The unique parts about cyberspace make it a lot harder for law enforcement to investigate and look into crimes. In society and technology now, people can hide behind fake accounts, use different technologies to cover their tracks, and commit crimes from just about anywhere in the world. This makes it difficult for police and investigators to figure out who actually committed the crime and where it happened at. One example is fraud. Fraud used to usually happened face to face or through the mail, but now scammers can trick thousands of people online through fake websites, emails, phone calls and social media accounts while staying anonymous.

Based on the reading by Payne and Hadzhidimova, I think there is a delay between technology-related crime and criminal justice research because technology changes so fast. New cyber threats appear all the time, but research studies, textbooks, and college courses take much longer to update. Many criminal justice researchers may also focus more on traditional crimes because cybersecurity has often been seen as a topic mainly for computer scientists.

One course that helps connect social science and technology is “Cyber and Surveillance Law and Governance.” This combines technology with laws and government policies. Students learn how tools work while also studying the legal and ethical issues that come as a part of using them. This helps people understand both the technical and human sides of cybersecurity.

I think the criminal justice system should do both. Specialized cyber units are important because they have the skills to handle complicated cybercrime cases. At the same time, all police officers and detectives should learn the basics of digital evidence because technology is involved in so many crimes today.