'A badge of honor and a scarlet letter': An ethnographic study of hacker culture.

摘要

The current study involves the analysis of three key areas of hacker culture: (a) subcultural understandings of hacking, (b) background factors which may contribute to the development of a hacker, and (b) hacker perspectives on government, law, and law enforcement. The methods used in this study include ethnographic field research---including participant observation and semi-structured field interviews---in addition to content analysis of data from 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. Regarding subcultural understandings of hacking, the current study first isolates features of the hacker mentality. Hacking is then related to the sociology of labor, particularly craftwork. Transgression is then described as a central part of what it means to hack. Taken together, this study posits that hacking can be understood as a transgressive craft or craft(y). Numerous background factors are examined which may influence development as a hacker including various demographic characteristics, educational experiences, parental support and influences, experiences getting into trouble, as well as first exposures to computer technology, the idea of hacking, and the hacker community. Finally, hacker perspectives on government, law, and law enforcement are examined. These perspectives held that governments are considered to (a) involve control, (b) be incompetent, inadequate, and dysfunctional, (c) engender collateral damage through state action, and (d) be beneficial under particular circumstances, providing exceptions to previous critiques. Solutions to perceived governmental problems are then discussed through the participants' perspectives. Finally, the results are related to procedural justice and legitimacy theory. To conclude, the study offers theoretical and policy implications.;KEY WORDS: Hacking, ethnography, content analysis, qualitative criminology.