On the Very Idea of a Digital Criminology

• In Event: Digital Criminology: Alternative Futures

Abstract

The term ‘digital criminology’ has become one that is increasingly common within the discipline, with many arguing that we need to resituate criminology more broadly along these lines. In this paper I offer some critiques and challenges to this proposed shift. I argue that there are unresolved ambiguities between at least 3 kinds of ‘digital criminology’. Digital Criminology 1 - conceived as a criminology which makes increasing use of digital tools to conduct research. Digital Criminology 2 – which focusses upon the use of digital technologies by criminals and serves as a kind of reboot of the old idea of cybercrime and Digital Criminology 3 which seeks to address some of the broader societal issues which digital technology is raising for our regulatory systems and responses, for example in relation to digital surveillance or the use of data. I consider whether these ambiguities mean that digital criminology risks resting upon unstable conceptual foundations. I conclude by proposing a subject specific application of Occam’s razor, asking whether digital criminology is something we need and if so, what it adds to the conceptual and empirical resources already available to criminologists.

Author

• Mike Mcguire, University of Surrey