Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen – Smart Prevention

Phenomenon – Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 12:34:31 +0000

Criminology / Phenomenon / Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Phenomenon digitization

Görgen: Threat

Görgen: Chances

Görgen: Vision

Transcript

Digitalisation, understood as the dissemination and introduction of digital technologies, is currently one of the megatrends that are shaping the economy, society and politics to a very great extent. It is no coincidence that people often talk about a digital revolution. This digital revolution has changed our everyday life in many areas. When we think about how we work today, how we learn today, how we communicate today, with whom we communicate today, which media we choose, how we buy, sell, consume, how we inform ourselves, which information we obtain and which we use, how we educate ourselves politically, how we form a political will. These are all things that have changed to a very great extent in recent years and decades under the influence of digitisation. First and foremost, I see this digitisation in a very positive light, namely as an extension of human scope for action. Almost everything that we were able to do in all the past analogue eras, we are still able to do today. However, we have acquired many, many more opportunities. Opportunities that extend our scope for action. This also has its burdens and its dark sides, which it can definitely have. The permanent availability of information can lead to the fact that one feels obliged to be constantly informed. We can think, keyword filter bubble, of possible dangers regarding a very one-sided information, of communication only with like-minded people, of encapsulating oneself in certain world views. These are certainly shadow sides and dangers that are also connected with digitalisation. Essentially, however, I repeat, for me it means an extension of the scope for action.

Author

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

graduate psychologist
since 2008 Professor at the German Police University (Münster) and Head of the Department of Criminology and Interdisciplinary Crime Prevention
Study of psychology at the University of Trier
Research assistant at the University of Trier, the Justus Liebig University of Gießen and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (Hanover)
Lectureships at various police and public universities
Current research interests include: political extremism / radicalisation / prevention of radicalisation; violent crime; victimisation in vulnerable populations; crime prevention strategies and approaches

Our Experts

Proferssor Dr. Bernd Belina

Thomas-Gabriel Rüdiger

Comments

Der Beitrag Phenomenon – Görgen erschien zuerst auf Smart Prevention.

Threat – Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 12:33:56 +0000

Criminology / Threat / Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Gefahren

Görgen: Phenomenon

Görgen: Chances

Görgen: Vision

Transkript

If we assume that digitisation has primarily expanded human possibilities for action, then it does so regardless of the type of action and regardless of the intention of the action. It does so with regard to the way we organise our leisure time, how we educate ourselves, where we go on holiday, how we organise it. But it also does so with regard to behaviour that is not wrongly punished by the penal law. In this sense, digitalisation, if we put it in criminological terms, has created a lot of new crime opportunities, crime opportunity structures. There is this very famous circulated statement of a bank robber who was asked why he robbed banks, who said “because that’s where the money is”. Bank robbers are a dying breed these days. Criminals have learned that there are easier and also less risky ways to get other people’s money. You can hack into online payment systems, online payment processes, you can manipulate online payment processes, you can try to get to security-relevant customer information via malware, phishing and the like. However, cybercrime, digitalised crime is by no means limited to this attacks on digital payment transactions. When we think of bullying, bullying on social networks. Here too, we are dealing with forms of crime that can only exist against the background of digitalisation. Hate crime in social networks, sexual harassment on the Internet, attempted fraud, fraud via online media, blackmail via online media, attacks on the stability of digital systems. These are all forms of crime that can only exist because we live in a digital, digitised world. In criminology, the thesis is sometimes put forward that crime has declined, which we have fortunately recorded overall in many countries of the world over the last quarter century, that this should be understood primarily as a kind of transition of crime from the real world to the virtual world and as a partial invisibility of crime in the virtual world. I do not think this is entirely true. But what can be said and what is right about it is that digitalisation has created a lot of new opportunities for crime. Initially, there are not the appropriate protective mechanisms in place, and these new opportunities for action are being used accordingly.

Autor

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

graduate psychologist
since 2008 Professor at the German Police University (Münster) and Head of the Department of Criminology and Interdisciplinary Crime Prevention
Study of psychology at the University of Trier
Research assistant at the University of Trier, the Justus Liebig University of Gießen and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (Hanover)
Lectureships at various police and public universities
Current research interests include: political extremism / radicalisation / prevention of radicalisation; violent crime; victimisation in vulnerable populations; crime prevention strategies and approaches

Weiterführende Links

Phenomenon

Threat

Chances

Vision

Our Experts

Professor Dr. Bernd Belina

Thomas-Gabriel Rüdiger

Comments

Der Beitrag Threat – Görgen erschien zuerst auf Smart Prevention.

Chances – Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 12:32:50 +0000

Criminology / Chances / Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Chancen

Görgen: Phenomenon

Görgen: Threat

Görgen: Vision

Transcript

New options have also emerged in the field of prevention. Procedural approaches have been developed to reduce the opportunities for crime, to make it more difficult for a perpetrator to commit a crime and to provide victims with fast and sustainable support. Some of these approaches have now become so much a part of our everyday life that we hardly notice them anymore. If we unlock our smartphone today with a fingerprint, then this is nothing more than a biometric way of crime prevention, because if this device gets into the hands of a thief, then he will usually not enjoy it very much. Such biometric access controls are a fundamental way of digital crime prevention. A way that can also have its downsides, that can conflict with data protection, that can also conflict with discriminatory practices aimed at certain groups of people who are to be denied access to certain premises that are to be protected. In addition to such access controls, based primarily on biometric data, we have also seen a boom in recent years in crime-prevention apps that have been developed. We have mostly localised these apps at the level of private users. For example, there is an app that gives victims of sexual harassment in public places the opportunity to draw attention to this fact very loudly. Another app connects victims of violence with people they trust, who can then be informed very quickly in case violence is used. In Great Britain, an app is currently being tested especially for people with speech and hearing impairments, which will enable them to use sign language to send messages in an emergency situation. Overall, we still know very little about the impact and effectiveness of these digitalised prevention approaches. They are still new and there is little evaluation research on them. Some of the success stories that have been reported, must perhaps be viewed a little critically, especially when it concerns surveillance technology, in view of the fact that we are also dealing with a market there.

Author

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

graduate psychologist
since 2008 Professor at the German Police University (Münster) and Head of the Department of Criminology and Interdisciplinary Crime Prevention
Study of psychology at the University of Trier
Research assistant at the University of Trier, the Justus Liebig University of Gießen and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (Hanover)
Lectureships at various police and public universities
Current research interests include: political extremism / radicalisation / prevention of radicalisation; violent crime; victimisation in vulnerable populations; crime prevention strategies and approaches

Our Experts

Professor Dr. Bernd Belina

Thomas-Gabriel Rüdiger

Comments

Der Beitrag Chances – Görgen erschien zuerst auf Smart Prevention.

Vision – Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 12:31:07 +0000

Criminology / Vision / Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

Vision: Smart Prevention

Görgen: Phenomenon

Görgen: Threat

Görgen: Chances

Transcript

We can see ideas for smart prevention in many fields today. When we think of health prevention, for example, a great deal is done with digital data. When we think of traffic accident prevention, intelligent control of traffic flows, there are many, many approaches. What these smart approaches to prevention have in common is that they are controlled by data and information. When I now think of crime prevention, of the prevention of violence, my view is, however, that good and, in this sense, smart crime prevention does not always have to be based on digital technology. If we want to have good prevention, it should be prevention that is primarily based on tackling the causes and conditions under which crime, problematic behaviour, occurs against the background of evidence-based programmes and strategies. In this sense, then, of course, it is again smart, because it is information-driven, because it is based on good knowledge of the impact and effectiveness of prevention approaches. Fortunately, we now have such knowledge in a whole range of areas. When we think, for example, of the encouragement of positive parental parenting, when we think of drug addiction, alcohol prevention, when we think of the prevention of violence and bullying in schools. These are all areas in which we can say today that we have a stock of secure knowledge, of secure knowledge that is also available in a systematic way. In some forms, including, for example, databases such as the “Grüne Liste”, maintained by the State Prevention Council of Lower Saxony, and the portal “Wespe”, set up by the National Centre for Community Prevention. All these are advances made in recent years, which give us a basis for good, for smart, strategic, crime prevention action. Smart prevention also includes the further development of something like an evaluation culture, the implicitness of evaluating prevention measures. I believe that this will lead us to a really smart prevention, a prevention that is smart in the sense that it is based on good knowledge of the effects and side effects of prevention approaches.

Author

Prof. Dr. Thomas Görgen

graduate psychologist
since 2008 Professor at the German Police University (Münster) and Head of the Department of Criminology and Interdisciplinary Crime Prevention
Study of psychology at the University of Trier
Research assistant at the University of Trier, the Justus Liebig University of Gießen and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (Hanover)
Lectureships at various police and public universities
Current research interests include: political extremism / radicalisation / prevention of radicalisation; violent crime; victimisation in vulnerable populations; crime prevention strategies and approaches

Unsere Experten

Prof. Dr. Bernd Belina

Thomas-Gabriel Rüdiger

Comments

Der Beitrag Vision – Görgen erschien zuerst auf Smart Prevention.