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Abstract
Crime, policing and security are enabled by and co-evolve with technologies that make them possible. As criminals compete with security and policing officials for technological advantage perpetually complex crime, policing and security results in relatively confusing and therefore unmanageable threats to society. New, adaptive and ordinary crimes emerge over time to create technology crime waves, the magnitude of which can theoretically be measured, compared and predicted. These principles underscore a new theory of technology-enabled crime, policing and security pertinent for understanding contemporary threats posed by emerging forms of cybercrime, transnational crime and terrorism networks that defy traditional methods criminal justice and security measures for preventing and controlling crime.
Introduction
Few things are as fundamental to human history and ongoing development of society as technology. Readers of this article know full well that technology may be variously conceptualized, categorized and defined; is ubiquitous and serves seemingly infinite purposes; and evolves in its design, engineering, materials, components, manufacturing processes, adoption, implementation, systems integration and diffusion. When coupled with science, which in its broadest meaning denotes systematized learning across scholarly fields of research, technology and the interactive forces which make these possible (e.g., imagination, processing of raw materials, economics, and political processes) accommodate human preferences and enable societal functions in astounding ways. It is also well understood that synergistic science and technology may result in good or evil as determined by how they are used in relation to social norms, ethics and laws. Hence, the notion that technology has always and inevitably been used for socially abusive or criminal purposes as determined through processes of social construction and thereafter (hopefully) arrested via the administration of justice when not prevented is not surprising. Indeed this is expected and generally regarded as the way in which technology functions in and affects society.
Given the obvious role that technology has in the enablement and evolution of crime, and in countervailing policing and security functions of society, it is surprising however, that criminologists who have long sought to explain causes and correlates of crime and corresponding victimization have not significantly considered technology-related principles, processes and theories. Theories of the Classical School of criminology for example, examined 18th-century legal structures and criticized arbitrarily-designated criminal behavior and punishment imposed without regard...