Etiology of crimes committed on virtual social networks

Abstract

The virtual world has increasingly emphasized the concept of a second life for humans. This research, written with a descriptive-analytical method, seeks to answer the question of what are the most important causes of crime in virtual social networks? This structure of the virtual world is a platform for the interactions of users of the virtual world and also for expressing their views on various issues. The right to health, the right to quality of life, the right to security, the right to access the virtual world, imitation, and the transition of criminal acts from the virtual world to the real world are some of the foundations for analyzing the causes of crime in virtual social networks. Insults, threats, sexual violence, and security crimes are some of the most numerous of the aforementioned crimes. The most important causes of the aforementioned crimes can be divided into two categories: criminological (less criminal regulation in the virtual world, increased incidence of secondary victimization, ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system in virtual activism, and criminal characteristics of the virtual world) and meta-criminological (globalization of the virtual world, vulnerability of specific human groups, low media literacy, lack of sexual culture, inability to localize the virtual world, and uncertainty in the concept of privacy). This study has found that a proper etiology of crimes committed in virtual social networks can be effective in implementing appropriate preventive or proactive responses and bring new perspectives on human activism throughout the virtual world.