Professor Sebastian Golla, Junior professor in Criminology, Criminal Law and Security Research in the Digital Age © RUB, Marquard

Law Digital freedom and cybercrime

How can crime in virtual space be prevented?

If digitalisation continues at the current rate, then hopefully we will all soon have more time to go for a walk in the woods. But for this to happen, we must ensure that technology is used responsibly. In the legal and criminological context, I examine the opportunities and risks of digitalisation. How does crime develop in the virtual space and are existing laws equipped to deal with cybercrime? What can we do from a legal point of view to protect IT security, which is a basic requirement for digital freedom? What are the conditions under which crimes can be prevented and prosecuted using artificial intelligence methods? And when might the well-intended use of algorithms become a security risk because it stigmatises and criminalises citizens? These are some of the questions that keep me busy as junior professor at RUB – and on my walks in the woods.

About the person

Sebastian Golla studied law in Münster and Santiago de Chile. In 2015, he received his PhD in criminal law from the Humboldt University of Berlin with a thesis on “Criminal and Administrative Offences under the German Data Protection Acts”. From 2012 to 2015, he was a research assistant at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2016 to 2020, he was a research assistant to Professor Matthias Bäcker at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Since August 2020, he is Junior Professor of Criminology, Criminal Law and Security Research in the Digital Age at RUB.

Professorships in digitization research

Convenience, flexibility, flood of data, risk: junior professors from various disciplines assess where digitization is heading.

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Published

Thursday
07 January 2021
9:32 am

By

Sebastian Golla

Translated by

Donata Zuber

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