Internet Criminality: Drift and the Role of Serendipity, Seduction and Surprise

This talk will explore themes related to the idea of ‘digital drift’.

This talk will explore themes related to the idea of ‘digital drift’ (Goldsmith and Russell 2015, Theoretical Criminology). This idea proposes that the Internet can be conceptualized as a set of tools and techniques that encourage and enable young people in particular to ‘drift’ into anti-social and criminal activities both off- and online. The talk will consider a range of themes (or concepts) that can illuminate and expand upon Matza’s idea of drift in digital environments.

It will also outline a project commencing in 2016 that is designed to test and explore the idea of digital drift empirically among a cohort of adolescents.

This seminar will be presented by Andrew Goldsmith, who is Professor in Criminal Justice at Flinders Law School, Australia.