A small child steals a candy bar from the neighborhood grocery store because he likes the taste; a group of teens break into a car so that they can steal the stereo and listen to the latest CD's; a drug addict holds up a convince store so that he can get the money he needs to get "high"; a business man embezzles millions of dollars so that he can make payment on his houses; a man murders his wife so that she can collect on his insurance policy. What is the common motive behind all of the crimes? Criminologists and social psychologists have studied this question for decades only to come up with conflicting answers as to why these crimes are being committed every day in the United States. However, one aspect has seemed to be overlooked, the basic desire for sense gratification.
             Everyday the media saturates the public with messages that promote self-pleasure and that success in life depends on the acquisitions of those objects that make such pleasures possible. From a very young age we learn that a man is judged on his material possessions and his place in society depends upon what he has acquired throughout his life. They are said to be measures of ones own self-happiness however, this is not always the case. The criminal, on the other hand, is just trying to follow all of the media's messages the best way that they know how. And if that means committing crimes then so be it.
             One particular type of crime that has bombarded our society recently comes in the form of cybercrime. Cybercrime is defined as "any crime that is committed by means of the special knowledge or expert use of computer technology"(Buckland 12). This can range anywhere from on-line credit card fraud to child pornography. Cybercrime has became such a concern in the last couple of years that Attorney General Janet Reno addressed the United States Senate on the issues in February of the year 2000. She mostly spoke of the progress of t...