The role that computers and computer technology are playing in our lives is growing. Western society is digitising rapidly. This trend offers convenience, but it also has its drawbacks, because new kinds of crime have emerged with the advent of computer technology: cybercrime and digitised crime. When combined these two are known as digital crime or, in the words of the legislator, computer crime. This is what this book is about. But it is also about the social context and social mechanisms, and legislation that is being used to deal with these new kinds of crime. So this book sheds light on the subject from alternating points of view, namely from the perspectives of traditional law, sociology of law, criminology and the philosophy of law.


This book is written for master’s degree law students who are interested in the effect that digitalisation has on criminal law. These would be law students with a broad interest in society, because the subject covers not only criminal law, but also sociology of law, criminology and the philosophy of law. That said, this book will also be of interest to master’s degree students in social sciences who are interested in the issues related to digitisation and criminal justice (deviant behaviour and formal social control).