Young people, the Internet, and pathways into criminality

11h45 à 12h30
Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, local C-2059
Carrefour des arts et des sciences
3150, rue Jean-Brillant

Aucune réservation requise

Dr Russell Brewer is a Senior Lecturer at Flinders University Law School. His research interests include policing, crime prevention, Internet crime, organized crime, and social networks. In particular, his work seeks to establish the significance of networks as a tool for providing a clearer understanding of the risk factors that lead to deviance, as well as the structural characteristics of policing responses to criminality. He has a range of publications exploring the in these areas, including a series of journal articles, as well as a monograph for the Clarendon Series in Criminology, Oxford University Press. He is a founding member of the Centre for Crime Policy and Research at Flinders University, and leads its recently established Digital Crime Laboratory, which oversees a variety of innovative research projects.

Summary:

This paper examines the ways in which young people first encounter the Internet as a potentially criminogenic medium. The contexts in which this occurs are described and analyzed in terms of relative access to digital technologies and risk of exposure. Given the increasing ubiquity of Internet access in the lives of young people, we explore how this can lead to tentative engagements of a naive or non-criminal kind. We also locate youthful exposure to the Internet within the context of adolescent development, including susceptibility to risk-taking and involvement in delinquency of different (off-line) kinds. Data from an empirical study of adolescents residing in a large Australian city will be linked to broader findings discussed.