When it comes to determining whether to hire a person who has committed a criminal act, it is not always an easy dilemma to be confronted with. However, when it comes to a business determining whether to hire a person who has committed a criminal act and pay them to continue committing that criminal act, this opens up a whole new realm of ethical questions. Conversely, this scenario is not as bad a one may conclude. In fact, in today’s growth in the use of technology, especially for business, it would not be a surprise if a business could use a computer criminal to test and identify a business’s potential security weakness. This, indeed, can be beneficial to both the business and the computer criminal. When taking into account on to whether …show more content…
There is a multitude of levels when it comes to the severity of the computer criminal. For example, George Reynolds, author of Ethics in Information Technology, explains that at one end of the computer criminal spectrum there are criminals called cyberterrorist. George Reynolds explains cyberterrorists as one who will “destroy infrastructure components of financial institutions, utilities, and emergency response units” (Reynolds 65). In reality, however, most computer criminals are not this ruthless. Most computer criminals are known as hackers. A hacker is simply someone who will “test the limitations of information systems out of intellectual curiosity to see whether they can gain access and how far they can go” (Reynolds 96). Therefore, if the company uses public records when looking to hire a computer criminal, they can look for a background in which a computer criminal was caught for merely testing the limits of a system, which would be specifically what the company would be looking for anyhow, versus someone who was terminating organizations. Nonetheless, hacker or cyberterrorists are both serious crimes where jail time has been faced. However, this does not mean that a business should turn a blind eye to hiring a computer …show more content…
Yet, the point being is that these computer criminals have done their time and plenty of it. According to David Twomey, Marianne Jennings, Stephanie M. Greene, and Ronald A. Anderson, authors of the book Business Law and the legal Environment, explain that “the penalties for [Economic Espionage Act] violations are up to 500,000 and 15 years for individuals” (Twomey et al. 122). The Economic Espionage Act covers a multitude of computer crimes; including hackers. Now that these computer criminals, specifically hackers, have done their time, it is important that they have an opportunity to be integrated back into society. According to Nathan James, author of “Offender Reentry: Correctional Statistics, Reintegration into the Community, and Recidivism”, states that “released prisoners frequently identify employment as one of the most important factors in their efforts to stay crime free after incarceration” (James 14). If business were to hire former computer criminals, it would allow such opportunity to be a reality. Yet, these are still criminals with potential access to business important information. This, nevertheless, should not be a situation to fear
Ethics is “a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of questions of right and wrong and how we ought to live” (Banks, 2013). Also it involves making moral judgments about what is right and or wrong, good or bad. In the process of everyday life, moral rules are desirable, not because they express absolute truth, but because they are generally reliable guides for normal circumstances. Ethics or moral conduct, are of major importance in the criminal justice field today. If the police force condoned unethical behavior, there would be very little, if any, justice being served. A system of rules and principles helps to guide in making difficult decisions when moral issues arise. Ethics has been shown to be a central component in decisions involving ethical dilemmas. It is “concerned with standards of conduct and with “how I ought to act”, and standards of conduct may vary among different societies” (Banks, 2013). An ethical dilemma arises only when a decision must be made that involves a conflict at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, or societal level or raises issues of moral character. Richard Hare argues that we initially use an intuitive level of moral thinking when we consider ethical dilemma. There are “six steps in analyzing an ethical dilemma and they would be as follow” (NASW, 2014):
Just like people, corporations have the capability of committing criminal acts. The Enron scandal in 2001; the Bernard Madoff ponzi-scheme of 2008-2009; both of these examples show that despite internal and external controls, regulations, and oversight, corporations still are a multi-faceted entity that have the propensity to partake in crime. That being true, that criminal entity must be punished and held responsible for their actions. One tool in the prosecutorial tool belt is the use of deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements. According to Lanny Breuer, the United States Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, “over the last decade, deferred prosecution agreements have become a mainstay of white collar criminal law enforcement” (Warin, 2012).
While it is wrong to stereotype hackers as evil people with malicious criminal intentions, they cannot be stereotyped as compassionate freedom fighters as the hackers like to see themselves. Hackers must also realize that the actions of criminals will always reflect poorly on the hacker community as a whole, until the hacker community tries to police itself, which will never happen. Their actions are by definition, criminal. They can suffer consequences, which include being criminally prosecuted and hated by the information security community.
For our second lesson in Critical Thinking I am choosing to explore Option # 2: different factors that impact a person’s criminal culpability. When one discusses the different factors that impact a person’s criminal culpability, a review of how responsible the offender is for the crime committed and the four levels of mens rea or criminal intent listed in order of severity or culpability (purposely, knowingly, recklessly, negligently).
The installment of new security could even be a problem, for people who operate these new security systems could also be a potential thief. There is an approach among many enterprises that it is simpler to easily excuse the employee who committed the offense, instead of dealing with the law and the officers; and follow through with the money and time by prosecuting in order to seek restitution. Sometimes the firm does not to acquire the negative publicity that has to do with the internal offense, especially when their reputation is predominant to their company model. White-collar crime is often categorized as a crime without a victim, damaging only large, objective corporations. Recent news broadcasts portray nothing could be farther from the absolute truth.
Today, worldwide, there are several thousands of crimes being committed. Some don’t necessarily require a lethal weapon but are associated with various types of sophisticated fraud, this also known as a white-collar crime. These crimes involve a few different methods that take place within a business setting. While ethical business practices add money to the bottom line, unethical practices are ultimately leading to business failure and impacting the U.S. financially.
Pre-employment background checks are largely justified by the reasoning that a criminal record is an indicator of a person’s character, and to hire a known criminal presents a legal liability for a company. According to Buckhoff , “Employers can be held liable for their employees' criminal actions, under certain circumstances” (2003). What this line of reasoning lacks is the ideology of human individuality – the assumption ...
The documentary Rise of the Hackers, focuses on the rising criminal use of hacking and how it is effecting multiple areas of technology. The documentary describes simple and complicated situations concerning hacking, but there still questions that must be answered when it comes to hacking and crime. The main question is in trying to determine why a person would choose to commit computer hacking. There are various theories already present within the criminal justice system that may explain at a micro-level and macro-level. These theories would explain why offenders would commit the crimes, but it may not answer the full scope of the question. The Routine Activities Theory would help to explain why offenders offend, why victims are victimized,
There are different types of computer crimes that many people become victims of every day. Computer crime is any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target ("Computer Crime: Chapter 2: What Are the Crimes? ", n.d.) - " Crimes such as data diddling, pump and dump, social engineering and spoofing are computer crimes. Even though these crimes are difficult due to privacy issues, the new technology has made investigations and prosecutions well organized and effective.
There are multiple crime television shows that are based on a true story or fiction. A well known television show is Law and Order Special Victims Unit, which deals with rape and assault cases. This particular episode deals with a domestic violence case between a retired football star, AJ Martin, and his girlfriend, Paula Bryant. I will be using the National Crime Victimization Survey, which is an interview with the members in a household about reported and unreported crime that occurred within the last six months. “NVCS provides information of characteristics of victims, including age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status and household income” (Truman and Morgan). Official statistics like the NCVS would be used for comparing its demographics
White collar crime has been discussed more frequently in the last few years. The news has made society aware that white collar crime occurs almost as often as other criminal activity. In fact, white collar crime is one of the most costly crimes. It is a billion dollar criminal industry. White collar criminals seem to continue to engage in the criminal practices because there is no set standard in the penalties given to those that are caught. A look into the public’s perception on whether the penalties given is harsh enough for white collar criminals since most types of crimes have a set of standard penalties for those convicted. A standard set of penalties needs to be looked at for white collar crimes to help in eliminating the criminal behavior and saving society billions of dollars a year.
The offence Harry would be charged with is William’s murder. The area of Law that this case is concerned with is criminal law (homicide). The two offences that constitute homicide are murder and manslaughter. The classic definition of murder was set by Sir Edward Coke (Institutes of the Laws of England, 1797). Murder is defined by the Law as causing the death of a human being within the Queen’s peace with the intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. It comprises of 2 elements. These are the actus reus (guilty act) and the mens rea (intention).
Fraud and white-collar crime are common forms of crimes that people commit in various aspects and positions in the corporate world. Fraud and white-collar crimes have similar meaning as they refer to the non-violent crimes that people commit with the basic objective of gaining money using illegal means. The cases of white-collar crimes have been increasing exponentially in the 21st century due to the advent of technology because fraudsters apply technological tools in cheating, swindling, embezzling, and defrauding people or organizations. White-collar crime is a complex issue in society because its occurrence is dependent on many factors such as organizational structure, organization culture, and personality traits. Thus, the literature review examines how organizational structure, organizational culture, and personality traits contribute to the occurrence of white-collar crimes.
Computers take part in a big role in the Criminal Justice Field. So far computers have allowed us to make it accessible for witnesses to go through and look for a suspect's picture on the screen. Computers have enabled us to be able to do DNA testing. Which now only takes the labs a short time to process, and finding criminals from cases 15+ years ago can now be charged for their actions.
One particular crime that could be committed by employees who use the internet at work is hacking. Hacking is one of the most well-known types of computer crimes, in this context, the term refers to the unauthorized access of another’s computer system (HG.org Staff, 2015). This means that if the employee in not allowed to use the internet, for personal use, than there is a possibility that they could get charged for such crime. Because the policy will state they do not have the authority to access the organizations computer system for personal use. In addition, they must know that all use of computers systems while at work will be monitor, including e-mails. Piracy and cyber terrorism are other crimes that one can face when using a computer