Kevin F Steinmetz
Biographic Data
| ID | 3604294 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kevin F Steinmetz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kevin F |
| FAMILY NAME | Steinmetz |
| SIGNATURE | STEINMETZ K F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Kansas State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1297-078X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 84 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
“… It's Google that's big brother”
Encryption technologies have become ubiquitous for both individual and commercial sectors. Perhaps no realm of law enforcement is so acutely affected by encryption than cybercrime, including internet crimes against children (ICAC) personnel. There exist a variety of encryption-based tools and authentication measures available to help online child sexual abusers and consumers of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) hide their activities and obstruct…
A Political-Cultural Analysis of Intellectual Property in the Electric Guitar Industry
This analysis utlilizes Fligstein’s political-cultural approach to understand how firms in the electric guitar industry have navigated intellectual property protections—namely trademarks and, to a lesser extent, patents—to manage their relationships with other firms in a market space. The study draws from historical and journalistic accounts, legal documents, trade publications, correspondence with market actors, and prior experience with guitars…
Rethinking cybercrime prevention in the age of the internet
The Irritation of Doubt
Revisiting the tautology problem in rational choice theory
Criminological rational choice theory is blighted by tautology—that if a crime occurs, then by definition the benefits must exceed the costs. The current analysis details the nature of this tautology as well as its theoretical and philosophical implications concerning the circumstances under which offenders make rational (thoughtful and reflective) or irrational (habitual, intuitive, or instinctual) choices. In short, rational choice theorists ap…
The Spirit of Ultra-Realism
Perilous Policing
Enacting social engineering
Falling for Social Engineering
The current study examines recommendations for addressing organizational members who fall prey to social engineering as a matter of organizational policy through a qualitative analysis of interviews with organizational IT security administrators, IT security auditors, and social engineers. The results of this analysis indicate that participants had an aversion to punitive approaches to security failures. Instead, they tended to favor education as…
Performing social engineering
Examining the Role of Power-Control Theory and Self-Control to Account for Computer Hacking
Criminological inquiry consistently identifies a gender difference in offending rates, which are also evident among certain forms of cybercrime. The gender difference in cybercrime offending is particularly large within computer hacking, though few have specifically addressed this issue through applications of criminological theory. The current study attempted to account for the gender disparity in hacking through a test of power-control theory, …
Hacked
Inside the life of a hacker and cybercrime culture. Public discourse, from pop culture to political rhetoric, portrays hackers as deceptive, digital villains. But what do we actually know about them? In Hacked, Kevin F. Steinmetz explores what it means to be a hacker and the nuances of hacker culture. Through extensive interviews with hackers, observations of hacker communities, and analyses of hacker cultural products, Steinmetz demystifies the …
Decrypting Social Engineering
Decoding the Binary
Research has demonstrated that hacker subculture – like many other tech-oriented communities – is disproportionately composed of men. While prior attempts have been made to explain this disparity, few, if any, explore the role of subculture in this gendered divide. Drawing from feminist theories, subcultural theory, and cultural criminology, this theoretical analysis examines the intersection of gender, social structure, hegemony, situated action…
Carceral horror
Prisons have become regular fixtures in late modern media. Despite this ubiquity, little research has been conducted examining representations of prisons and punishment within one of the most popular forms of contemporary entertainment media: video games. Drawing from cultural criminology and Gothic criminology, the current study examines punitive and carceral elements in the horror video game franchise of Silent Hill. Eight games within the seri…
Ruminations on Warning Banners, Deterrence, and System Intrusion Research
i t y W hen we consider the myriad examples of high-profile computer intrusions, frauds, deceptions, and other illicit activities in recent times, there is perhaps an understandable degree of public concern regarding information security.The late modern mediascape is awash with stories of sordid security compromises and technological high jinks.Much like when other crime panics occur, the burning question for many is "how do we stop these crimina…
Wicked Overseers
In recent times, several tragic events have brought attention to the relationship between policing and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Scholars, activists, and pundits have clamored to explain tensions that have arisen from these police-related deaths. The authors contribute to the discussion by asserting that contemporary policing in America, and its relationship to racial inequality, is only the latest chapter in a broader histor…
Under the skin of probation
This analysis examines the inter- and intra-racial/ethnicity effects of skin tone variations in a sample of probationers across three dependent variables: probation length, successful completion, and revocation due to technical violations. Darker tones were linked to shorter probation terms with the exception of African Americans, among whom no effect was found. Darker tones were also associated with a decreased likelihood of successful probation…
Inequality on probation
The effect of race, gender, offense type, location, assessment scores, as well as key interaction terms based on race were examined on multiple probation outcomes. Extending the racial equity research to offenders supervised within the community, results suggest that African American males fare worse on multiple supervision outcomes. In addition, the research found that women were less likely to receive alternative probation outcomes. Suggestions…
Anything but boring
There is perhaps no experience in late modernity more universal than boredom. This analysis therefore responds to Ferrell’s call to take boredom seriously in the study of crime and crime control. Our analysis of boredom draws from three separate qualitative analyses of police detectives, computer hackers, and prisoners serving life sentences to reveal boredom’s influence across the criminological spectrum. Drawing from cultural criminology, this …
Hacked
Public discourse, from pop culture to political rhetoric, portrays the figure of the hacker distinctly: a deceptive, digital villain. But what do we actually know about hackers? In Hacked, Kevin F. Steinmetz explores what it means to be a hacker and the nuances of hacker culture. Through extensive interviews with hackers, observations of hacker communities, and analyses of hacker cultural products, Steinmetz demystifies the figure of the hacker a…
A Probation Profanation
Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice have received increasing scrutiny recently. Little attention, however, has been directed toward understanding inequality in the area of probation. The current study addresses this dearth through two analyses of 14,365 probation cases. The first involves a logistic regression analysis, which examines race/ethnicity against probation failure. Using probation success as a control outcome, the second …
Building Legal Competency
This article argues for the need to build legal competency in the discipline of criminal justice and criminology through incorporating law courses in its PhD program curriculum, whether as black letter law (i.e. criminal law, criminal procedure, courts), sociology of law, or socio-legal studies (i.e. law and society courses). Through requiring law courses as a necessary and integral part of the curriculum, and recognizing the mainstream impact of…
Craft(y)ness
Journal Article Craft(y)ness: An Ethnographic Study of Hacking Get access Kevin F. Steinmetz Kevin F. Steinmetz * *Kevin F. Steinmetz, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Kansas State University, 204 Waters Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA; [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 55, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 125–145, https://do…
Hacked
Message Received
As the Internet begins to encapsulate more people within online communities, it is important that the social researcher have well-rounded ethnographic methodologies for observing these phenomena. This article seeks to contribute to methodology by detailing and providing insights into three specific facets of virtual ethnography that need attention: space and time, identity and authenticity, and ethics. Because the Internet is a globalized and ins…
Wicked Overseers
In recent times, several tragic events have brought attention to the relationship between policing and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Scholars, activists, and pundits have clamored to explain tensions that have arisen from these police-related deaths. The authors contribute to the discussion by asserting that contemporary policing in America, and its relationship to racial inequality, is only the latest chapter in a broader histor…
Craft(y)ness
Journal Article Craft(y)ness: An Ethnographic Study of Hacking Get access Kevin F. Steinmetz Kevin F. Steinmetz * *Kevin F. Steinmetz, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Kansas State University, 204 Waters Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA; [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 55, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 125–145, https://do…
Anything but boring
There is perhaps no experience in late modernity more universal than boredom. This analysis therefore responds to Ferrell’s call to take boredom seriously in the study of crime and crime control. Our analysis of boredom draws from three separate qualitative analyses of police detectives, computer hackers, and prisoners serving life sentences to reveal boredom’s influence across the criminological spectrum. Drawing from cultural criminology, this …
Under the Pixelated Jolly Roger
Digital piracy—a type of copyright infringement—is a global phenomenon that allegedly contains grave economic consequences for intellectual property industries. Its pervasiveness has produced a global piracy subculture. This article describes our study of digital pirates who actively participate in an on-line discussion board dedicated to copyright infringement. It explores their motivations, techniques of neutralization, and contradictions withi…
Carceral horror
Prisons have become regular fixtures in late modern media. Despite this ubiquity, little research has been conducted examining representations of prisons and punishment within one of the most popular forms of contemporary entertainment media: video games. Drawing from cultural criminology and Gothic criminology, the current study examines punitive and carceral elements in the horror video game franchise of Silent Hill. Eight games within the seri…
Under the skin of probation
This analysis examines the inter- and intra-racial/ethnicity effects of skin tone variations in a sample of probationers across three dependent variables: probation length, successful completion, and revocation due to technical violations. Darker tones were linked to shorter probation terms with the exception of African Americans, among whom no effect was found. Darker tones were also associated with a decreased likelihood of successful probation…
Decoding the Binary
Research has demonstrated that hacker subculture – like many other tech-oriented communities – is disproportionately composed of men. While prior attempts have been made to explain this disparity, few, if any, explore the role of subculture in this gendered divide. Drawing from feminist theories, subcultural theory, and cultural criminology, this theoretical analysis examines the intersection of gender, social structure, hegemony, situated action…
Watching the Watchers and McLuhan's Tetrad
Video-taping police actions as a form of political activism—also known as “cop watching”—has been an activity which has garnered much scrutiny and media attention in recent years. Many hold the idea of cop watching as a realization of the democratic potential promised to us by the Internet. Primarily drawing from the theoretical lens provided by Marshall McLuhan, however, this essay argues that the medium is the message or, rather, the use of vid…
Hip-Hop and Procedural Justice
Despite its popularity, hip-hop has remained one of the most woefully underexamined topics within criminal justice and criminology. Given the reality that hip-hop music represents lyrical expressions from criminal justice's most overrepresented population; the aforementioned paucity is all the more perplexing. Utilizing a latent and manifest content analysis of a random sample of 200 hip-hop songs, drawn from platinum-selling albums between the y…
Decrypting Social Engineering
Ruminations on Warning Banners, Deterrence, and System Intrusion Research
i t y W hen we consider the myriad examples of high-profile computer intrusions, frauds, deceptions, and other illicit activities in recent times, there is perhaps an understandable degree of public concern regarding information security.The late modern mediascape is awash with stories of sordid security compromises and technological high jinks.Much like when other crime panics occur, the burning question for many is "how do we stop these crimina…
A Probation Profanation
Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice have received increasing scrutiny recently. Little attention, however, has been directed toward understanding inequality in the area of probation. The current study addresses this dearth through two analyses of 14,365 probation cases. The first involves a logistic regression analysis, which examines race/ethnicity against probation failure. Using probation success as a control outcome, the second …
The Greatest Crime Syndicate since the Gambinos
The current study presents a content analysis of articles, editorials, short stories, and book reviews from the widely read and disseminated hacker zine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, which were examined for author discussions of governments, law, law enforcement, and government officials. A total of five themes were uncovered. The first three themes are part of a hacker critique of governments that describe these institutions as controlling, as inc…
Hip-Hop and Procedural Justice
Despite its popularity, hip-hop has remained one of the most woefully underexamined topics within criminal justice and criminology. Given the reality that hip-hop music represents lyrical expressions from criminal justice's most overrepresented population; the aforementioned paucity is all the more perplexing. Utilizing a latent and manifest content analysis of a random sample of 200 hip-hop songs, drawn from platinum-selling albums between the y…
Message Received
As the Internet begins to encapsulate more people within online communities, it is important that the social researcher have well-rounded ethnographic methodologies for observing these phenomena. This article seeks to contribute to methodology by detailing and providing insights into three specific facets of virtual ethnography that need attention: space and time, identity and authenticity, and ethics. Because the Internet is a globalized and ins…
The Greatest Crime Syndicate since the Gambinos
The current study presents a content analysis of articles, editorials, short stories, and book reviews from the widely read and disseminated hacker zine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, which were examined for author discussions of governments, law, law enforcement, and government officials. A total of five themes were uncovered. The first three themes are part of a hacker critique of governments that describe these institutions as controlling, as inc…
Under the Pixelated Jolly Roger
Digital piracy—a type of copyright infringement—is a global phenomenon that allegedly contains grave economic consequences for intellectual property industries. Its pervasiveness has produced a global piracy subculture. This article describes our study of digital pirates who actively participate in an on-line discussion board dedicated to copyright infringement. It explores their motivations, techniques of neutralization, and contradictions withi…
Watching the Watchers and McLuhan's Tetrad
Video-taping police actions as a form of political activism—also known as “cop watching”—has been an activity which has garnered much scrutiny and media attention in recent years. Many hold the idea of cop watching as a realization of the democratic potential promised to us by the Internet. Primarily drawing from the theoretical lens provided by Marshall McLuhan, however, this essay argues that the medium is the message or, rather, the use of vid…
Building Legal Competency
This article argues for the need to build legal competency in the discipline of criminal justice and criminology through incorporating law courses in its PhD program curriculum, whether as black letter law (i.e. criminal law, criminal procedure, courts), sociology of law, or socio-legal studies (i.e. law and society courses). Through requiring law courses as a necessary and integral part of the curriculum, and recognizing the mainstream impact of…
Craft(y)ness
Journal Article Craft(y)ness: An Ethnographic Study of Hacking Get access Kevin F. Steinmetz Kevin F. Steinmetz * *Kevin F. Steinmetz, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Kansas State University, 204 Waters Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA; [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 55, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 125–145, https://do…
Inequality on probation
The effect of race, gender, offense type, location, assessment scores, as well as key interaction terms based on race were examined on multiple probation outcomes. Extending the racial equity research to offenders supervised within the community, results suggest that African American males fare worse on multiple supervision outcomes. In addition, the research found that women were less likely to receive alternative probation outcomes. Suggestions…
Anything but boring
There is perhaps no experience in late modernity more universal than boredom. This analysis therefore responds to Ferrell’s call to take boredom seriously in the study of crime and crime control. Our analysis of boredom draws from three separate qualitative analyses of police detectives, computer hackers, and prisoners serving life sentences to reveal boredom’s influence across the criminological spectrum. Drawing from cultural criminology, this …
Hacked
Public discourse, from pop culture to political rhetoric, portrays the figure of the hacker distinctly: a deceptive, digital villain. But what do we actually know about hackers? In Hacked, Kevin F. Steinmetz explores what it means to be a hacker and the nuances of hacker culture. Through extensive interviews with hackers, observations of hacker communities, and analyses of hacker cultural products, Steinmetz demystifies the figure of the hacker a…
A Probation Profanation
Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice have received increasing scrutiny recently. Little attention, however, has been directed toward understanding inequality in the area of probation. The current study addresses this dearth through two analyses of 14,365 probation cases. The first involves a logistic regression analysis, which examines race/ethnicity against probation failure. Using probation success as a control outcome, the second …
Carceral horror
Prisons have become regular fixtures in late modern media. Despite this ubiquity, little research has been conducted examining representations of prisons and punishment within one of the most popular forms of contemporary entertainment media: video games. Drawing from cultural criminology and Gothic criminology, the current study examines punitive and carceral elements in the horror video game franchise of Silent Hill. Eight games within the seri…
Ruminations on Warning Banners, Deterrence, and System Intrusion Research
i t y W hen we consider the myriad examples of high-profile computer intrusions, frauds, deceptions, and other illicit activities in recent times, there is perhaps an understandable degree of public concern regarding information security.The late modern mediascape is awash with stories of sordid security compromises and technological high jinks.Much like when other crime panics occur, the burning question for many is "how do we stop these crimina…
Wicked Overseers
In recent times, several tragic events have brought attention to the relationship between policing and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Scholars, activists, and pundits have clamored to explain tensions that have arisen from these police-related deaths. The authors contribute to the discussion by asserting that contemporary policing in America, and its relationship to racial inequality, is only the latest chapter in a broader histor…
Under the skin of probation
This analysis examines the inter- and intra-racial/ethnicity effects of skin tone variations in a sample of probationers across three dependent variables: probation length, successful completion, and revocation due to technical violations. Darker tones were linked to shorter probation terms with the exception of African Americans, among whom no effect was found. Darker tones were also associated with a decreased likelihood of successful probation…
Hacked
Inside the life of a hacker and cybercrime culture. Public discourse, from pop culture to political rhetoric, portrays hackers as deceptive, digital villains. But what do we actually know about them? In Hacked, Kevin F. Steinmetz explores what it means to be a hacker and the nuances of hacker culture. Through extensive interviews with hackers, observations of hacker communities, and analyses of hacker cultural products, Steinmetz demystifies the …
Decrypting Social Engineering
Decoding the Binary
Research has demonstrated that hacker subculture – like many other tech-oriented communities – is disproportionately composed of men. While prior attempts have been made to explain this disparity, few, if any, explore the role of subculture in this gendered divide. Drawing from feminist theories, subcultural theory, and cultural criminology, this theoretical analysis examines the intersection of gender, social structure, hegemony, situated action…
Performing social engineering
Examining the Role of Power-Control Theory and Self-Control to Account for Computer Hacking
Criminological inquiry consistently identifies a gender difference in offending rates, which are also evident among certain forms of cybercrime. The gender difference in cybercrime offending is particularly large within computer hacking, though few have specifically addressed this issue through applications of criminological theory. The current study attempted to account for the gender disparity in hacking through a test of power-control theory, …
Enacting social engineering
Falling for Social Engineering
The current study examines recommendations for addressing organizational members who fall prey to social engineering as a matter of organizational policy through a qualitative analysis of interviews with organizational IT security administrators, IT security auditors, and social engineers. The results of this analysis indicate that participants had an aversion to punitive approaches to security failures. Instead, they tended to favor education as…
Perilous Policing
Revisiting the tautology problem in rational choice theory
Criminological rational choice theory is blighted by tautology—that if a crime occurs, then by definition the benefits must exceed the costs. The current analysis details the nature of this tautology as well as its theoretical and philosophical implications concerning the circumstances under which offenders make rational (thoughtful and reflective) or irrational (habitual, intuitive, or instinctual) choices. In short, rational choice theorists ap…
Hacked
Sociology (22 works) · Criminology (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Law (15 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies (8 works)