taking proper preventive measures to protect-themselves from the
offences of victimization. There is a tendency which is seen in the present scenario
where the culture of privacy is not nourished or encouraged but rather it is
comprised at a large scale where it becomes a breeding ground for the digital
offenders to victimize the victims from the various cybercrime committed in the
digital world. Different instruments and measures should be implemented to
create a greater consciousness about victimisation among the internet users.
Government should have discussions with technocrats and technological resource
persons to frame, implement and execute concrete policies so that the extent of
digital victimization can be reduced. Digital offenders and victims should be
given situation- oriented treatment programs so that they can be reformed and
renewed and their contributions would be beneficial for the development of the
society.
Table 4: Twenty-Five Techniques of
Prevention of Situational crime from Cornish and Clarke (2003)
|
INCREASE THE EFFORT
|
INCREASE THE RISKS
|
REDUCE THE REWARDS
|
REDUCE PROVOCATIONS
|
REMOVE EXCUSES
|
|
Target harden
|
Extend guardianship
|
Conceal targets
|
Reduce frustrations
and stress
|
Set rules
|
|
Control access to facilities
|
Assist natural surveillance
|
Remove targets
|
Avoid disputes
|
Post instructions
|
|
Screen exits
|
Reduce anonymity
|
Identify property
|
Reduce arousal and temptation
|
Alert conscience
|
|
Deflect offenders
|
Use place managers
|
Disrupt markets
|
Neutralise peer pressure
|
Assist compliance
|
|
Control tools/weapons
|
Use place managers
|
Deny benefits
|
Discourage imitations
|
Control drugs and alcohol
|
Table 5: Twenty types of situational
prevention measures for cyber-criminality from Miró Llinares (2012)
|
REDUCING ENVIRONMENT OF INCIDENCE
|
INCREASING PERCIEVED EFFORT
|
INCREASING PERCEIVED RISK
|
REDUCING PERCEIVED REWARDS
|
ELIMINATING EXCUSES
|
|
Do not introduce targets Separation
of hard drives with and without access to system; Systems of parental
control; Content filters; ActiveX security controls; No access to chat rooms
(grooming)
|
Control access to system Firewall;
Update operating systems; Passwords for system access; Passwords for access
to web; Update passwords; Profiles on social network
|
Extend guardianship Forum
moderators; Echelon, Enfopol, Carnivore and Dark Web systems
|
Hide targets Use systems of
encryption; Hide personal data on social networks; Do not use bank passwords;
Perfect e-commerce systems
|
Set rules International legal
harmonisation; “Netiquette”
|
|
Identify risk zones Informational
campaigns about risks; Advise network of spam infections; White and
blacklists of web and spam; Identify bots
|
Detect and impede the attack
Antivirus; Antispyware; Antispam; systems of control for electronic banking
|
Reduce anonymity Identify IPs;
Registration on web forums; User identification systems; Biometric
identification and authentication
|
Remove targets Removable hard
drives; Alternative payment systems (PayPal); Change web addresses, domains
and
other
|
Set rules Web licence
notifications: copyright and ‘copyleft’; Privacy notifications on
Social networks
|
|
Decontamination/residue clean-up
Erase and destroy latent viruses; Bot disinfection
|
Deflect offenders’ Close networks;
Request removal of illicit content; Flagging mechanisms on social networks;
Denial of access to specific IPs.
|
Strengthen formal surveillance
Control networks through proxy; Specialized teams for cybercrime persecution
|
Remove benefits Persecution of
buyers of illicit content; persecution of money laundering
|
Strengthen moral conscience Raise
consciousness about intellectual property; Morally enforce legitimate
businesses
|
|
Separation of targets Internet2;
Creation of local security sub-networks
|
Control tools/weapons Obligatory
vigilance through IPPPS; Control data through RSS
|
Assist natural surveillance Improve
IP identification systems; Reconstruct architecture with defensive ends
|
Disrupt markets Offer economic
systems of file sharing (Spotify and others); Control direct file download
sites
|
Assist compliance new business
models (Apple); Legal hacker competitions; Strengthen open software
|
This table clearly depicts how
situational crimes can be prevented.
These should be proper training and
research for digital victimization so that there will be proper solutions put
in place to solve the problems which arises out if digital victimization.
Increased consciousness should be instituted in the minds of online users about
their internet lifestyles by paying more attention to GPS location systems.
Guardians should take proper care regarding minores when it comes to exposure
of the digital world. There should be increased perceived effort and risk by
the police forces and special hotline numbers should be put in place so that
digital victims can approach and report to the police at the earliest and the
police can arrest the online offenders. In Individuals should possess the basic
criminological and technological knowledge so that they can respond in a proper
manner in times of need. Responsibility does not lie with government
authorities but it has with public, private, and business organizations to
adopt methods to eliminate excuses put to adapt polices to present cybercrime
victimization in the digital world.
1.8
Conclusion
In a century where satisfaction level
of human being is at highest par with the social engineering platforms present
in the cyber space. Cyber space provides a lot of opportunities and many
disadvantages but the staking fact is that many people fall prey to these
designs and hatched webs created by the online defrauders. Victims which arise
and come out from there webs are very high in the trends and they are not at
all decreasing which is one of the dangerous factors in the developing society.
Due to the large presence of victims the process of victimization is increasing
at faster pace. Digital victimization is therefore considered a bane than a boom
and should be stemmed from further proliferating. It is found in the research
study that the group of people themselves flout the rules and regulations and
policy guidance due to their negligence and ignorance and they suffer a lot of
repercussion in the cyber space. In this digital era where the speed and fast
combativity in communication n has led to the cluster of social engineering
skills and techniques there has been a tremendous overwhelming development
where identity of human being is comprised in face of artificial intelligence.
Digital victimization should be abolished only if stern steps are taken by
appropriate authorities to curb the crimes which takes place, Swami Vivekananda
says “It is our self-matters” We has human beings should have a sense of
responsibility, vigilant mind, dutiful spirit to oversee actions arise from the
process of victimization to damage us.
Reference
Tafer Mohammed (2020) Journals of
victimisation vol 5, pp 119 -123
Thomas. J. Holt (2019) Journal of
criminal offenders and victimization, Vol 3, pp 118 - 121
Catherine Balya (2016) Journal of
Cyber space and cybercrimes digital space, Vol 4, Pp 113-115
Article Information
DECODING THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL VICTIMIZATION
Authors: JOEL JOHN THOMAS, ABHIJITH TOJO, THERES EMMANUEL
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2023/10/26
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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