Cybercrime and everyday life: exploring public sensibilities towards the digital dimensions of crime and disorder
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Date
09/07/2019Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
09/07/2020Author
Horgan, Shane Liam
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Abstract
The thesis provides a novel empirical criminological account of the way the
public makes sense of and feels about cybercrime on the one hand, and how
they go about managing cybersecurity in their everyday lives on the other.
As the internet has been increasingly embedded in everyday routine
activities, people are correspondingly exposed to the perpetual risk of cyber-victimisation.
Criminologists have argued that as a consequence of salient
cultural representations of cybercrime and hackers, as well as fear-campaigns
of the cybersecurity industry, crime online is surrounded by a ‘culture of
fear’ that propagates feelings of risk and anxiety. Thus far there has been
little empirical work investigating this reality. A central contribution of the
thesis is to address this significant gap in the literature, and evidence the
value of developing a criminological analysis of public cybersecurity.
Drawing from the results of original qualitative empirical research, this
dissertation develops a novel critique of the ‘fear of crime’ by situating
cybercrime with theoretical repertoire of ‘fear of crime’. It then deploys the
concept of ‘sensibilities’ (Girling et al., 2000; Garland, 1990) to make sense of
the experiences of different groups of people (university students, parents of
school aged children, and older computer users) by engaging them in focus
group and interview discussions about the internet, cybercrime, and how
they go about managing online risk in their everyday lives.
It is argued that people think about cybercrime in a variety of ways, and that
to think about public perception through the lens of ‘fear’ is problematic.
Paralleling the internet’s transformation of crime, we can make sense of the
array of sensibilities captured with reference to the way the internet has also
transformed the experience of crime risk, victimisation and security.
Moreover, by exploring people’s responses to cybercrime and demands
made of them for greater risk management in their everyday lives, the
importance of thinking about cybersecurity practices sociologically is
revealed. Overall, this thesis situates and renders visible the importance of
the social and cultural contexts in which cybersecurity behaviours take place.
The thesis has important implications for public oriented cybersecurity
policy. Responsibilising and securitising campaigns that aim to change
people’s online behaviour are not communicated or interpreted in a social
and cultural vacuum. These messages interact, conflict and compete with
other sensibilities, norms, values and routines. It is concluded that people’s
cybersecurity practices and behaviour are best understood as a negotiated
outcome, and this interplay needs to be accounted for in public awareness
campaigns if they are to be successful.