Module Digital Victimisation

In a short span of time, our society has experienced changes on a grand scale with regards to engagement and use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and related digital tools. Victimisation and crime were also part of those changes. The unprecedented speed of developments requires that professionals whose roles address crime related harm, or those wanting to get into this important arena, develop a critical comprehension of ICT enabled and digitally perpetrated crimes and resulting victimisation. Interplays between human nature and digital ‘architectures’ heighten the ways in which we are all open to digital victimisation.

This stimulating and challenging postgraduate-level study module is offered as a stand-alone and within the MSc Criminology, Risk and Safeguarding, which seeks to prepare practitioners and graduate students alike for the complex challenges faced by multi-agency professionals with a remit to safeguard various communities. The module may also appeal to anyone concerned with digital victimisation and crime, developments in victimology in the digital age, and contemporary criminology.  

You will be taught by academics, as well as former and current practitioners in the field, using contemporary research examples and pertinent case studies. Teaching and learning takes place through blended learning, with substantial online engagement, to meet the needs of learners in a range of contexts. The module is delivered in 'block delivery' format. 

This module will enable you to engage with a range of recent and emerging phenomena, including forms of hate crime against vulnerable populations and digitally enabled interpersonal violence. With increased use by young people, many of our digital tools create unique safeguarding concerns, while the many ordinary objects & practices related to consumer convenience, exponentially increase our personal ‘attack spaces’ and susceptibility to commercial exploitation. Lack of transparency regarding the uses and misuses of the vast amounts of data gathered daily by ‘smart homes’, through self-datafication in fitness and wellbeing apps, and as a result of our social media use has the potential to create new and unprecedented harms.

Victimisation and crime online are dynamic and complex phenomena undergoing swift changes. There are legal and jurisdictional issues of digital victimisations, which also touch upon aspects of surveillance, human rights, and privacy expectations. This module will give you a basis from which to develop and respond to practice and policy requirements regarding contextual safeguarding and risk reduction, and criminogenic harms in the digital age.