Crime Control In The Digital Age: An Exploration Of Human Rights Implications

Abstract Advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) have created not only a range of new crime problems, but also facilitated prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution and punishment of crime. Although technology has assisted criminal justice agencies and offered many protections for suspects and offenders, risks of infringement of human rights have arisen from the way in which the law has responded to computer crime. This paper identifies the principal areas of human rights concern, which the digital age has created and assesses whether the achievements and benefits derived outweigh the potential and actual infringements of liberty that exist. It is concluded that policy makers have sometimes been attracted by the novelty and efficiency of technology without having due regard to the sometimes covert infringements of human rights which could and do occur.