INTERNET AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The Internet: A Double-Edged Sword for Criminals and Law Enforcement



Abstract

This paper examines the issue of Internet crime as a phenomenon that is challenging the technological world and how it may be confronted by criminal justice agencies around the world. The origins of the Internet and its intended uses are included along with current user statistics. Criminal justice involvement with the Internet and its integration with technology to combat cyber crime, tools, personnel and training issues that face law enforcement are incorporated as well. The overlap of computer criminals and organized crime using the Internet is overviewed and provides a report of what criminal justice agencies are currently facing and how computer crime will increase in the future. The findings imply that the energy and innovation shown by cyber criminals must be responded to in a coordinated global effort if there is to be success in law enforcement endeavors.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Jim Dozier from Sam Houston State University in Texas for providing information on activities to which the university's College of Criminal Justice are in coordinating efforts with governmental and law enforcement offices. This information was vital to provide a conclusion for this project that contained information as to what is being done in the attempt to inform and educate personnel from the academic and practical world as well as coagulate the efforts of criminals who choose the Internet as a modern crime tool.

Table of Content

Abstract2

Acknowledgements3

Chapter 1: Introduction5

Background of the Study5

Significance of the study5

Scope of the Study6

Origins of the Internet7

Chapter 2:11

Integration of Criminal Justice and Technology11

Chapter 3:20

Crime as a Global Phenomenon20

Chapter 4:28

Activities in the United States28

Chapter 5:34

Conclusion and The Future34

The Future34

References37

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background of the Study

The Internet has become a major driving force in more or less every aspect of advancements in the society. This paper aims to explore the impact of internet on criminal justice specifically considering Internet a double edged sword for criminals and law enforcement agencies.

Significance of the study

The Internet has created more opportunities and transfigured the computer and global communication as no other invention in modern times. The world of communication has taken broader leaps in the last 40 years than at any other time in history. What once took several days or weeks can now happen in seconds. And, this now occurs with greater accuracy. The Internet has no speed limitations. Imagine a highway you can travel in your car at a million miles an hour. You can do a million miles an hour only restricted to the size of the highway (bandwidth) or the traffic (congestion on the Net). Due to this capability, the Internet has become a research tool, a means of instant global communication, caused a diminishment of geographic distance, and is the most successful delivery vehicle of knowledge and information in history.

Those who developed the Internet had the legitimate intentions of disseminating information and increasing knowledge. The abuse of this worldwide system degrades these positive intentions by causing uncertainty, victimization, and a ...