A consideration of the social impact of cybercrime: examples from hacking, piracy, and child abuse material online

Contemporary news headlines seem to play regular host to treatments of one form of cybercrime or another, whether it be fraud, hacking, malware, piracy or child abuse material online. In this paper, the meaning of that term is unpacked, social impact is considered and possible future developments are discussed. Given the pervasive and profound influence of the Internet, it is important to acknowledge that in terms of criminology, what happens online can impact on the real world and vice versa. Consequently, real-world and cyber social impacts in relation to cybercrime will be examined.