Criminal justice and cybercrime may be two different disciplines within a college, but they are not different in practice. Criminal justice is the implementation of consequence to criminals after they commit a crime. Cybercrime is just one of many crimes that our society has created consequence for.

The criminal justice system is one of the ways to deal with crime, but the other function is that it serves as a deterrent for committing the crime in the first place. If punishment is assured for any given crime and if that punishment outweighs any potential gain from committing the crime, then criminals will be less likely to commit the crime. The challenge with cybercrime is that the methods and techniques to obfuscate the criminal’s identity and in fact the in some circumstances even the crime itself. The current criminal justice system is well adjusted to dealing with crime other than cybercrime. We are efficient at building institutions to support traditional crime and criminals. Our work force and institutions are not efficient or effective at building a work force to detect and deal with cybercrime. This is largely due to the lack of institutional knowledge, but it is also a result of the dynamic nature of cybercrime. 

As much, if not more, a challenge is with the detection and acknowledgment of the crime occurring. Declaring yourself a victim of cybercrime remains taboo which results in a delayed reporting cycle. Often private companies and governments alike try to deal with cybercrime internally and not calling upon a public entity. 

Criminal Justice and cybercrime both relate to software development and engineering. We can deter cyber criminals with published penalties and hardened systems that employ best practices. I significant amount of cybercrime is reconnaissance in nature. Not presenting yourself or your system to be a vulnerable target is an effective component in not being exploited.

Across the interrelationship of cybercrime and criminal justice we collectively have a lot of maturing to do.