CRIMINAL LAW-:

WHICH ACTS ARE CRIMINAL ACTS?

                                  

                          

                                                                                               

     

WHICH ACTS ARE CRIMINAL ACT ?

 WHICH ACTS OF AN HUMAN BEING IS A CRIMINAL ACT

Introduction to CRIME

The word crime originates from the Latin crīmen (genitive: criminis), from the root of Latin cernō = "I decide, I give judgement" and Greek κρινω = "I judge". Originally the Latin word crīmenmeant "charge (in law), guilt, accusation"[1]

The Sumerian was deeply conscious of his personal rights and resented any encroachment on them, whether by his King, his superior, or his equal. No wonder that the Sumerians were the first to compile laws and law codes.[2]

— Kramer

“Behaviourism is defined as a perspective that focuses on observable measurable behaviour and argues that the social environment and learning are the key determinants of human behaviour”.[3]

Crime is the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some governing authority, via mechanisms such as police power, may ultimately prescribe a conviction. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions".

There is no question that there is a great deal of obvious physical differences among human beings. No one denies also that there are groups of people who share common features with others of similar origin and genetic makeup.

The elements of criminal behaviour are by no means a simple equation. A small percentage of crime is attributed to abnormality or genetics. Criminal activity can be explained in terms of the learning of societal norms were an individual has mistaken or been influenced to develop a way of living that is not compatible with the laws of a given society, therefore a conflict is created that may lead to a criminal confrontation. Another aspect though is that small percentages of a given societies people will suffer from abnormalities or mental infirmities that are actually the predominant cause of an individual’s criminal conduct

ACTS THAT ARE CRIMINAL ACT ARE AS FOLLOWS

For differentiating normal act and criminal act mens rea(guilty mind) is not an important issue. Since mens rea(guilty mind) plays an essential part while proving whether an individual is criminal or not. Although criminal may not be punished or punishment is less as he was not having guilty mind but then also his acts is a criminal act. Thence al the acts which lead to status of criminal whether committed with guilty mind or without guilty mind are CRIMINAL ACTS.

1.      In criminal acts mostly either our thumb is pointing in forward direction that is pointing towards the victim or sometimes our thumb is pointed in upward direction-:

I here intended to convey that in every criminal act that an criminal commit, while committing that act his thumb always point in forward direction. Meaning that in any normal or natural act thumb of an individual may or may not point towards the next person who is standing but while committing crime the criminal thumb always point towards the victim.

EXAMPLE-1 IN A CRIMINAL ACT WHERE THE CRIMINAL IS HOLDING KNIFE IN HIS HAND

                             

Figure 1                                                                                                                Figure 2

Just concentrate on their thumb is it not pointing in forward direction that is towards the victim. Now for proving it much further let us assume Figure 1 and Figure 2 are two human being standing in front of one and another with a motive to kill each other. Is not visible that respectively their thumb pointing towards each other.

EXAMPLE-2 IN A CRIMINAL ACT WHERE THE CRIMINAL IS HOLDING GUN IN HIS HAND

  

Figure 3

Hypothetical situation-: Now assume that the person who is reading this text is victim that is you hon’ble human being and in front of you is a human being carrying a gun in his hand that is Figure 3. Figure 3 wants to kill you. He is going to fire a shot. It frightens the victim that is you. I want to stress on the human being hand that is Figure 3, concentrate on his thumb is not pointing towards victim that is you. Yes off course thumb is pointing towards the victim.

 

2.      Acts or human behaviour of an individual which are muscular and sudden is a criminal act or behaviour.

ILLUSTRATION

While committing any criminal act the movement of a criminal for committing a particular crime is sudden and muscular. Like while stabbing the victim, his movement is sudden and silent so that victim could not realize. In normal or natural acts an individual does not apply much force, but while committing crime the individual movement is sudden, silent as well as muscular meaning that with force, in these type of act he seeks help of his/her shoulder.

EXAMPLE-:

While a criminal intent to kill the victim he extracts all his force from shoulder and apply in movement of his hand with a force so that knife can penetrate in victim body. He is not slow because if he will be then there is fear of being caught up by the victim which will result in failure of his objective.

3.      All the acts in which an individual is frightened of being caught up by victim and police.

4.      It is pre-planed-: Mostly are criminal act that a criminal commit is pre-planned, that

is first he plans and then abide it for committing a crime. Example Gratia are if anyone want to kill then he will first plan for it that how he is going to enter his house or how he is going to stop him for normal conversation and then put him to death or which place is suitable for the criminal to kill him and if criminal wants to commit rap of an woman without planning he can not commit. Although time in planning may elapse for a second but without planning noone can commit crime. Time for planning may differ from case to case. Suitable example for it is that how can anyone without planning think of committing rap. First he thinks that I have to commit then afterwards he commit.

But where as in acts those are not criminal we mostly never plan our acts are random without any fear. We commit acts that are often not strange, non-criminal acts include our daily routine committing act habit, these are mostly not unusual. These are never sins. Mostly we do not think of committing these acts because neither there is stigma attached to it and nor they are sins.

5.      All acts which are sins they all are criminal act. From my way there is no drawback in this definition. All sins are crime.

Example-:

 As not wearing helmet is not crime it is an offence.

Criminals act are always crime not offence. For criminal act punishment is much severe as compared to punishment awarded in offence. So for criminal act or crime punishment is felony. The more grievous criminal act or crime is more severe the punishment is.

All acts which are prohibited by our respective holy book that is sins, if anyone commit it with intention or without intention it is a criminal act.

6.      All acts to which social stigma is attached are criminal act-:

The label of "crime" and the accompanying social stigma normally confine their scope to those activities seen as injurious to the general population or to the State, including some that cause serious loss or damage to individuals. Those who apply the labels of "crime" or "criminal" intend to assert the hegemony of a dominant population, or to reflect a consensus of condemnation for the identified behaviour and to justify any punishments prescribed by the State (in the event that standard processing tries and convicts an accused person of a crime).

Often a natural person perpetrates a crime, but legal persons may also commit crimes.

7.      Criminal acts are those acts by which other people also suffer-:

                                                                                                            Criminal Blowback refers to the fact that if 99% of people play by the rules, that 1% still creates enough carnage that causes new tactics to be taken to combat those crimes. Which ends up hurting the 99% majority by means of the Blowback? Examples: If one student kills someone in a school; everyone else is then forced to endure random body searches and waits in long lines through metal detectors. If one person cheats on a test, then everyone else is then forced into taking a more difficult test, because the normal test may be compromised. If one man uses his car to smash it into a building; then everyone else is then forced to pay a higher insurance rate to cover the lost funds spent to repair the building. If one man rapes a woman; then everyone else is then forced to deal with harsher Sex laws. Which have become so stupid in some states, that if a person is caught urinating in public; they can be convicted as a Sex Offender. If one man finds a new way to put poison into a jar of food; then everyone else is then forced to pay higher prices for that item, because new security features had to be added to protect the food.

Since Criminal acts are not committed by just one person, but thousands, even millions of persons worldwide; the Blowback that everyone else is forced to endure cannot be measured. So basically; the criminal act of one person, causes 1000 others that didn't have anything to do with the crime to suffer; both directly and indirectly.

EXAMPLE-1

I'm being forced to not go out of home during time period when Sec-143 of IPC is made applicable in Lucknow the reason is that my parents are scared that I may be also be put behind bars unnecessarily as I am not a criminal. So because of these criminals I have to also sacrifice of roaming during that period. Thence because of them I also suffer. It's not fair that criminals commit the crimes, but those of us honest people end up suffering. So all this ever does is annoys those of us that actually follow the rules.

EXAMPLE-2

Nobody’s parents easily allow their child to visit Kashmir because of terrorism created by terrorist. Terrorist acts or behaviour are criminal behaviours or acts and because of their criminal behaviour or act the people are being deterred from visiting Kashmir (Heaven in Hell, paradise city on Earth).

8.      A terrible individual criminal act that garners the attention of local and federal police that includes Choppers and a great chase.

9.      At the time of committing crime an individual takes law in hand meaning that he tries to do justice with him as injustice had been done by the victim towards criminal, and as such during that period criminal heart(man) is the judge, so it gives decision also whether to kill him(victim) or not. Heart gives direction to the criminal and the criminal act same as like policeman does that is to abide court decision, in particular Court decision is Heart and policeman is the individual or criminal. 

Both genes and environmental forces play a role in the criminality of an individual; it is more often an interaction between genes and the environment that predicts criminal behaviour; Having a genetic tendency for criminal behaviour does not determine the actions of an individual; but if they are exposed to the right environment, then their chances are greater for engaging in criminal or anti-social behaviour.[4]

10.  The act is criminal act if it creates a horrible or atrocious environment in society and causes the next person to fear of the individual who committed it.

Criminal acts of terrorist in all over the world has created horrible or atrocious environment. Especially in India Kashmir is at top position where the environment is atrocious, cause which people fear to live in Kashmir and tourist fear to visit that place.

CONCLUSION

I think I was able to explain and differentiate CRIMINAL ACTS and NATURAL OR DAILY ROUTINE ACTS.

  From my way if we have to curb crime then we should not stress on implication rules and Laws. That this Section should be introduced, this section should be like this not like that. All these steps only help in punishing the criminal and way so that a criminal can be amenable to particular Law of a Country.

  These Laws do not reduce or curb crime that is being committed day by day. If we compare number of crimes committed now to the number of crimes committed earlier. The ratio will be 10:5 that ten is to five. Earlier people committed crime less because they read their respective holy faith book and they abided it too. But see nowadays out of 100 we will find rarely 40-45 of people who have studied their respective holy faith book e.g. Gita in Hindu, Quran in Muslim, Bible in Christian e.t.c.  

   Earlier people committed less crime as they read their respective holy faith book and so believed in God. So were mostly were never ready to commit sins. But nowadays people do not believe in God as they have not read their respective holy faith book then how can they believe in God, thence are not scared of sins.

    So if we want to reduce number of crimes that is being committed by people we have to stress on teaching respective holy faith. This is most important subject to learn because noone is human without reading it. I am assigning it as most important subject to learn because if people will not read it mostly they will not believe in God and commit sins. That is an hurdle to run a society peacefully.

     If people have knowledge about their respective holy faith book at least they will hesitate in committing sins. So by at least we can curb or reduce number of sins that are being committed as ALL SINS ARE CRIME. For reducing crime Law is there.

  

                                                REFERENCES

INTERNET LINKS:

http://www.allfreeessays.com/essays/Criminal-Behaviour/8030.html

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[1] Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989; retrieved 2009-03-25

[2] Kramer (1971: 4)

[3] Bartol p. 408, 1999

[4] http://www.allfreeessays.com/essays/Criminal-Behaviour/8030.html

White Collar Crimes with special emphasis on: Cyber Crimes

STEP UP OR FIGHT A LOSING BATTLE

   CYBER SPACE AS WAR FRONT BETWEEN LAW AND CRIME

CYBER LAW SHOULD WALK ONE STEP UP TO CYBER CRIME  

INTRODUCTION

Crime is the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some governing authority, via mechanisms such as police power, may ultimately prescribe a conviction. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime

Cyber Crime may be defined in a general way as an unlawful act wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or both.

The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820.

The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb

                                  The internet in India is growing rapidly. Life is about a mix of good and evil. So is the Internet. For all the good it does us, cyberspace has its dark sides too. It has given rise to new opportunities in every field we can think of – be it entertainment, business, sports or education. There are two sides to a coin. Internet also has its own disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is Cybercrime – Illegal activity committed on the internet. Cybercrimes can be against persons, against property and against government. Computers today are being misused for illegal activities like e-mail espionage, credit card fraud, spam’s, software piracy and so on, which invade our privacy and offend our senses. Criminal activities in the cyberspace are on the rise.
                                           

52 countries which had been surveyed 25% are Substantially or Fully Updated(10), 25% Partially Updated (9) and 75% No Updated Laws (33) on Cyber Crime.

(

CYBER CRIMINALS Division may be justified on the basis of the object that they have in their mind.

1. Children and adolescents between the age group of 6 – 18 years

2. Organised hackers-These kinds of hackers are mostly organised together to fulfil certain objective.

3.      Professional hackers / crackers  

4.       Discontented employees-This group include those people who have been either sacked by their employer or are dissatisfied with their employer.

1. MODE AND MANNER OF COMMITING CYBER CRIME:

ü  Unauthorized access to computer systems or networks / Hacking

ü  Theft of information contained in electronic form

ü  Email bombing

ü  Data diddling-

ü Salami attacks

ü  Denial of Service attack

ü  Virus / worm attacks

ü  Logic bombs

ü  Trojan attacks

ü   Internet time thefts

ü   Web jacking

2. REASONS FOR CYBER CRIME:

The reasons for the vulnerability of computers may be said to be:

ü  Capacity to store data in comparatively small space

ü  Easy to access

ü  Complex- The computers work on operating systems and these are composed of millions of codes.

ü  Negligence while protecting the computer system.

ü  Loss of evidence- Loss of evidence is a very common & obvious problem as all the data are routinely destroyed. )

MAIN Effects of cyber crime

1.      Economic Impacts of Cybercrime Are Significant

2.      Cybercrime Is a Threat to National Security

ANALYSIS OF THE STATUTORY PROVISONS

              Information Technology Act 2000

                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                      The Information Technology Act 2000 was undoubtedly a welcome step at a time when there was no legislation on this specialised field. The Act has however during its application has proved to be inadequate to a certain extent. The various loopholes in the Act are-

1.      The hurry in which the legislation was passed, without sufficient public debate, did not   really serve the desired purpose

2.      “Cyber laws, in their very preamble and aim, state that they are targeted at aiding e-commerce, and are not meant to regulate cybercrime”^[1] –

  Mr. Pavan Duggal holds the same opinion.

3.      Cyber torts-

  The recent cases including Cyber stalking cyber harassment, cyber nuisance, and cyber defamation have shown that the I.T.Act 2000 has not dealt with those offences.

4.      Cyber crime in the Act is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive-

  Mr. Duggal believes that we need dedicated legislation on cyber crime that can supplement the Indian Penal Code. The contemporary view is held by Mr. Prathamesh Popat who has stated- "The IT Act, 2000 is not comprehensive enough and doesn't even define the term 'cyber crime”.^[2] Mr. Duggal has further commented, “India, as a nation, has to cope with an urgent need to regulate and punish those committing cyber crimes, but with no specific provisions to do so. It has to be distinctly understood that cyber crime and cyberspace are completely new whelms, where numerous new possibilities and opportunities emerge by the day in the form of new kinds of crimes thence  I.P.C could not be a good answer for it..”^[3]                                                    

5.      Ambiguity in the definitions-

  The definition of hacking provided in section 66^[4] is very wide and capable of misapplication. There is every possibility of this section being misapplied and in fact the Delhi court has misapplied it.

 Further section 67^[5] is also vague to certain extent. It is difficult to define the term lascivious information or obscene pornographic informa­tion.  Further our inability to deal with the cases of cyber pornography has been proved by the Bal Bharati case.       

6. Uniform law-   

   Mr. Vinod Kumar^[6] holds the opinion that the need of the hour is a worldwide uniform cyber law to combat cyber crime.

7. Lack of awareness- If the people are vigilant about their rights the law definitely protects their right. E.g. the Delhi high court in October 2002 prevented a person from selling Microsoft pirated software over an auction site.

8. Jurisdiction issues-

10. Raising a expert cyber army-

 By using the word ‘cyber army’ I am laying emphasis on the need for a well equipped task force to deal with the new trends of hi tech crime. Further the establishment of the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) ^[7] is definitely a welcome step in this direction. For getting expert members of CCIC government can establish a college for this.

There are cases of cyber crime in which there is no proof, sometimes charge sheet not filed and sometimes Pakistan not cooperating

11. Cyber savvy bench-

 Cyber savvy judges are the need of the day. Judiciary plays a vital role in shaping the enactment according to the order of the day. One such stage, which needs appreciation, is the P.I.L., which the Kerela High Court has accepted through an email. The role of the judges in today’s word may be gathered by the statement- judges carve ‘law is’ to ‘law ought to be’. Mr T.K.Vishwanathan, member secretary, Law Commission , has highlighted  the requirements for introducing e-courts in India.

12. Dynamic form of cyber crime-

   Speaking on the dynamic nature of cyber crime FBI Director Louis Freeh has said, "In short, even though we have markedly improved our capabilities to fight cyber intrusions the problem is growing even faster and we are falling further behind.”  

13. Hesitation to report offences is the main problem.

Reasons for it include the following:

ü  Financial market impacts

ü  Reputation or confidence effects

ü  Litigation concerns

ü  Signal to attackers

ü  Inability to share information.

ü  Job security

ü  Lack of law enforcement action.

CONCLUSION

Hart in his work “The Concept of Law”, says ‘human beings are vulnerable so rule of law is required to protect them’. Applying this to cyberspace, we may infer that computers are vulnerable so rule of law is required to protect and safeguard them against cyber crime.

Even now INDIA uses “CAUSE OF ACTION” Formula for dealing with the Cases related to Cyber Crime. National governments should examine their current statutes to determine whether they are sufficient to combat the kinds of crimes. Where gaps exist, governments should draw on best practices from other countries and work closely with industry to enact enforceable legal protections against these new crimes. Capacity of human mind is unfathomable. It is not possible to eliminate cyber crime from the cyber space totally but it is quite possible to check them. History is the witness that no legislation has succeeded in totally eliminating crime from the globe. The only possible step is to make people aware of their rights and duties (to report crime as a collective duty towards the society) and further making the application of the laws more stringent to check crime. Undoubtedly the Act is a historical step in the cyber world. Further I all together do not deny that there is a need to bring changes in the Information Technology Act to make it more effective to combat cyber crime.

                                                                            In India cyber crime is not much prevalent but in near future it is going to be a major issue for the government to deal with. As India is emerging power so development in technology will increase which will result in more misuse of technology by the Cyber Criminals. Cyber crime will economically and personally affects the individual and public of any country at large. State of mind of a cyber criminal is unpredictable so Government should emphasise more on precaution as compared to cure the old saying exactly fits here “Prevention is always better then cure”. Cyber crime is going to increase rapidly as Cyber crime is same as technology it will develop with development of technology. New-new techniques will be developed by cyber criminals to commit cyber crime. There should be specific statutory provisions for this particular branch of crime as till yet India has general statutory provision regarding Cyber Law. Establishment of cyber cell branch at central, State, and District level only deals with this type of problems and it could be attach with the CBI. When a cyber crime committed by someone then action should take immediately on basis of complaint otherwise there is opportunity for offender to destroy the evidence and escaped.

                                                  Computer security consultant Ankit Fadia is of the opinion that instead of trying to tighten cyber laws, we need to concentrate more upon training the law enforcement agents and police departments.

Prevention is always better than cure.  5P mantra for online security: Precaution, Prevention, Protection, Preservation and Perseverance.

MY SUGGESTIONS

Recommendation to Government

·         From my way every individual should get an Internet ID (Identification) and Password with which he can use Internet. It is complex step but by doing so it will be much easier in minimising cyber crime. Since if every individual will have his/her own ID then they will think thrice before committing crime. Because the ID by which they are using Internet has all information about the customer his name, his address etc., By doing so people will hesitate in doing cyber crime because they will be caught up easily if they commit crime. This step should be taken by all over the world government if it utilises or is good. If not this then at least every cyber cafe should have username and password to access internet.    

·         Customer coming to cyber cafe for should not be allowed to carry any hardware equipment with him.

·         No USB port and DVD/CD ROM in cyber cafe C.P.U.

·         Cyber Crime Cell centres should be increased at least in every developed city.  

·         For awareness of cyber crime and where to register FIR for Cyber Crime, government should take help of electronic media and print media.

·          Motivation for establishment of NGO regarding cyber crime.

·         Law should emphasise more on precaution then on punishment.

·         IICCC or I2C3 should be established that is Indian Internet Crime Complaint Centre. It should act as a link between C.B.I and   Cyber Cell.

·         Cases related to cyber crime should be handled immediately and speedily. As there is scope for the accused to destroy the evidence if he gets time. Thence for speedy investigation of accused government should allow online registration of FIR. So it will be helpful in prohibiting the accused to destroy the evidences.

·          Hacker should be motivated for doing ethical-hacking that will help in curbing cyber crime.

• Government should seek help of Hackers while enacting Cyber Law. Data bearer security record should be kept. For example in rapidshare.com, but in any other sites there is no such restriction as that keep record on only per connection not on a particular system that is being working under sub-address of main connection.
• A software should be installed which should get installed as soon as operating system is installed. That software will ask for username and serial key of particular personal computer, and if so serial key matches with original serial key of his Pc and serial key which he had entered then he should get access to internet. So before the internet browser opens it should ask for username and serial key.
• And from way hackers mostly know much about programming but we do something with hardware it is really difficult for them to understand easily. So Software companies should emphasise more on hardware for protection of software and for limited access to internet as firewall does.
• As far as I think so the First Page of Every Site should be secured much, meaning that the user can not right click on the first pages of sites. Ex- googlebooks.com some sites are still there which provide limited access to user, so that users cannot copy the document.
• If in e-mail spams can be identified by the server then why it cannot delete them, it should delete them.

                                                        Technical Crime World Submit should be held, in which best hackers in world should also be invited, the foremost thing which should be discussed is Cyber Law of which country will have Jurisdiction over if cyber crime being committed. There is one way out to curb this problem; there should be universal Law that is one Cyber Law for all the countries and one apex court should also be established which should consist of eminent judges from each country.

(Precaution for citizens

·         To prevent cyber stalking avoid disclosing any information pertaining to one self.

·         Always avoid sending any photograph online particularly to strangers

·         Always use latest and update antivirus software to guard against virus attacks.

·         Always keep back up volumes so that one may not suffer data loss in case of virus contamination

·         Never send your credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard against frauds.

·         Always keep a watch on the sites that your children are accessing to prevent any kind of harassment or depravation in children.

·         It is better to use a security programme that gives control over the cookies and send information back to the site as leaving the cookies unguarded might prove fatal.

·         Web site owners should watch traffic and check any irregularity on the site.

·         Use of firewalls may be beneficial.

·         Web servers running public sites must be physically separate protected from internal corporate network.)

I would conclude with a word of caution for the pro-legislation school that it should be kept in mind that the provisions of the cyber law are not made so stringent that it may retard the growth of the industry and prove to be counter-productive.

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^[1] Duggal Pawan - Is this Treaty a Treat?

^[2] Kapoor G.V. - Byte by Byte

^[3] ibid 2

^[4] Of Information Technology Act 2000

^[5] supra

^[6] Kumar Vinod – Winning the Battle against Cyber Crime

^[7] Ibid 6