Julian Barreaux a Frenchman, after losing a knife fight in Counter-Strike to a man only known to him by his online gamertag “Mikhael” spent six months hunting him down in real life to exact his revenge. Julian discovered that the other player Mikhael was located 2 hours north of Paris in a town called Cambrai, Julian knocked on Mikhael’s door, once opened he stabbed him in the chest and ran away leaving him to bleed out on the floor. Julian was eventually found and arrested only an hour later. Mikhael lived as Julian missed the heart by a few centimetres.

Murder, while not traditionally seen as a physical crime in some cases such as this, can be enabled to become a digital crime. It is cyber-enabled as using technology makes it easier to plan it out and execute with the use of the internet allows for IP grabbers, forums to chat and discuss or even if the person is understanding enough they may use the dark web to acquire programs to acquire another person’s location.

This example of violence coming out of videogames from over 14 years ago is likely why parents in our current age are weary of videogames and the possible ‘dangers', while this can be the case it usually is due to a lack of education, friends and love provided to the person from a young age. These people will likely try and find online communities to vent to such as reddit or discord if they do not have trustworthy family or friends.

Some possibilities on why people such as Julian commit crimes such as murder or harassment are built upon the idea of RAT, Routine Activity Theory where there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian. In this specific case all three are present, motivated offender being Julian after losing a knife fight in Counter-Strike, his opponent (suitable target) Mikhael and the absence of a capable guardian didn’t matter too much since he stabbed Mikhael in the chest and ran away. All three elements are the majority of why online harassment occurs and sometimes murder.

Aaron started first by taking 20% of a public library’s database of Pacer, a US website that charged for the use of examining legal cases. This information was then uploaded to Amazon Cloud Servers for free use. Soon after this Aaron then began uploading MIT academic files over the course of a whole year. Aaron was downloading at one point over 700 articles a minute and downloaded over 80% of MITs total database planning to release the information to the public.

Fraud is a cyber-enabled crime as technology is not required to commit it but it allows for a much easier time using it. Aaron radicalised people on reddit and 4chan. He was seen as a academic messianic figure.

JSTOR did not want Aaron arrested, instead they just wanted the downloaded documents back, which he gave and he was then arrested by not JSTOR but the US attorneys office.

Aaron could have faced a possible 35 years in prison and a maximum fine of 1 million dollars after charging him with wire fraud, computer fraud and grand larceny among another.. Aaron was offered a plea deal to be arrested for six months but declined as to not be seen as a felon.

He was later found dead on January 11, 2013 after committing suicide and seen by the internet as a martyr.

Mr Swartz managed to get famous, too famous for his own good and it resulted in all that publicity on him which crushed his mental health, he didn’t even talk to his friends or get a lawyer provided for himself that’s how much hubris he had.

After Aaron’s suicide there was activism for his death and a call for free data/information.

He started recording on Facebook before storming said mosque and live streamed most of the 36 minute spree he committed. He began by saying ‘Subscribe to Pewdiepie’ before shooting a few people outside of the mosque and then entering it and killing over 30 people inside.

Tarrant had no prior criminal history but was a far right leaning individual posting often on the forums of 4chan (at the time called 8chan) and deeply showcased his hatred toward muslims.

This sort of behaviour is seen as Lone Wolf or a Performance crime, generally a crime that is recorded as an ‘act’ for ‘entertainment’ purposes.

A key part in knowing this was done for a performance was his posts on 4chan prior to the crime and him saying ‘Subscribe to Pewdiepie’, knowing he would cause a big stir if he did say that.