New Crimes Compared to Old Crimes

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How far do you agree that ‘new’ crimes since 1900 are simply old crimes in a new format? Since the 1900’s, there have been many changes and improvements made to the law; concerning Great Britain. Some are changed in order to prevent small priority crimes, such as petty theft; whilst some have been altered in order to prevent crimes that have materialised over the ‘Digital Era’. However, many 21st century crimes are merely offenses that have been committed since the 1900’s. For example; the selling of poor girls into prostitution was a problem in 19th century cities. In the 21st century, an equivalent to this is ‘people trafficking’. Numerous people from Eastern Europe and less economically developed countries, are illegally brought to the UK and forced to work for low wages, or no wages at all. (Source: Page 42, Edexcel GCSE, History B, Crime and Punishment). This example is a typical instance in which a crime committed many years ago has been re-invented to suit the nature of the century. New methods of policing, protection and regulating have been introduced, making crimes much harder to commit – Therefore, the crimes have been altered to suit the new changes. Another reason as to why crime hasn’t changed to an extremity over the past 200 years is because the same crimes can now be committed via new technology. Since the invention of the computer, cell phone and other every-day technologies, the public are now more convenient to trick and fraud. For instance, impersonating a person in order to steal a substantial amount of money from them has been a common crime for hundreds of years. Yet, since the digital banking system was invented; credit card fraud and ‘hacking’ into bank accounts is becoming increasingly difficult to police. This supports the theory that all the new technologies that have been invented in the 21st century, can only make the

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