Roderick Graham

How do social scientists study the impact of social networking sites on racial identity formation? How has the Internet impacted the accumulation of social and cultural capital? By synthesizing insights across a variety of disciplines, this book builds an original theoretical perspective through which these and other questions about core social processes can be addressed. Three case studies of how African Americans use information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to illustrate this theoretical perspective. They show how groups can leverage ICTs to overcome historical inequalities. The book argues that the lenses through which scholars and society’s leaders think about new technology place too much emphasis on the technological and economic aspects of ICTs, and not enough on the impact of ICTs on social processes at the everyday level.

People are often dismissive of theory.  The law enforcement professional, the business executive, and the policymaker assumes that decisions are made based upon the facts as they are in the real world.  Meanwhile, students see theory as simply a course they need to take or block of ideas within a course, but not information that can be of use once they begin their lives in a world of work.  But the importance of theory is not in how applicable it is in specific everyday situations but in its ability to explain how phenomena in everyday settings are connected and hopefully predict what will happen in the future. 
In this chapter, we will introduce several theories used to explain crime and deviance.  For each theory the main assumptions are introduced, basic concepts relevant to the theory are explained, and its applicability to cybercrime is discussed.

In this chapter, we turn our attention away from the cybercrimes committed by individuals. Instead, we look at how the criminal justice system is using algorithms and Big Data to investigate and prosecute crimes. Algorithms have been embraced by the police, the courts, and correctional institutions as they promise a more effective means of accomplishing the goals of these respective branches of the criminal justice system. However, these new technologies are not beyond criticism. Many advocacy groups question the use of algorithms and allege that they are violating civil liberties and can be biased towards minority groups.

This chapter proceeds as follows. First, we define and describe the two foundational concepts of this chapter – algorithms and Big Data. We look at these two concepts through a social science lens and how they can be applied to issues within the criminal justice system. We also link these two concepts together, as it is when these two concepts are connected that they have consequences for criminal justice. We then discuss how these concepts are impacting the processes of policing, sentencing, and surveillance. Throughout this chapter, we take a critical approach to the use of algorithms and attempt to highlight their benefits and drawbacks.

Organized crime has captivated the American public for decades.  We can see this in the movies and television shows that act as a mirror of society.  The mafia has historically attracted the most attention with high profile figures such as Al Capone and John Gotti becoming a part of our national imagination and cultural products such as The Godfather and The Sopranos being landmarks in American cinema.  Beginning in the 1980’s, increased rates of street crime and the explosion of the crack epidemic, placed attention on drug gangs.  Like the Italian Mafia in the middle 20th century, these street gangs, primarily black and Latino, operated through a combination of violence and corruption.  The HBO series The Wire provides an example of this.     

In the 21st century, organized crime is poised to take on a new look.  On the one hand, you have more traditional organized crime groups migrating some of their activities into the digital environment.  Again, we can think about movies and television shows in which organized crime groups that traffic in drugs or prostitution have one or more technically sophisticated hackers assisting them in their exploits.  On the other hand, wholly new organized crime groups are working entirely online, often without every meeting each other.  These groups, because of the lack of fisticuffs, provide less fodder for action, and may not be the subject of popular movies.  However, academic research suggests that these groups are plentiful and will continue to proliferate.

This chapter explores organized crime in the digital environment.  First, we define and describe traditional organized crime and then import these understandings into the digital environment.  We then explore the forms that organized crime takes in the digital environment.  Like comparisons made in previous chapters, we find both similarities and differences between the physical and digital.  In short, organized crime online is just as sophisticated as traditional organized crime, however the structure of groups is less hierarchical and more networked.  We next discuss some of the criminal activities of organized crime groups.  These crimes are the same as those covered in previous chapters – cybertrespass, cyberpornography, cyberviolence, and cyberdeception.  However, they are done on a larger scale and with more sophistication.  We use as example the activities of the Cobalt/Carbanak Group.  Finally, we discuss the key legislation used to prosecute organized cybercrime and raise questions as to the appropriateness of these laws.

In this chapter we discuss three broad areas of cybercrime investigations.  These three areas are not meant to be exhaustive, but they encompass the most common ways in which cybercrimes are investigated.  First, we discuss the practice and process of digital forensic analysis.  Of the three areas discussed in this chapter, digital forensics may be the most well-known, even if it is the least understood.  Many television shows and movies show law enforcement personnel collecting a computer and handing it to a brainy officer in a computer lab who extracts the evidence needed to apprehend the criminal.  But there are other ways of investigating cybercrimes.  Investigators also collect data in the form of text, audio, and video that a suspect or victim has left behind – what we describe as “the human presence”.  We call this investigating data trails.  This mode of investigating relies on the ability of the officer to understand how people use applications in the application layer – especially social media.  A third type of investigation is a 21st century form of stakeout, where investigators follow a suspect online and attempt to collect evidence on that suspect, oftentimes through subterfuge and impersonation.  All three areas require a high level of awareness and knowledge of the technologies that produce the digital environment.

Cyberdeception and theft describes the act of lying and stealing money in the digital environment. The act of deceiving someone online (cyberdeception) and the act of stealing money (theft) are distinct.  And the former is usually not a criminal offense unless it is linked to the theft of something.  However, the two are often linked, as criminals use deception in order to steal.
Many of the behaviors discussed in this text impact a specific segment of society more than others.  Young people tend to be the perpetrators and victims of cyberviolence, the disadvantaged and poor are victims of child trafficking, and businesses are most often targeted by hackers.  Conversely, cyberdeception and theft are experienced by a much wider range of society.  This is for two reasons.  First, so much commerce occurs through and by Internet-enabled technologies.  The use of a credit card means that you are potentially a victim of credit card fraud or credit card skimming. Everyone who has an identification number of some kind (registration number, credit card number) is a potential victim of identity theft.  Buying goods online puts you in a position be a victim of auction fraud or unwittingly buying counterfeit or stolen goods.  Second, there are numerous ways of deceiving someone in the digital environment, and these ways run from highly technical to more psychological.  This expands the range of perpetrators.  Someone can commit fraud online without any technological skill as is needed with cybertrespass or social skills as is usually needed with cyberviolence.  It also expands the range of victims.  A person may be aware of phishing or spoofed emails, for example, but fall victim to a romance scam because they are emotionally vulnerable.

Violent crime can be understood as crime in which a perpetrator harms or threatens to harm someone with physical force.  The Federal Bureau of Investigations categorizes four types of crimes as violent - murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.  Other types of violent crimes include kidnapping, torture, harassment, and extortion.  Harm is what links violence in traditional physical contexts with violence in the digital environment.  People can be hurt by the content produced and distributed in the digital environment, and it is this hurt that forms the underpinnings of cyberviolence. 
Wall defines cyberviolence as “the violent impact of the cyberactivities of another upon an individual or social grouping. Whilst such activities do not have to have a direct physical manifestation, the victim nevertheless feels the violence of the act and can bear long-term psychological scars as a consequence” (1998: 203).  We add to this definition by suggesting that cyberviolence can not only have long term psychological scars, but also sociological ones.  Cyberviolence is the one type of cybercrime in which it is common for entire groups of people to be victimized.  Through hate speech, for example, women, minorities, or individuals belonging to alternative lifestyles can be demonized and demeaned with long term consequences for how they are viewed in society.  In this chapter we will explore several forms of cyberviolence, including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, trolling, flaming, and hate speech.

In the paragraphs that follow we discuss various aspects of cyberpornography.  Because much of cyberpornography is derived from historical understandings of pornography, we pay special attention to the social and legal dynamics of pornography.  We then focus on three of the more discussed types of criminal offenses – child pornography offenses, sexting, and sex trafficking, and behavior that skirts the line between criminality and deviance – sex work.

In this chapter, the topic of cybertrespass was explored.  Cybertrespass, commonly called hacking, refers to “the unauthorized crossing of the boundaries of computer systems into spaces where rights of ownership or title have been already established” (Wall, 2001, p.3).  Hacking is the most technologically sophisticated cybercrime, often requiring in-depth knowledge of computer programming and computer networking.  In each layer of the digital environment, cybersecurity professionals must develop and enact strategies to protect computers and their users from hackers.

This sophistication does not mean that cybercriminologists are not important to understanding cybertrespass.  Cybercriminologists can apply social science theory and methods to understanding at least three aspects of cybertrespass.  Cybercriminologists can understand the impacts of laws and policies, help develop effective criminal investigation practices, and they can conduct research on aspects of hacking.

One area in which cybercriminologists have contributed to understanding cybertrespass is by exploring the culture and motivations of hackers.  Hacker practices are not by themselves illegal or harmful.  However, as the Internet became available to more people in the 1990’s, the tinkering nature of hackers became threatening to business and user safety.     

There are two stages of cybertrespass.  The first stage of cybertrespass is gaining unauthorized access.  This can be done through malware – viruses, worms, or Trojans.  It can also be done through various social engineering techniques.  The second stage of cybertrespass is committing criminal acts after unauthorized access.  This includes stealing data, manipulating data, and altering computer operations.

Mass media and journalistic accounts of darknets have focused disproportionately on their criminogenic aspects.  Moreover, research has focused mainly on the darknet technology Tor.  We wish to expand scholars’ knowledge of darknets by exploring a different darknet technology, Freenet.  Using a combination of content analysis and grounded theory, this research asked three progressively complex questions.  First, we asked: What are the types of content and the distribution of content on Freenet?  Our findings show that Freenet fosters a singular distribution of content, with a high ratio of blogs (or flogs), child pornography, empty links, and web 1.0 websites that archive information.  We assumed that this content is not discrete points of data, but instead produce sociologically interesting phenomena.  Therefore, we ask: What are the content patterns on Freenet?  Four patterns were identified.  Freenet is (1) an archive of deviant data resistant to censorship (2) a space dominated by content associated with masculinity, (3) a nonmarket space where commercial exchange is non-existent, and (4) an empty space with many requests not returning information, and many flogs abandoned.  We asked a third question: How does the analysis of Freenet inform current understandings of hacker culture? Freenet, we suggest, can be understood as a type of digital “wilderness”.  It is a singular darknet space, supporting a distinct set of hacker practices

The primary aim of this study is to establish associations between cyberbullying victimization and health risk behaviors that have been traditionally linked to juvenile delinquency. These " deviant health risk behaviors " include drug use, alcohol use, and sex with multiple partners. A secondary aim is to compare the effects of cyberbullying on these deviant health risk behaviors to the effects of physical bullying. Models are estimated using the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (n = 15,624). The findings showed that cyberbullying victimization is positively associated with each deviant health risk behavior predicted. The magnitude of this association increased when respondents reported being both cyberbullied and physically bullied. When comparing the effects of cyberbullying to physical bullying, the findings showed that respondents who were cyberbullied reported higher rates of each deviant health risk behavior. Establishing these associations is important for scholars and education professionals as they point to another pathway through which a young person can adopt delinquent or problematic behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Western Social Science Association.

In recent years media attention has been placed on “Black Twitter,” a collective composed primarily of African Americans who have managed to effect change through the microblogging platform Twitter. This collection of users has been credited with injecting uniquely black concerns and perspectives into the national discourse. However, Black Twitter as an entity has not been theoretically contextualized and grounded in empirical research. In this case study, the author describes how he and his colleague explored this social media phenomenon. The author emphasizes the importance of understanding the way in which Twitter was designed, its "architecture," to developing insightful research and choosing appropriate methods. The author discusses the process of conceptualizing theoretically important ideas and operationalizing them, the considerations involved with sampling, and the use hierarchical cluster analysis to draw conclusions about from Twitter data.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) produce public goods for societies. Through ICTs people can be more politically active, construct their social identities, strengthen bonds with significant others, and more. However, businesses provide access to the Internet, produce and sell hardware and software, while maintaining platforms that are used for the generation of these public goods. There is a contradiction inherent in this dynamic as the continued provision of these public goods is contingent upon private entities deeming them profitable. Within the United States, federal policies have not adequately addressed this contradiction. In this paper, I argue that a change in the way ICTs are conceptualized is needed in order to increase interest in protecting the public goods produced by ICTs. To this end, I describe a model in which interconnected ICTs work in layers to produce a single digital environment. People must have access to each layer in this environment in order to benefit from the goods produced. In this environment, there is room for both market spaces that support commerce and non-market spaces that support public goods. I argue that this model can aid citizens and advocacy groups in framing and justifying the need for nurturing non-market spaces.

How can we explain the high rates of cell phone usage for African-Americans? This research applies a social shaping of technology approach and assumes that groups attribute meaning and appropriate technology in order to accomplish everyday goals.  High rates of African-American cell phone usage is hypothesized to be powered by a desire to maintain social bonds with family and friends. Using a nationally representative sample (N = 2252), several conclusions were drawn.  First, African-Americans have higher rates of cell phone usage for calling and texting, but not Internet usage.  This suggests that high rates of cell phone usage are grounded in communication, and not entertainment or commerce. Second, Hispanics, who also have high rates of cell phone usage, exhibit different usage patterns.  This suggests that high rates are not structural in nature and shared by several groups in a similar strata, but culturally specific.

This case study explores the convergence of white extremist political ideology with mainstream political ideology on the micro-blogging platform Twitter – a phenomenon termed “inter-ideological mingling”. Exploring the spread of white extremism in the digital environment can provide insight into the growth of hate groups in the physical environment. A sample of 4800 tweets was examined through hierarchical cluster analysis and textual analysis. Several pieces of evidence were found supporting inter-ideological mingling. Cluster analysis shows that extremist terms are not isolated from terms found in mainstream political discourse. Textual analysis of individual tweets provides evidence for five strategies of inter-ideological mingling: joining, blending, piggybacking, backstaging, and narrating.

This study assesses differences within the African American population with respect to internet activity. Using survey data, we find wide variations within the population. While some segments of African Americans are indeed less likely to perform certain activities on the internet, we note that certain segments of the African American population are reporting more internet activity than other racial groups. These 'haves' score high not just in comparison to their African American peers, but to the US American population as a whole. We suggest a move away from the digital divide/digital inequality models and a move towards thinking of greater or lesser Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage as conditioned by the instrumental needs of population groups. We term this a digital practice model.

The question guiding this class is: Why, in 21st Century United States, are there still different social outcomes for the descendants of African slaves and descendants of European Immigrants?  There are four broad answers: 

• African-Americans must navigate institutions and informal social milieus that are discriminatory or prejudiced against them.  This creates an uneven playing field, or one might say “the game is rigged” in favor of White people.  We can call this the structural inequality perspective. 

• Whites hold prejudices and stereotypes towards racial minorities.  Because Whites occupy positions of authority and control resources in society, their antipathy blocks the progress of African-Americans.  This can be called the white bias perspective. 

• A capitalistic society requires an emphasis on educational development, adherence to social norms and the law, and frugality.  The behaviors of African-Americans make them noncompetitive in a capitalist society.  This can be termed the cultural deficit perspective. 

• People of European descent and people of African descent possess different genetic makeups.  In a modern capitalistic society, intelligence is a strong predictor of success and African-Americans lack the intelligence necessary to compete with Whites.  This can be called the biological deficit perspective. 

In this course students will be exposed to materials that argue for each of these perspectives.  In this sense, this is not a standard core class on race and ethnicity.  This is a topics course exploring perspectives on racial inequality.  As such, the professor has some flexibility in choosing his materials.  Students will be exposed to an eclectic mix of voices.  Some of these are leading sociologists in the field, including Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Tricia Rose, Douglas Massey, Michael Omi, and Victor Rios.  They will be exposed to national thought leaders on aspects of racial inequality from across the political spectrum.  These include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jason Riley, Heather Mac Donald, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, and Larry Elder. They will also be exposed to voices that are outside of the mainstream.  These include Jared Taylor, Boyce Watkins, and Stefan Molyneux.  Students should be prepared to read standard academic articles and selections from books.  They should also be prepared to watch (or listen to) audio material in the form of lectures and interviews.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to what research is, how it is done, and how it impacts society. It is a
preparation for your capstone course in which you will conduct your own original research.

There are two goals of this course:

1. The first goal is to describe the fundamentals of the research process. This includes understanding the importance of theory to the research process, understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, and the importance of research ethics.

2. The second goal of this course is to give students experience reading, critiquing, and analyzing the products of research. Students will be asked to read the work of scholars and science writers, and produce their own type of science writing.

Cybercrime is a growing problem in the United States.  In 2016, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, US residents reported losing over $1.3 billion because of cybercrime.  This course will explore issues surrounding cybercrime through a social science perspective. 

This course has four goals:

1. Students will gain a basic understanding of the architecture of the Internet.  Students need knowledge of how computers communicate through interconnected networks in order to understand how many cybercrimes are committed.

2. Students will explore the most common types of cybercrimes.  Cybercrimes can be roughly divided into four categories – cybertresspass, cyberpornography, cyberviolence, and cyberdeception.

3. Students will critique the major debates surrounding cybercrime.  Society’s understanding of what should be prohibited, how we should investigate, and how we should prosecute cybercrime are continuously being negotiated by groups in society.  Our social world is socially constructed, and issues surrounding cybercrime are no different.

4. Students will connect cybercrimes to wider social impacts as they relate to individuals and families.  While cybersecurity courses may focus more on the concerns of corporations and governments and how to protect the data within them, a cybercrime course focuses more on how everyday people are victimized.

I’ve noticed at least two ways of framing cybersecurity. The first frame I call the “economics” frame. This frame starts by pointing out that the computer networks of our economy’s engines – large corporations and banks – are not secure. There are any number of powerful hacking groups out there who are looking for vulnerabilities and exploits. These groups are looking to steal intellectual property, credit card information, and other valuable pieces of data. In this frame, we need to increase investment by government.

The second frame I call the “enemies" frame. This frame starts by highlighting that we are at a constant risk of cyberattack. States like North Korea and terrorist groups like the Islamic State are as we speak probing our government networks and infrastructure looking for vulnerabilities. They want to take over our government network or our electric grid. The solution is to enhance our defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace through government investment. We need to prepare for the
upcoming cyberwar.

In the summer of 2016 the location based social media application Nextdoor had to deal with a problem of racial profiling.  According to residents in Oakland, users of the application were using the section to racially profile black residents.  The story gained national attention.  The CEO of Nextdoor, Nirav Tolia, appeared on several major news outlets to discuss the issue and the company began piloting a change in the design of the application to discourage the use of race when reporting suspicious activity.  Now when a user reports a crime or suspicious activity and wishes to use race two additional descriptors such as clothing and hair color are required. 

The solution offered, to re-engineer the interface, raises a larger question: what matters more, the design of an application or the values and beliefs of those who use it?  As a sociologist who studies social patterns online, this question interests me greatly.

As a sociologist who has done research on hate speech online and studied White Nationalist organizations, I believe that our national discussions about these events are problematic. We are trying to explain things with simplistic explanations. I believe that this simplicity will prevent us from identifying proper causes and anticipating future effects.

This essay connects the growing technology of 3D printing and the social movement connected to it, the "Maker Movement", with minority young men.  The premise is that the Maker Movement's core values and the technology of the 3D printer are outside of the institutions that have failed our young men.  As a result, African American and Hispanic men may find an alternative route to social mobility and self efficacy through this movement.

In this talk I will provide evidence for two claims. First, there are fundamental differences in how the terms cybersecurity and cybercrime are understood and acted upon in American society. Second, these differences mean that while the nation invests heavily in cybersecurity, cybercrime – and the entities most impacted by cybercrime – are relatively neglected. Below I present a summary of the evidence brought to bear on these two claims. I end by exploring the ways in which the victims of cybercrime can benefit from investments in local law enforcement, basic research, and the development of more cybercrime programs. Outline In theory, cybercrime and cybersecurity should point to intersecting processes – the former describing unlawful and illicit behaviors involving computers and computer networks, and the latter describing the techniques and technologies developed to prevent these behaviors. In practice, these two terms have been adopted by different sets of actors and have come to denote separate sets of phenomena.

Dr. Forno is a Senior Lecturer in the UMBC Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, where he directs the UMBC Graduate Cybersecurity Program and serves as the Assistant Director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity.

We talk about cyberattacks, what they might look like, and what future cybersecurity professionals must know.

This is my interview with Dr. Martina Dove.  Martina has her doctorate in psychology from the University of Portsmouth and specializes in fraud psychology. 

Martina and I talked about the strategies used by scammers, what makes someone vulnerable to fraud, and what to do if one is a victim of fraud. 

Dr. Dove's Website:
https://martinadove.com/

This conversation is with Ms. Sharon Armstrong.  Ms. Armstrong was a part of a romance and drug trafficking scam.  She was misled into thinking that she was going to meet a genuine love interest, only to find that she was being used as a drug mule.  This landed her in a prison in Argentina for two and a half years.

Since her release, she has used her experience to counsel and educate others about romance scams.     

This episode is entitled the “life and death of a romance scam” because it is not only about the life of the scam, but how Ms. Armstrong was able to move on to bigger and better things.

This is a conversation with Dr. Anita Lavorgna about her research on the media rhetoric surrounding organized cybercrime. 

This conversation is based on a paper recently published in Trends in Organized Crime entitled - "Cyber-organised crime. A case of moral panic?"

The link to that research article is here:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12117-018-9342-y

Dr. Lavorgna's Faculty Webpage -
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/sociology/about/staff/ai11n14.page

In this episode I speak with Irfan Chaudhry, Director, Office of Human Rights, Diversity, and Equity and Sessional Instructor in Sociology at MacEwan University.

We will focus our discussion on the article he co-wrote entitled:
Expressing and Challenging Racist Discourse on Facebook: How Social Media Weaken the “Spiral of Silence” Theory

The article can be found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/poi3.197

I spoke with Dr. Justin Patchin of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an internationally recognized scholar on teen use and misuse of technology - http://www.justinpatchin.com/

Patchin, along with this frequent collaborator Sameer Hinduja of Florida Atlantic University are co-directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center - https://cyberbullying.org/

In the first conversation in this series, I speak with Michelle Lyttle Storrod of Rutgers University about how gangs use social media for expressive and instrumental purposes.  The discussion is based upon the article listed below:

‘Going viral’ and ‘Going country’: the expressive and instrumental activities of street gangs on social media, Michelle L. Storrod & James A. Densley
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...