Connecting crime and society: An investigation of specialized police department in cybercrime

The advent of digital technology and the convergence of computing and communications have begun to change the way we live. These trends have also created unprecedented opportunities for crime. Criminal activities that were not foreseeable two decades ago have become facts of life today. Digital technologies now provide ordinary citizens, even juveniles, with the capacity to inflict massive harm. As never before, and at negligible cost to themselves, lone offenders can inflict catastrophic loss or damage on individuals, companies, and governments from the other side of the world. The continued uptake of digital technology will create new opportunities for criminal exploitation. However, when considering the sheer magnitude of technology that can be exploited across a global crime scene, then investigating cybercrime becomes a complex task. To compound the challenge further, there is considerable debate surrounding the term ‘cybercrime’. The question about the novelty of crimes committed through electronic, digital devices or computer-mediated, raises questions on what is illegal and considered illicit in cybercrime, and puts in conflicts the frame “old wine in new bottles”. Following the literature and theory discussing the issue of cybercrime, we try to shed light in the process of legislation on the theme in Brazil, and by the creation of police department specialized in resolving cybercrime. The research proposes to discuss the impact of crimes committed through digital e computer networks on society by the ethnography of the police department, subscribing the representations the police officers have on the theme, the repertoire to combat and apply the law enforcement.