Law Enforcement Challenges Involving Exploitation, Cyber Stalking, and Obscenity

Law Enforcement Challenges Involving Exploitation, Cyber Stalking, and Obscenity
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February 22, 2018
Law Enforcement Challenges
Law enforcement is facing various challenges today, including terrorism, gang and gun violence, among others, but some of the biggest of these challenges are those in the realm of the online world involving exploitation, cyber stalking, and obscenity. By looking at historical information and comparing it with data, it is possible to foresee trends and what is seemingly consistent in these data is that there is a lack of international instruments to prevent such crimes. This is why I believe that the biggest challenge facing law enforcement agencies investigating the above-mentioned crimes is creating and utilizing international instruments to implement laws against cyber-attacks.
According to a research submitted by Fausto Pocar to the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, a recent proposal of the Commission of the European Union states that cybercrimes are committed across the World Wide Web and they do not stop at political state borders. These crimes can be perpetrated from anywhere and against any Internet-connected device that is being used in any location, (2004, p.10). Given the vast dimension of the Internet, fighting crimes calls for a collective effort internationally. This is why “solutions to the problems posed must be addressed by international law, necessitating the adoption of adequate international legal instruments”, including, in particular, “binding international instruments, that can ensure the necessary efficiency in the fight against these new phenomena” (Council of Europe 2001b). There is also the lack of tools to detect cyber-attacks before they happen, thus making it difficult to prevent such attacks.
In an interview with the paper The Wall Street Journal, author and global security strategist Marc Goodman said that two thirds of breaches are not discovered until after a few months and that 71% of corporations that have had their security compromised were not able to detect the incident themselves, (2015). Being equipped with the technology and law enforcement training that would prevent exploitation, cyber stalking and obscenity would create a big difference in how perpetrators risk themselves of being caught. It is also important to keep in mind that these perpetrators are highly organized and could be a part of larger groups. “Today, the average age of a cyber criminal is 35, and 80 percent of black hat (e.g., criminal) hackers are affiliated with organized crime. In other words, people are choosing this as a profession. That’s a radic...