Crime prevention has often focused on alleviating the social problems that are thought to encourage crime, rather than reducing the opportunities for criminals to commit crimes. This has often led the police to focus crime prevention efforts in less affluent, more vulnerable areas.
This strategy can be mirrored in the online environment, by targeting sites popular with a demographic that may be identified as being susceptible to scams.
For instance, blogging sites and portals created for certain products or experiences, such as themed social networking sites, that are known to be visited by older or perhaps disadvantaged persons who are not fully aware of online safety principles.
Reducing opportunities for online criminals is also critical. Social sharing networks should develop online neighbourhoods which are designed and developed to promote surveillance of the public realm and community ownership of all users’ security.
Internet sites should empower and leverage assistance from bystander users to help spot and prevent antisocial behaviour on websites. Such users could assess an individual and their motivations by thier actions and be given tools and techniques to assume responsibility and have the confidence to act.
In a drive for monetisation, such concepts are rarely considered during the website design phase.
Websites and social networking sites must also be designed to be defensible. This includes safeguarding personal data, having appropriate intrusion detection, authenticating identity and conducting penetration testing, all the while creating neighbourhood features.
Such features would make it harder for criminals to operate and make them move to another, more susceptible (online) environment.
CPTED can improve the online environment. Just as in the real world, designing out online crime can be achieved by increasing the effort required to commit a crime.
This can be done through a combination of smart security technologies, high-visibility policing, reducing the rewards for criminals and, ultimately, through better education about the dangers of the online environment.
Nigel Phair is the director, Centre for Internet Safety, at University of Canberra.
This article first appeared at The Conversation.
