Criminality New Script ●

Routine activity theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) must be re-specified. The “suitable target” is no longer just a person or property; it is a vulnerable API, a weak password hash, or an unpatched firmware . The “capable guardian” is not just a police officer or a neighbor; it is a firewall, an intrusion detection system, or a platform’s content moderation algorithm . The “motivated offender” may be a bot, a state-sponsored hacker, or a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) of pseudonymous actors.

A stalker uses a compromised smart lock (IoT device) to unlock a victim’s front door remotely. The intrusion is physical, but the means are purely digital. Conversely, a riot incited by a disinformation campaign on Telegram has digital origins but physical outcomes (looting, arson). Criminality New Script

Responsibility is distributed and emergent . Legal notions of mens rea (guilty mind) struggle when no single mind exists. 4. Shift Three: From Moral Transgression to Algorithmic Exploitation The old script framed crime as a violation of a moral or legal norm. The new script frames crime as the exploitation of a system’s computational logic . Offenders do not “break rules” so much as optimize loopholes . Routine activity theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) must