Paper's abstract

Wanda CAPELLER, A not very neat (Inter)net. A few Thoughts about Virtual Criminality
Confidence, risk, anonymity and responsibility are intertwined in the virtual community according to a complex interactions game which causes a systemic and abstract criminal field to emerge. The actual characters are the co-constituants of these systems. They permanently produce and reproduce real material contexts in which illegal relations also happen. They create a true community of illegal interactive virtual action. Thus virtual criminality reveals itself as a sensitive question for the globalised society. When concerned with the State controlling the cyberspace, a "purely national approach is illusion". Due to its transnational and decentralised aspect, to the fleetingness and the evanescence of its contents, the cyberspace can only get organised and define common working rules through a flawless international cooperation. Virtual criminal activities, being "disembodied" have no need for a face to face. It is essential to adopt a new paradigm if one wants to take into account this sliding toward immaterial and to frame an innovative criminological thinking. The author suggests one refers to an abstract systemic paradigm.

Key Words : computer, web, internet, virtuality, globalization, systemic
t. 43, 1999 : p. 167-185

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