Cyberspace Internet and Urban Criminality among the Youths of Bamenda Town – North West Cameroon; 1990 – 2016

The dawn of the 21st century was characterized by mammoth technological advancement with its accompanied globalization which has resulted in paradigmatic alteration in matters of information sharing and security issues. The Cyberspace and Internet were essential developments in this era of technological detonation which created a virtual world and transcends nation-states’ boundaries. It rapid spread to all parts of the world made the world to become a global community. This paper calls Cyberspace internet a virtual computer world that constitutes many worldwide computer networks that employ Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP protocol) to facilitate communication and information sharing. The rapid developments in technology and the internet has developed unorthodox exploit of these technologies, occasioned a variety of illegal activities and alarming incidence of crimes. This paper calls all these unorthodox exploit of the technological advancements like; cyber terrorism, juvenile felony, scamming, and a host of other urban criminality. Undoubtedly technological advancements ushered a lot of opportunities and improvements in our lifestyles, but it has equally resulted in myriad white collar burglary that has undermined these developments in African frail economies. The Bamenda urban milieu wretchedly serves as a crux where these global community dynamics have been grossly abused by unemployed youths. This paper attempts to investigate the technological advancements and it’s bearing on crime waves among youths of Bamenda town. Based on evidence gathered from primary and secondary sources, using qualitative and quantitative methods, it winds up that Technological advancements have influenced the increasing crime waves among the youths of Bamenda town, and difficulties of combating urban criminalities are not only centered on technological sophistication but largely on the lack of will on the part of the stakeholders.