Digital Criminology

Course goals

After this course:

• The students demonstrate a strong knowledge of the complex issues and processes that shape power relations in digital environments.
• The students are aware of how power relations affect and induce the emergence of deviance online.
• The students are able to think critically about the cultural, social, economic, and political intersections that influence digital governance, surveillance, and the role of state and corporate actors. 
• The students understand the tension between digital security, digital rights, and freedoms, as well as the legal and ethical frameworks that seek to regulate this balance both online and offline.
• The students are able to apply theoretical and empirical perspectives on digitalization, authoritarianism, social media dynamics, and online resistance to specific case studies and communicate their findings effectively in written and oral formats.
• The students can engage with and present the latest research and techniques related to online surveillance, algorithmic control, and digital resistance through the student's conference, policy exercise and in a paper form.

Content

The Internet has fundamentally transformed power relations and introduced new forms of deviance and criminality within contemporary societies. The decentralization of power has created contested digital spaces where citizens, corporations, and states engage in complex interactions, often involving digital crimes that go beyond hacking, online fraud, and trade in illicit materials. As our lives are increasingly governed by applications and algorithms, we are subject to surveillance, data breaches, and digital policing by state and corporate actors.

We might also be victims of hate speech, online harassment, and doxing by extremist groups and individuals. Digital criminology investigates the above phenomena, how criminal and deviant behavior, law enforcement, and regulation operate in online environments, exploring their social, political, and economic
implications. This course critically examines the intersections between technology, law, capital, and society by tracing power relations. It covers topics such as state censorship and repression, algorithmic bias and digital profiling, online extremism, and resistance movements seeking to challenge digital
surveillance and control. The course combines old theoretical arguments regarding surveillance and policing and harm with new societal digital phenomena such as biometric data control, smart cities, and 'digilantism'.