Beginning in 2005, a dramatic upswing in the frequency of theft and violent crime occurred in some major American cities, despite continuing economic prosperity. Noting that many of the new perpetrators fell into the “under 18” age class, rather than the 18-25 age class that has historically been responsible for the majority of crimes in the U.S., and that many of the thefts involved personal consumer electronics, most notably Apple’s iPod MP3 player, a new term was coined to describe the trend: “iCrime”. iCrime is best defined as the theft, often accompanied by violence, of personal items emblematic of a lifestyle of “conspicuous consumption”. In the lexicon of the urban United States, iCrime is the “theft of bling from the clueless”, i.e. those who are unaware of their surroundings due to interaction with extravagant personal electronics.
Although some argue that the term iCrime is only applicable to the theft of personal electronics used for the transfer of information (e.g. cell phones, iPods, laptop computers, portable automotive satellite navigation devices, GPS units), others claim that iCrime represents a broader social phenomenon—an anti-capitalist reaction to the ostentatious displays of unearned opulence associated with the hip-hop lifestyle.
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