Have you ever thought about how improvements in technology change criminal considerations? And not just when it comes to committing crime by using technology, but also how the availability of technology changes how people think about crime or have transactions with criminal activity.
Consider for a minute the idea of legal expungements, big data as associated with criminality, digital transparency and its ramifications, and the fact that using technology, we can now see historical trends in criminal behavior. All of those perspectives can give you an interesting lens through which to look at the idea of crime, as associated with technological innovation.
Expungements
If you commit a crime, you’ll have a criminal record. Whether your sentencing was fair or not, it’s still permanently attached you. That is, unless you can figure out a way to expunge your criminal record. And that’s where technology can help you out. Your lawyer can more easily research your data and data, in general, to find out what kind of precedent there might be for your specific kind of case. The better your lawyer is, the more likely they are to be able to use technology to help this expungement process.
Big Data
You’ll hear a lot of references to big data in today’s technologically savvy world. There’s so much information right now that humans cannot possibly absorb and interpret it all. And that’s where computers and computer processing comes into play. When it comes to criminality, artificial intelligence, concerning big data, can determine root causes of crime or root solutions to crime that are both counterintuitive and extremely practical. Law offices around the world are using big data to help them stamp out corruption before it happens.
Digital Transparency
Technology also helps with corporate digital transparency. In the past, it was tough to tell exactly what large companies were doing with money, data, advertising, revenue - all those things were relatively guarded secrets behind various firewalls. Now, with the technological push for transparency up and down the line, people have a much better idea of what’s going on. And that leads to good things where people see positive value in this openness, and it also helps law enforcement crackdown on white-collar digital crime.
Historical Trends
Technology allows greater absorption of data now than any time in the past. And bringing all those data points together allows criminologists to see historical trends beyond using technology to stop crime, you can also use technology to understand crime and put it in perspective and context. If you try to get a degree in criminal justice these days, for example, a huge amount of your study is going to be into technology and the role that it plays in today’s human environment.