In any society, there are always bad people. Wherever someone has money and enjoys a comfortable lifestyle in addition to their nice income, some other person who applies no work into life comes and along and takes it from them. The most readily available image of the thief is the good old “hold you at gunpoint” sort. These criminals would rob you in some desolate alley for all of your money and jewelry, and then skate off to their getaway mobile. These are the criminals of old in their most popular portrayals.
These kinds of crooks would be featured in the good old mafia movies, the ones so old they would be in a grainy black and white picture. Aside from their Hollywood glamour appearance though, these guys did some bad stuff. Not just the mafia members, but street criminals are responsible for most of the damage and fear many citizens have today. These guys were the ones who left horrible impressions on people walking the street, and were fodder for sensationalist news reports fueling the hysteria.
These mafia guys committed crimes that rocked the nation. They were the societal rejects, the ones who, when families saw their grim faces rotting in jail, would turn their kid’s looks away, as if their menacing stare had some hypnotic quality. These guys are the cumulative force that the United States walks so carefully with its prison system. It is an interesting matter that such an open system cultivates: you have these seemingly unlimited free choices, yet it is just unconsciously understood and hoped for that you won’t infringe upon them. Unfortunately, while many of us pay mind to these laws, guys like these do not and it rips apart at the moral fiber of our nation.
The criminals of old, the ones that would hold you up with their guns and then take all of your goods, although a force to be reckoned with no doubt, are child’s play to our crooks of today. The criminals of today have an overpowering advantage; technology is on their side. You might think that technology is really on the law’s side, making it easier and faster to get these criminals but in fact it just makes more easily concealed. The crooks have adopted the high tech equipment for themselves and become quite adept with it.
Think of the average crime scene. An sly criminal who wanted some money would see a rich-looking person, and judge their odds of winning. Weapons brandished and in a sequestered location they would confront their target, wave the gun around, and proceed to take their money. Once they get all of the money out of the wallet, they would tell the victim to not call the police. They would then sprint all of the way to their hideout and lay low for a little while, until the police were off of them.
In those times of old, only very rudimentary methods of catching the criminals existed, nothing like using satellite location and GPS tracking. These factors did not hurt the law too much though: with a well-staffed and highly trained police force, the thief was often caught quickly. There was not any tools of the trade they could make use of to try and scramble the evidence or hide themselves quickly. Once they were apprehended, there was no DNA clues to tie them at the crime scene, instead there was only a basic line-up and the victim, where the victim identified their abuser.
Technology to the rescue then, right? Unfortunately, this is not all true. While our steps in producing DNA tracking, fingerprints and other high tech commodities, these tools also aid the suspect’s evasion of justice. An automobile is the highest technology a criminal today needs to disappear; it doesn’t matter is they know the criminal’s name. If they can’t go out and get them, all of their data and leads are just paperweights. Many criminals, like hackers and identity thieves accomplish their economic raids through the web, so there is not a real crime scene!
A non-physical crime; the perfect crime. This is a double whammy for law enforcement, there is no scene of the crime and the criminal can hide behind virtual walls they have constructed. Another scary thing is that, in truth these hackers and identity thieves are, as mentioned before, rarely caught. So with no way to try and stop them, we can only hope to defend ourselves. Be very careful online, and protect yourself with a variety of Internet safety tools. And avoid dark alleyways!
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