Assignment:
History of Information Technology and the Criminal Justice System
Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Out of the Beta Phase: Obstacles, Challenges, and Promising Paths in the Study of Cyber Criminology and A Brief History of Cyber Crime online resources, and watch the videos, James Lyne: Everyday Cybercrime - and What You Can Do about It and Protecting Consumers from Cybercrime.
The United States' criminal justice system began with the creation of the U.S. Constitution. Well over 200 years ago, the founding fathers could not have anticipated the ways in which technology would change the way Americans live, interact, and conduct business. Your 400 word minimum initial post for this discussion should track how the criminal justice system has sought to deal with information technology and crime.
In your initial post, examine how historical criminal justice investigative methods may or may not be applicable to investigate cyber crime. Provide at least one example of a cyber crime that cannot be investigated by "traditional" investigation methods. (This may be a real-world case or hypothetical construct.)
Required Resources
Articles
Diamond, B., Bachman, M. (2015). Out of the beta phase: Obstacles, challenges, and promising paths in the study of cyber criminology. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 9(1), 24-34.
The article provides students with the current state of cyber criminological study with regard to theory and research. This article details the fundamental issues and problems facing criminal justice professionals.
Mahoney, M. S. (1988). The history of computing in the history of technology. Annals of the History of Computing, 10(2), 113-125.
This article tracks many of the major issues created by the advance of technology since World War II.
University Alliance. (2016). A brief history of cyber crime.
This online article provides a brief history of how cyber crime began and has evolved.
Multimedia
The Justice Department. (2014, October 16). Protecting consumers from cybercrime.
This video provides former Attorney General, Eric Holder's, two minute explanation of cyber crime threats to consumers. This video includes accurate closed captioning.
Lyne, J. (2013, February). James Lyne: Everyday cybercrime - and what you can do about it.
In this 17-minute video, James Lyne explains how computer viruses attack computers and how to help prevent becoming a victim of such crimes. This video has closed captioning and a transcript that can be accessed here:
Recommended Resources
Web Page
Copeland, J. (2006). The modern history of computing
This article provides a brief history of computing and is broken down in easy to ascertain sub-headings which allow students to easily access pertinent aspects of the history of computing.
Website
MSCJ Resources
This resource site will provide assistance in researching additional sources for the assessments within this course.