Public perceptions and public opinion about Internet crime

Abstract

This chapter explores public perceptions and public opinion about Internet crime. Such views and perceptions are important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it has been argued that in liberal democratic states public opinion plays an important role in shaping public policy. Therefore, public opinion about the Internet and the crime threats it brings can play a crucial role in influencing how legislators and policymakers choose to address Internet crime problems, and indeed what such actors come to understand as ‘the crime problem’ when it comes to online environments. Secondly, shared opinion and perceptions can exercise a decisive influence over people’s online behaviour. For example, if the Internet comes to be associated with particular dangers and risks (such as financial fraud or child sex exploitation) this may disincline individual Internet users from engaging in certain online practices (such as Internet banking or permitting children to fully access the Internet). As Lee (2007) notes, the fear of crime has proven to be a seemingly intractable feature of the contemporary cultural landscape in many Western societies, and has exerted a decisive influence over both policy processes as well as individual and collective behaviour. In extremis, ‘distorted’ perceptions or estimations about Internet predation may result in full-blown ‘moral panics’ in which avoidance behaviour stands out of all proportion to the likelihood of criminal victimisation. Therefore, developing an adequate understanding of how and why Internet crime policies emerge, and how patterns of online behaviour take shape, requires concerted attention to the role played by public perceptions and public opinion about Internet crime issues.