Further Readings
Tyler, T. R. (2006). Viewing CSIand the threshold of guilt:
Managing truth and justice in reality and fiction. Yale Law
Journal, 115,1050–1085.CYBERCRIME
There is no agreed precise definition of the term
cybercrime, but in a general sense, it has been used to
describe any illegal activities conducted through the
use of a computer or network of computers. Some
researchers have emphasized that it is crime that takes
place on the Internet, which has led to a more compre-
hensive definition of illegal computer-mediated activ-
ities that often take place in global electronic
networks. Such crime includes computer hacking,
Internet fraud, identity theft, and the illegal transfer of
technologies. Increasingly, psychological research in
this area also makes reference to cyberstalking,
cyberterrorism, and Internet child pornography as
examples of cybercrime.
Much of what is referred to as cybercrime might be
thought of as traditional crime that is committed
through the use of new tools. If we think of cybercrime
in this way, we can see that many traditional crimes
can be conducted with the Internet as a source of
communication—for example, the sharing of pedophile
information. The Internet has also opened up new
opportunities for other traditional crimes, such as fraud
and deception. In both these instances, the criminal
activity is not dependent on the new technologies but
is certainly aided and possibly transformed by them.
There are many newer crimes that can only be perpe-
trated within cyberspace, among which are intellectual
property theft, identity theft, and spamming. As new
technologies occupy an increasingly large space in our
lives, criminals are increasingly using them to engage
in criminal activities. It may also be the case that the
nature of the technologies, in particular the Internet, is
a catalyst for the emergence of some criminal behav-
iors that might otherwise not have been evidenced.
Although there is lack of agreement as to what pre-
cisely constitutes a cybercrime, one element common
to most definitions is that it involves the use of a com-
puter. The computer may be the focus, or target, of the
crime—for example, hacking or the use of a virus to
infect a computer network. It may also be the tool
used to commit the crime, such as downloading or dis-
tributing child pornography, or fraud. It may also be amedium for the use of materials gained through crim-
inal activity, such as copyright theft of DVDs, where
the person using the computer did not commit the
original illegal act but subsequently engages in illegal
activity. In this way, the computer might also be a
source of invaluable forensic evidence.
The emergence of cybercrime has mirrored the
development of the new technologies. A survey con-
ducted in 2002 by the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Computer Security Institute sug-
gested that in the previous 12 months, 90% of busi-
ness respondents had detected security breaches, from
which 80% had suffered financial loss. It is of concern
that a substantial number of these breaches were from
people within the organization, and this has become a
focus for some of the emerging research. What is it
about the new technologies that increases the likeli-
hood of people taking risks, breaching moral or ethi-
cal codes, and committing crimes? Such is the
concern about the potential for widespread criminal
activity that in 2001, 30 countries, including the
United States, signed the Council of Europe
Cybercrime Convention, which was the first multilat-
eral instrument drafted to address the problems posed
by the spread of criminal activity on computer net-
works. This Convention requires parties to establish
laws against cybercrime, ensure that law enforcement
agencies have the necessary procedural authority to
investigate and prosecute cybercrime offenses, and
provide international cooperation to other parties in
the fight against computer-related crime.Major Types of Cybercrime
Cybercrime has been broadly divided into two types,
which might lie at opposite ends of a spectrum. The
first type of cybercrime is often experienced as a dis-
crete event by the victim and is facilitated by the intro-
duction of crimeware programs, such as viruses or
Trojan horses, into the user’s computer. Examples of
this type of cybercrime might include identity theft
and bank or credit card fraud based on stolen creden-
tials. The second type of cybercrime, which lies at the
other end of the spectrum, includes activities such as
cyberstalking, child solicitation, blackmail, and cor-
porate espionage. Viewed in this way, cybercrime rep-
resents a continuum ranging from crime that is almost
entirely technological in nature to crime that is largely
related to people. Sarah Gordon and Richard Ford
divide cybercrime into two distinct categories: Type I
cybercrime, which is mostly technological in nature,Cybercrime——— 177C-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:41 PM Page 177