Introduction
Bruce T. Fraser, J.D.
Contents
of COMPUTER CRIME RESEARCH
RESOURCES
Definition
of "Computer Crime"
As digital technology has advanced over the past 50-odd years with a force unprecedented in history, governments, businesses and people around the world have been affected immeasurably. The already enormous and exponentially growing capacities for electronic storage, transmission and rapid manipulation of binary data changed the modern landscape virtually overnight, making the world of today's children unrecognizable in many ways to those of earlier generations. Perhaps with some of the bias (or na�vet�) that is part of my generation, I consider it axiomatic that the changes have included substantial benefits. However, such fundamental restructuring in society also results in certain disadvantages, on all levels. Our vulnerability increases with the perceived value of and reliance on this technology. Increased opportunities for the industrious to be more productive also allow the less-upright new avenues for malevolence.
This compilation of information presents research resources for those interested in the topic of computer crime. The explosion of new and pertinent statutory law over the past two decades reflects society's attempts to wrestle with an ancient phenomenon in a modern context. Wrongs of all sorts occur all the time, and individuals and organizations address them, if at all, variously in different contexts. But only the sovereign can take a person's life or liberty (as well as property), and then only after due process of law to address the commission of crimes which a legislature has specified in advance. Thus, of all the inequities which significantly involve or revolve around a computer, only those labeled as crimes mark the limits of behavior beyond which certain civil rights of the perpetrator are subject to forfeiture. Coupled with the fascinations of our Information Age, the world of criminal justice provides an interesting vantage point to assess how our complex community tries to restrain itself while racing into the future.
It remains to be seen whether the current approaches to deter and redress
computer crime will prove successful. Case law has been slow to develop.
Most likely, it is still early in a nascent wave of inevitable prosecutions.
All elements of law enforcement are themselves ? by and large ? early in
developing an understanding of the nature of these offenses and how best
to enforce the law. It is hoped that this Web page will provide another
helpful resource for all of those interested in finding the primary and
secondary materials necessary to fulfill the ends of their research. The
materials referenced combine traditional bibliographic features with those
of the increasingly common webliography. Statutory law, case law, scholarly
articles and texts, popular works, and news reports are included, as well
as various search engines to query indexes to these items and more. Of
particular note are the index and search capabilities created locally with
the Harvest Information Discovery
and Access System, which was used to build a searchable index of relevant
materials automatically, using this compilation as a matrix or guide from
which to launch its traversing of the Web in search of materials to index.
Please give the Harvest System a try
and share any comments or suggestions
for improvement. And enjoy.
Defined broadly, the term "computer crime" could reasonably
include a wide variety of criminal offenses, activities, or issues. The
potential scope is even larger when using the frequent companion or substitute
term "computer-related crime." Given the pervasiveness of computers
in everyday life, even in the lives of those who have never operated a
computer, there is almost always some nontrivial nexus between crime and
computers. This is especially the case when factoring in the extensive
use of computers in evidence, investigations, and court administration.
Nevertheless, something far less than such a panoramic view of "computer
crime" comes to mind ? at least my mind ? when the term is used. And
as the phrase is evolving into a term of art, the narrower set of meanings
has become more prevalent in the literature. One noteworthy example is
the FBI National Computer Crime
Squad's (NCCS) list of crime categories it investigates:
Although its charge limits the NCCS to investigating violations of the
federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (Pub. L. No. 99-474, 100 Stat.
1213 (1986), amending 18
U.S.C. � 1030), the coverage is still rather broad.
The important point is that Congress defined in that statute all relevant
terms necessary to fulfill the constitutional requirements of stating in
advance what constitutes criminal behavior. The same occurs in the legislative
creation of all substantive law which outlines criminal offenses and their
consequences, whether state or federal. Thus, "computer crime"
is what the people speaking in their sovereign voice through their elected
representatives say it is.
For an in-depth discussion of computer crime generally, see the United
Nations Manual on the Prevention and Control of Computer-Related Crime.
Part of that discussion includes a section entitled "Definition
of computer crime."
As is it hoped is the case with this site, there are a number of online resources providing excellent coverage of the issues and available information regarding computer crime and law generally. One of them was cited in the immediately preceding paragraph: the United Nations Manual on the Prevention and Control of Computer-Related Crime. Among the others are the following:
This set of documents was initially produced for a Directed Individual
Study (DIS), LIS 5900r, with Dr.
Charles Wm. Conaway in the School
of Library and Information Studies at Florida
State University. Upon completion for the DIS, it became the basis
for another project in Theory of Information Retrieval, LIS 5261,
with Dr. Myke Gluck, wherein
the Harvest Information Discovery
and Access System was employed to: (a) search the Web robotically for
new, additional, and/or modified sites with material relevant to computer
crime; (b) extract relevant information into a local database; (c) index
the local database; and (d) provide a query interface for users to search
this Research Resource's database.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please email me at [email protected].
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Copyright © 1996 by Bruce T. Fraser