Discussion: Direct and Indirect Victims of Crime

Week 1 Discussion: Direct and Indirect Victims of Crime

Cyber terrorism has seen a rise as technology advances. When we consider that we, as a society, rely on computers in particular to keep us safe and assist us in our everyday lives by using them to control travel (air, train, bus, boat), using them for banking, security (local and national), hospitals/medical practices, etc. it is especially disconcerting to consider what may happen if those systems do not function properly. If one small thing is caused to go wrong, it can literally endanger lives. (Nandekar, 2012)

An odd example of cyber terrorism is when a mob-boss survived an assassination attempt and was hospitalized. His assassins were able to hack the computer system of the hospital where he was being kept, changed the directions for his medication so he would be given a lethal dose, then changed the instructions after the fatal dose was administered so the nurse would be blamed for the “accident.” (Sproles & Byars, 1998) In this example, the mob-boss was the victim of the assassin’s crime and would be considered the primary victim since he “experience[d] the criminal act and its consequences first hand.” (Karmen, 2016)

It may be difficult to objectively identify the mob-boss as the victim, as he likely committed an offending act that caused someone to hire an assassin; however, he was killed and the primary victim of this particular crime. Unfortunately, the nurse who administered the fatal dose of medication unknowingly and is an indirect victim of this crime, was probably deeply affected by the death of her patient. She may have had to face the possibility of losing her license, grief and outrage directed at her by the family and friends of the primary victim, and probably would need therapy and support to recover from the incident. The hospital may have suffered a tarnished reputation thereby affected the reputations of other employees of the hospital negatively as well. (Sproles & Byars, 1998 & Karmen, 2016)

Resources:

Karmen, A. (2016) Crime victims: An introduction to victimology (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Nandekar, U. P. (2012). Contemporary forms of crimes: Issues and challenges techno crime (cyber- crimes). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256045103_Contemporary_Forms_of_Crimes_Issues_and_C hallenges_Techno_Crimes_Cyber-Crimes.

Spoles, J & Byars, W. (1998). Examples of cyber-terrorism. Retrieved from http://csciwww.etsu.edu/gotterbarn/stdntppr/cases.htm.

This study source was downloaded by 100000800531006 from CourseHero.com on 02-24-2022 11:25:27 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/33104803/Week-1-Discussion-Victimologydocx/ Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)