The Hazards on the Network from a Criminological Perspective: Internet Madness

Theory of Everyday Activities

Theory of Cohen & Felson (1979), whose essential statement is that “crime occurs during the everyday acts of day-to-day life, when a suitable target, a motivated offender, without a guardian capable of giving him his protection, is joined in space and time”.

Cybercrime

“Any crime carried out in cyberspace, with the particular criminological, victimological and criminal risk characteristics that derive from it” [1].

Cyberspace

Also known as cyberinfinity, “Is a virtual space reality, which lacks an established physical location that comprises a globalized concept, encompassing all objects and identities found on the network, including chats, forums, websites, blogs, virtual campuses” [2].

Social Networks

“web that allows the relationship of people in cyberspace” [1].

Cannibalism on the Net

Currently, there are web pages on the net that contain forums for cannibals, such as www.zambianmeat.com/, which was closed and caused a great deal of controversy due to an event in which a German Commissioner killed and dismembered a man he met on the forum of the above- mentioned web page [3].

In addition to the events that took place, using the forum of the website as a means of initial contact between the active and passive subject of the crime, we should highlight and mention by analogy the assumption of the film based on real events entitled “The Rottenburg Cannibal [4].

In my opinion, the famous Cannibal develops a progressive mental illness or disorder from childhood, in which he suffers from bullying, is abandoned by his father and is raised by his sick mother. After his mother’s death, he is an adult, and this is the moment from which he materializes his macabre inner desires mixed with a sexual deviation.

In this sense, the modus operandi for contacting his victims is through the Internet, specifically through a web page where in a forum he tries to contact people who want to be killed and eaten. Finally, he manages to contact a person who offers himself and who in the film uses Simon’s name.

The Cannibal, who in the film is called Oliver, records what he would consider his masterpiece or maximum desired pleasure, the whole process of dismembering his victim, who would then be cooked and eaten.

In this order of things, the fact that the victim and the victimizer were mutually entwined and had materialized an agreement on the Internet is somewhat striking.

From a criminological perspective, we could say that the Rottenburg Cannibal suffered from a paraphilia, that is, he was an anthropophagus, which, according to the dictionary of the Royal Academy of Language, means: “Said of a person: Who eats human flesh”.

Specifically, according to the DSM-IV-TR, the paraphilia suffered by the perpetrator could be included among the unspecified ones. As for the victim, he suffered from sexual masochism and an obsessive desire to have his penis cut off.

On the other hand, it should be clarified that in real life the Rottenburg Cannibal is called Armin Meiwes, and in a newspaper interview he stated that: “Human flesh tastes good. It tastes like pork, although a little more acidic and strong”. The victim’s real name is Bern Brandes [5].

In 2004, Armin Meiwes was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison. In fact, according to the newspaper [6], the Prosecutor’s Office asked him for life imprisonment for sexually motivated murder and disturbing the rest of the dead, however, the defense demanded a sentence for murder with the victim’s consent. Thus, it should be noted that, at the beginning of the argumentation of the sentence, the judge recognizes that cannibalism is: “a behavior condemned by our society”, as well as “the incapacity of justice to find an adequate punishment for a behavior that is not considered a crime in Germany”.

Finally, Meiwes confessed that he recorded the crime on video in order to “masturbate afterwards by watching the images, a tape of several hours’ duration that was used as evidence in the process.

Comparatively, this case is similar to that of a German ex-cop who killed and ate a friend who fantasized about being murdered, and who was sentenced in 2016 to 8 years and 7 months in prison for “killing, cutting up and eating the genitals of a man he met in a forum on cannibalism (“Zambian Meat”).

Cyber-Suicide

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) suicide was the main cause of death in Spain. But, really, it is with the development of the ICT when this term arises that describes the act of ending one’s life, influenced by the information that circulates on the Internet.

In this sense, it should be noted that, according to Paredes [7] through various search engines, websites can be found which detail the self-inflicted deaths of some famous people, as well as pro-suicide pages with a fairly graphic content and which often involve an aggressive environment, where according to Durkee, et al. insults, bullying and incitement take place. In them, users publish suicide notes, commenting under anonymity on their intentions, which are the most effective methods, where they can be obtained and the necessary doses for a compound to be lethal. An example of this was the page al.suicide.holiday, where more than 900 messages appeared every month related to this subject. Some researchers find evident the influence of the media in this behavior, especially in the choice of method [8], which can cause the “copycat effect” or “Werther effect”, defined by the sociologist David P. Philips as the mimetic behavior given after overexposure to information about the suicide of a person, especially if she is famous or a public figure and that triggers imitation of it. This effect could explain the results of some studies that have shown how the use of these websites increases the risk of the appearance of suicidal behavior mainly in adolescents and young adults, due to a greater use of online resources for private use by these and because they are more influential than the adult population [8].

Among the diverse cast of this problem, one of the varieties is the suicide pact or net suicide, produced when “two or more people, known or not, agree to commit suicide together, specifying the same place and time”. Nevertheless, according to Rajagopal, there are studies carried out on survivors of suicide pacts, where they contemplate that the decision to end their lives is not always a result of mutual agreement, but that there is an instigator and a coerced one.

According to Martisen, in countries such as China and Japan, the proliferation of suicide cases is alarming. In Shanghai there are maps for executing suicides that highlight the most appropriate areas to take their lives, accompanied by graphic drawings, which show various methods such as throwing oneself off a building, electrocution or throwing oneself into a tiger cage, among others.

It should be noted that according to Sedeño, at present, on the net we can find websites such as “Sanctioned Suicide”, which offer the best ways to commit suicide, fights where one of the opponents must die under the slogan “two enter, one leaves”, etc.

Finally, we should mention the famous game of “the blue whale” that can be found on social networks, in which you have to pass 50 tests until you reach suicide. Its alleged creator, Philipp Budeikin, a Russian student of psychology, was accused and condemned as one of the people responsible for the aforementioned game that has cost the lives of more than 100 young teenagers around the world and there were even cases in Spain that were detected in time. According to its creator, the challenge of the blue whale was to “cleanse society” [9].

Cyberterrorism

This term refers to the use of the Internet to carry out terrorist attacks that threaten the life or health of thousands of people around the world, although it is currently used to encompass a whole group of different behaviors carried out by terrorist organizations, such as the dissemination and communication of content related to the activity of the armed band or for direct computer attacks, as some criminological studies have already demonstrated.

In this sense, Miró [1] understands that three types of cyberterrorism can be distinguished depending on the activity carried out: spreading the terrorist message, assisting activities by disseminating information, or assisting terrorist activity by means of direct attacks. In the first two behaviors the use of ICTs is to disseminate information, while the last one would encompass all terrorist attacks that can be carried out directly through ICTs. Thus, we can distinguish: a) Incitement and propaganda behaviors: - Elaboration of incitement webs. - Elaboration of propaganda webs. b) Behavior of informational support: - Requesting funding for terrorist activities through the Internet. - Sending orders to terrorist cells. - Training in bomb making. - Recruitment of terrorists. c) Direct terrorist attacks:

- Denial of service attacks (Two). - Destructive malware infection. - Intrusive malware infection.

In this context, it should be noted that the Internet has become a powerful ally for a large number of terrorist groups, but especially for Islamist terrorism, due to its transnational nature and because it encompasses, from an ideological perspective, a whole range of groups and individuals united by radical ideological fundamentalism and hatred of the West, it requires forms of communication and information dissemination, both internally and externally, that go beyond the traditional systems that existed before the emergence of cyberspace.

In other words, this type of behavior would enter into the first group of cyberterrorist behaviors, which use ICTs to disseminate on the Internet content, generic or specific, to spread messages of violence and incitement to terrorism or as a platform for indoctrination and jihadist radicalization of hundreds of thousands of Muslim individuals around the world.

However, together with the aforementioned dissemination activities, the Internet also allows direct attacks, among which the denial of services (Dos) against sensitive objectives of the State being attacked or to prevent the exercise of intelligence services or any other necessary for the defense of the State. These types of attacks have been carried out by terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or the Iraqi insurgency.

Thus, the sending of malware or even illicit access to damage a defense structure of an enemy state would also fall under this category, although there are studies that indicate that this type of practice is carried out not by terrorist organizations, but by young radicals with knowledge of computers. Some examples of websites where we can observe the great digital war or cyber war in which we live are https://www.fireeye.com/cyber-map/threat-map.html https://cybermap.kaspersky.com/ https://threatmap.fortiguard.com/ http://www.digitalattackmap.com/ The referenced web pages show that the Internet can be a great weapon for attack among governments. As an example, we can dictate: a) Russia’s denial of service attack on Georgia during the Ossetia war. This attack took place in 2008, when Georgian military troops entered semi-autonomous territory of Ossetia and Russian military troops responded with bombs, but also with a denial of service attack that affected multiple websites of the Georgian government, leaving several Internet services unused and obstructing and hindering the communication of several of the offices with their troops and citizens. There were also other cyber-attacks in which the official websites of the Georgian government were modified with messages of Russian nationalist propaganda. Georgia accused the Russian government of perpetrating a cyber-attack against them, but Russia denied sponsorship or support of such conduct, claiming that it was likely to come from people with excessive nationalist sentiment and in response to Georgia’s aggression. b) The infection of the Stuxnet virus to the computer systems of the Iranian nuclear program carried out by Israel.

Cyberstalking

This can be considered as a repetitive behavior of approaching, harassing and/or threatening another person, using any of the tools of the Internet (E-mail, lists, chats, WhatsApp...) or other electronic means or instruments of communication.

There are two different types of cyberbullying: a) The first of these focuses on harassment and threats over the Internet, but only when you are connected. b) In the second type, the harassment and threats that occur on the Internet are transferred to the person’s real life, i.e. they occur both in the virtual and real world.

This crime in Spain is contemplated in the current Criminal Code, specifically in Article 172 ter, and is committed by the person who Harasses a person in an insistent and repeated manner, and without being legitimately authorized, and thus seriously alters the development of his or her daily life: Watches over her, pursues her or seeks her physical proximity. Establish or try to establish contact with her through any means of communication, or through third parties. Through the improper use of her personal data, acquire products or merchandise, or contract services, or make third parties contact her. Attempt against his freedom or his patrimony, or against the freedom or patrimony of another person close to him (...) [10].

Cybergrooming

It is a form of harassment, initiated by an adult, through social networks, forums, chats and instant messaging programs such as WhatsApp, which directly attacks the right to freedom and sexual indemnity of minors. According to the analysis of grooming experts, the main victims of this type of crime are usually female minors between the ages of fifteen and seventeen [2].

Currently, in Spain the Criminal Code punishes in its article 183 bis, the one who For sexual purposes, determines a minor under 16 years of age to participate in behavior of a sexual nature, or makes him/her witness acts of a sexual nature, even if the author does not participate in them” [10, 11, 12, 13, 14].