preliminary lecture on ipc- criminal law definition etc.

The old Roman law says that, without law there is no crime. The legislature,

while defining crime takes into consideration various factors viz. social and

sociological factors, economic factors, political conditions and other things as it

thinks fit.

Crime is a public wrong. Public wrong in the sense it causes injury to the public

or community as a whole and any member of the public can move the court, it

causes threat to social security and creates social disorder. It is a wrong pursued

by the sovereign or its subordinate i.e. Police, Judicial Officials etc. for

example Murder, Rape, Theft, Forgery etc. New crimes in new era :- Use of computer network has given rise to cyber-crimes and other computer

related unlawful activities of twenty-first century's hi-tech world. Cyber-crimes

are harmful acts committed for or against a computer or against information on

computer network. These crimes differ from most terrestrial crimes in four

ways:

(1) It is easy to learn how to commit them, (2) they hardly require any resources. (3) they can be committed in a jurisdiction without being physically

present in it, and (4) they are often not clearly illegal. Some criminals operate around the computer network, undeterred by the prospect of arrest or

prosecution, and therefore are a menace to e-mail or e-commerce users. Frauds,

hackers, viruses, pornography, harassment, stalking, data-diddling etc are these

cyber-crimes cover a wide range of illegal activities. These offences are needed

to recognise the fact that criminal law must continue to address itself

adequately to new developments in information technology. Because of the