or merely another burglary? Does copying a friend’s
program disks constitute a computer crime? The answer to each of these questions
may depend on various jurisdictions.4
The United States
Department of Justice (DOJ) has defined computer crime as “any violation
of criminal law that involved the knowledge of computer technology for its
perpetration, investigation, or prosecution.”5 Some experts
have suggested that DOJ’s definition could encompass a series of crimes
that have nothing to do with computers. For example, if an auto theft investigation
required a detective to use “knowledge of computer technology” to
investigate a vehicle’s identification number (VIN) in a states’s
department of motor vehicle database, under DOJ guidelines, auto theft could
be classified as a computer crime. While the example may stretch the boundaries
of logic, it demonstrates the difficulties inherent in attempting to describe
and classify computer criminality.
Over the past 15 years, several
international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization
of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Council of Europe, the
G-8,6 and Interpol, all have worked to combat the problem of computer
crime.7 These organizations have provided guidance in understanding
this problem. Yet, despite their efforts, no single definition of computer
crime has emerged that the majority of criminal justice professionals use.
Although many state and federal laws define terms, such as “unauthorized
access to a computer system” and “computer sabotage,”
neither Title 18 nor any of the state penal codes provide a definition for
the term computer crime.
" To decrease the incidence of computer crime, law enforcement agencies must work with private organizations...."
| Mr. Goodman, former head of the Los Angeles, California, Police Department’s Internet Unit, also has served as a law enforcement policy advisor in the U.S. Department of the Treasury | |
Defining criminal phenomena is important because it allows police officers, detectives, prosecutors, and judges to speak intelligently about a given criminal offense. Furthermore, generally accepted definitions facilitate the aggregation of statistics, which law enforcement can analyze to reveal previously undiscovered criminal threats and patterns.
Benefits of Reporting Computer Crime Statistics
Crime statistics serve
an important role in law enforcement. First, they allow for the appropriate
allocation of very limited resources. For example, if a community suffered a
73 percent increase in the number of sexual assaults, police administrators
immediately would take steps to address the problem by adding
more rape investigators, extra patrol in the specific area, and increased community
awareness projects. The aggregation of crime data allows police to formulate
a response to a problem. Anecdotal evidence suggests that computer crime presents
a growing problem for the public, police, and governments, all who rely on crime
statistics for the development of their criminal justice policies and the allocation
of extremely limited resources. For police to respond successfully to these
crimes in the future, they must increase the resources their departments currently
dedicate to the problem—a difficult task.
Agencies must justify training,
equipment, and personnel costs necessary to create a computer-competent police
force. How can law enforcement managers justify these costs to community leaders
without appropriate data to substantiate their claims? Police must document
the problem with factual
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