The rapid introduction worldwide of information and communication technologies and their corresponding applications is bringing about profound changes in our societies, economies, and legal systems affecting the way we live, learn, interact socially, do business and govern ourselves. The market driven transition to cyberspace or the online world, the planetary artifact of the global information economy and society, is revolutionizing not only business and commerce but also privacy, the collection, use and misuse of personal and consumer data, and the activities of white collar criminals who are utilizing new technologies to commit old crimes in new ways. One of the most important consequences of the online world is the creation of a digital person based on data constantly collected on everyone active in society, especially as a consumer, investor, and worker. The potential for manipulation of who we are and for identify theft is high and the consequences disastrous, difficult and expensive to correct. This article examines the main issues stemming from these revolutionary changes especially as they affect criminal law and the administration of justice. In particular it focuses on the Cybercrime Convention as an international tool responding to these issues and needs. The article concludes with a call for criminology to take a lead in addressing these rapidly changing situations so as to demonstrate once more its usefulness and timeliness in helping identify and solve society’s pressing crime problems.

The infiltration of Organized crime in the Mercosul, founded in 1991 by the Assumption Treaty, needs the development of new procedures in order to reduce and control critical situations.

Criminal Law cannot, on its own, contain the storming wave of crime, especially corruption. Social justice is the best way of prevention, and human rights have to be preserved.

Between the Stockholm Prize and the XVth World Congress in 2008 in Barcelona, the president of the Society addresses to the debate about the academic status and the position of criminology.

La Rectora de la Universidad que acogerá el próximo congreso internacional de criminología recuerda los grandes principios de libertad que el Derecho penal debe salvaguardar en una sociedad del miedo.

The author comments on the results of a comparative research on murders committed on persons accused to have brought shame on their families or communities.

The Act on Mediation Procedure will be effective in 2007 in Hungary. The acceptance or refusal of the instruments of restorative justice among population and prosecutors has been tested by empirical surveys.

Despite growing concerns about youth violence, little research has been conducted in countries other than the USA specifically about the prevalence and actual use of weapons to threaten or harm others. This study employed the same questionnaire and methods to recruit 888 male delinquent youth in Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia and Amsterdam. Two contrasting perspectives on the importance of firearms restriction in preventing youth violence - futility and availability - guide the discussion. Specifically, detained and dropout youth appear to have quite ready access to firearms, regardless of national gun control laws. On logistic regression analysis, the strongest independent predictors of four weapon related violent outcomes were site, prior delinquency and victimization; notably for gun violence, selling cocaine/crack, history of gang fights and living in neighbourhoods where drug selling was conspicuous, were significant. The high levels of gun involvement and weapons related violence among Toronto and Montreal youth were unexpected. The Canadian youth justice system may be selecting more serious delinquents for incarceration than those in the USA and the Netherlands. These results may also be a harbinger of greater gun availability, or reflect greater willingness of delinquent youth to arm themselves, than in the past. Since baseline data about firearms carrying, acquisition and use have not been collected previously in Canada, it will be important to monitor these trends.