Cyber Crime And The Criminal Justice System

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With the advancement of new technology, criminals have found new outlets to commit crime. New technologies, such as computers and the internet, have created opportunities to defraud, steal, and potentially harm others. Today, cyber-attacks, also known as cybercrime, is defined as any illegal activity that uses a computer as its primary means of commission (Siegel & Worrall, 2014). Over the last few decades, cybercrimes have been becoming more and more sophisticated. For example, criminals have targeted both private and the public-sector networks, while citizens are targeted by identity thieves, and children are targeted by online predators (“Cyber Crime,” 2016). This new wave of crime has challenged our criminal justice system. For the …show more content…
The increase of the internet has opened the doors to theft, fraud, and abuse. Criminals who engage in this type of activity, uses modern technology to illegally gain goods and services. Laudon & Laudon (2014) define cybertheft as an illegal activity that utilizes a computer as its primary source of commission. One example of cybertheft is identity theft, which is a crime where an imposter obtains personal information, such as social security numbers, driver’s license, credit cards, or banking information to personate someone else. With access to this information, criminals may use this information to obtain products, services, open line of credits under the name of the victim. A recent Identity Fraud Report conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, found that identity fraud affected 5.26 percent of Americans, which calculated a total loss of $21 billion dollars (Laudon & Laudon, …show more content…
As of today, the government is doing a good job at being proactive and working with other organizations. The FBI has established working relationships with the public and the private industry. For example, InfraGard is a successful public-private partnership that allows state, local, tribal law enforcement, and other government agencies to work together in deterring attacks (“Cybersecurity,” 2011). Today, the criminal justice system has a well-structured establishment towards combating crime. However, the only suggestion made would be that the criminal justice system stay one step ahead and keep an open line of communications towards with other