Inchoate offences in Cyberspace – a moveable feast or the end of harm?

Abstract

This paper is intended to draw attention to the number of criminal offences – in English law specifically, but also more generally – that can now be committed without harm or the risk of harm to putative ‘victims’. It will be argued that traditional inchoate offences have been expanded into what may be termed ‘super-inchoates’ by reference to the expanded distance between perpetrator and the intended harm via the internet. As the very idea of cyberspace challenges the perceptions of proximity which have been the ideology behind the traditional inchoate offence, this paper will begin to ask whether the expansion of the criminal law in this way is ultimately a symptom of overcontrol by the State driven by a culture of fear in the post-modern society, and whether we are ultimately any safer as a result.