Policies on Global Crimes Essay Example

Introduction

Global crimes are a threat to humanity and pose great negative impacts to individuals on the country and the entire world. Globally crimes include homicide, terrorism, drug trafficking, violent crimes, cyber-crimes, corruption and other organized and property crimes such as fraud. Advancement in technology is both beneficial, but at the same time, it increases incidences of crimes. Death is one of the severe effects of global crimes such as terrorism. Terrorists plan terror attack on large crowds of people in the malls or social gathering. Different countries have different ways of reporting and recording crimes (Shaw et al. 2003, p. 37). Therefore, the system developed to counter crimes is unique to each nation although there are collaborative efforts within regions. To counteract and reduce the level of crimes in the world, there are specific policies that have been enacted for each country. Terrorism and cyber-crimes are two global crimes which have gained global effect and which are dealt with through policing globally. This essay aims at comparing and contrasting the policing of terrorism and cyber-crimes in the European and African context.

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Cyber Crimes

Cyber-crime is a recent crime that has emerged and gained high prevalence due to the advancement in the use of internet all over the world. Olusola et al. (2013, p. 19), posits that cyber-crimes occur in the cyberspace over the internet and in the world of computing. As a technology-based crime, cyber-crimes involve the use of computer and internet to bully others. The crime targets ambitious young people using the internet and who can easily be swayed and enticed by strangers. Often the cyber terrorists disguise themselves to look familiar, and in this way, they can win the trust of the internet user. As a result, cyber-crime has become an issue of growing concern because it affects the lives of many people globally (Olusola et al 2013, p. 19). Advancement and transformation in the world of technology facilitate communication and storage of information which has been negatively impacted on due to the prevalence of increased cyber-crimes and hacking of systems. According to Olowu (2009), Africa has seen the number of internet users increase by 423.9% from 2000-2007 and consequently, cyber-crimes have increased (p. 5). Although cyber-crimes are the most crimes relating to technology, other global crimes also rely on improved technology to counter the policing put forward to fight it. It is estimated that 490,000 deaths occurred from homicide in 2004 (UNODC 2010, p. 8).

Cyber-crimes occur at different levels such as against persons, property, and government (Olowu 2009, p. 2). Those involved are often well connected, youths, unemployed, knowledgeable and enjoy the fact that there are no stringent policies of regulating such crimes in Africa (Olusola et al. 2013, p. 22). Cybercrimes committed against persons include harassment using computers where the victims are exposed to email phishing, trafficking and distribution of pornography, indecent exposure and distribution of obscene materials (Olusola et al. 2013, p. 21). Cyber-crimes against properties includes computer vandalism and transmission of computer viruses. Crimes against the government include terrorism that involves cracking of government websites, drug trafficking deals, phishing and cyberstalking using the internet.

Cyber-crimes result to loss of information especially when the computer gets infected with malware. It also promotes the sale of illegal drugs through the internet, leads to sexual harassment, extortion and enhances terrorism. Cyberbullying may cause the subjects of the attack to commit suicide. Banks also face phishing attacks, and service providers have employed broadband connections without investing in security solutions

Cyber-Crimes Policing

Worldwide, countries have developed measures and strategies to curb the cyber-crime. Both Europe and Africa have put forth policies that are aimed at fighting the rising emergence in cyber-crime. Countries in Africa have overtime focused on developing policies to curb cyber-crimes, for example, Nigeria through its criminal code act establishes that cyber-crimes are punishable by law under the criminal code (Olusola et al. 2013, p. 22). The act provides that any person who obtains or defrauds another person or anything capable of being stolen is liable to imprisonment for three years, section 419 and 418 are specific to cyber-crimes (Olusola et al. 2013, p. 22). Despite the measures put forward to deal with cyber-crimes in Africa most countries still use terrestrial laws to deal with cyber-crimes. They have weak penalties and global legal protection against cyber-crimes with few trained cyber experts and enforcers (Asongu et al. 2018, p. 1931).

Other countries like the Gambia, Kenya, Senegal, and Burkina Faso use emergency laws and ad hoc approaches to deal with cyber-crimes. They lack a definite system to deal with cyber-crimes. Initiatives put forward globally include the Council of Europe, United Nations and the Group of Eight Industrialized States collaborative framework to fight cyber-crimes. It draws, prohibits cyber-crimes and prompts member states to address the issue (Olowu 2009, p. 11). Efforts put forward ensure offenders who are often jobless are encouraged to use legitimate ways to deal with their curiosity (Kranenbarg 2018, p. 15). Kshetri (2005), posit that laws enacted should make reporting of cyber-crimes mandatory (p. 541). Laws such as Patriotic Act require formation of new security identification measures. Other policies put forward are on data sharing and encryption to reduce data hacking (Whitley & Hosein 2010, p. 178). According to Reich et al. (2010), best practices and policies in information exchange and national legislation that declare cyber-crimes as wars ensure the development of security strategies (p. 2). Developing a harmonized definition of cybercrime also enhances the fight.

Compared to cyber-crimes, terrorism policing is very different since, while terrorism can be dealt with physically, it is difficult to deal with cybercrime physically. Cyber-crime is technology based while terrorism such as the ones initiated by the Al-Shabaab terror group employs guns, bombs, and other security weapons. For instance, to fight the terrorism from Al-Shabaab terror group, the African Union joined hands and formed AMISON where each country contributed its soldiers to go and fight the terror group (U.S Department of State 2016). Currently, the armed forces are working jointly to in Somalia to eliminate the terror group. In their effort to eliminate the group, the forces use guns, and bombs to fight seriously with the terror group.

On the other hand, cybercrimes can to a large extent be counteracted by the use of policies that would regulate the use of the internet. As a result, it becomes impossible for the policemen and women to raid the cyber-crime terrorist using guns and bombs. In Africa, this is what has been happening where several policies have been enacted to deal with cybercrimes (Wall 2007, p. 183). Use of police in control of cyber-crimes is complex because it occurs in a global context although it is nationally, defined. Additionally, police play a minute role in policing the use of the internet. The police can only counteract cybercrimes through the advancement of their knowledge and capacity and forging better and improved relationships with other nodes within the internet security networks (Wall 2007, p. 183).

Additionally, police-to-police cooperation with other countries and cybercrime units in Africa, Europe, and other regions is an appropriate policing measure to investigate the cybercrime. Since cyber-crime is a global crime, and it can be committed to other regions by a person in another region, it becomes significant to collaborate with security agencies in other countries. This helps to combat crime jointly although in different jurisdictions. This police-to-police cooperation initiate is facilitated by Interpol whose vision is to connect police for a safer world and use enhanced international police cooperation to prevent and fight crime. In addition to police-to-police collaboration, the African Union Commission has formed a joint programme with the Council of Europe to help combat cybercrimes (Lucchetti, 2018, p. 15). This joint programme was born by the African Diplomats as a plan to legislate cybercrimes in Africa. In Africa, there is a lack of common understanding on cybercrime, improper harmonization of cybercrime legislation, limited technical capabilities to carry out investigations, problem coping with new technological paradigm and unavailability of reliable data. The joint programme with the Council of Europe was aimed at addressing those challenges. The joint programme gave rise to the Budapest Convention which is the only international treaty on cybercrime and electronic evidence. The convention harmonizes the criminalizing conduct, procedural tools, and international cooperation. Budapest convention engages 57 state parties, 14 observer states and 12 organizations such as the African Union Commission. UNODCC, Interpol, Eurojust, OSCE, ENISA, ITU, Europol, OECD, Commonwealth Secretariat, OAS and European Union (Lucchetti, 2018, p. 15).

The policing strategies employed in Europe appears to be similar to those employed in Africa. However, there are some differences. One such difference is that in Europe, unlike Africa, the investigations relating to cyber-crimes are done by private industry. The private industry provides intelligence and evidence to fight the cyber-crimes in the region. Moreover, the investigations are left in the hands of the highly specialized chain of software break-in experts who are able to understand the moves made by the fraudsters. To disrupt the cyber-criminal operations, the various European countries have joined hands and formed two teams, a cyber-team, and an economic team. The two teams collaborate together to deter the fraudsters from any financial gain. To augment the private industry in the fight against cyber-crimes, European Union through Europol has also established Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) which conducts internet searches, performs analysis and assessed the content against the European Directive on combatting terrorism (Vieth, 2017, p. 1). After the assessment, the unit classifies the crime as inappropriate or dubious. If Europol finds the content as undesirable it removes it from the internet to prevent its further spread.

Having realized the significance of figures, European Union came up with EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) to give information on terrorism phenomenon within the EU. TE-SAT is part of Europol's strategic measure to provide the law enforcement officials, the general public and the policymaker figures about terrorism taking place in the European Union (Vieth, 2017, p. 1). Through the report, more insightful information is given and by identifying the developing trends in crime, the Europol is able to deal with terrorism more effectively.

Terrorism

It is a form of organized crime that results in homicide and destruction of property (Asongu et al. 2017, p. 1934). Terrorism has been experienced globally with many countries such as USA, Somalia, Kenya, France, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria falling victims. Terrorist attacks have adverse effects on social and economic development (Shi et al. 2018, p.641). The radicalization of young people in Africa to join Islamic groups such as Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, and Al-Shabaab among others has increased terrorism (Terdman 2007, p. 642). In the recent past, there has been an increase in the level of terrorism in Africa due to the rise of these terror group linked to Islamic militant organization, Al-Qaed...