Entry Nine

What is the overlap between criminal justice and cybercrime? How does this overlap relate to the other disciplines discussed in this class?

Both criminal justice studies and cybercrime studies are interdisciplinary by nature. Criminal justice involves the study of criminal justice, law, sociology, psychology, crime, ethics, corrections and courts. Cybersecurity, and cybercrime, also involve the study of the same areas. While both criminal justice and cybercrime share related elements, they differ as well. Criminal justice focuses more on the application and enforcement of the related disciplines. Cybercrime focuses more on the technology related to the application, and how the enforcement of current laws can be applied to cybercrime, or how those laws must be updated in order to give law enforcement the ability to enforce punishments on cybercrimes. The downfall of the criminal justice discipline is how the laws related to technology-based crimes can fall behind. Technology evolves extremely fast, and depending on how certain laws are written, they may not extend enforcement capabilities and punishments for cyber criminals. In these cases, certain crimes may not technically be a crime until the law can be updated.

The overlap can be extended to some other disciplines we have discussed as well. Information technology, computer science, computer engineering primarily deals with the computer-based information systems, computer software, and computer hardware. All three disciplines must also take into consideration sociology, psychology, law and ethics just like criminal justice and cybercrime. These three disciplines have to give attention to the human aspect of technology. Computer science professionals will have to consider how end users will use software created in a real-world environment, and therefore their designs must account for all possibilities so bugs are kept to a minimum. They must also consider how cyber criminals may exploit errors in programs and what those consequences may be. Information technology professionals will have to protect entire systems, both physical and computerized, from cyber criminals and end users deliberate or accidental misuse. The same can be said regarding computer engineers. All areas have to educate their end users on the consequences of breaking related criminal laws regarding the misuse of computer systems.