The Problem of Computer Crime

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As our technology has greatly advanced over the past 50 years, our businesses, people, and its governments have been greatly affected by this new technology. With the vast capabilities of computers, the Internet, storage capability, and the manipulation of data, today's world has been changed forever. Although the benefits greatly outweigh the disadvantages, unless we take a more serious look at this new technology, more people will be hurt, from businesses, families, individuals, and most importantly, our children. Even as new technology has created more uses for its users, firewalls, password protections, and new programs to safeguard our children when viewing the Internet, our vulnerability increases with our perceived values and reliance on this new technology. There are new increased opportunities for the deviant individual than was ever thought of.

Computer crime started almost 40 years ago with what was called a hacker. Since that time computer crime has been expanded to include espionage both industrial and governmental, security risks, white-collar crime to include disgruntled employees who "fix" a program, or delete certain files from certain programs, and from embezzlement. Due to the advance technology of computers, including advances that are old before they are placed on the market, certain criminal enterprises find as many ways that they can use these technologies to advance themselves either for financial gain, child pornography, are the use of viruses just to show the world that they can do it for fun and kicks or just to hurt anyone. Due to the disadvantages of this wondrous technology certain laws are being passed just to try and put a dent in this arena. Unfortunately, for every one individual you arrest ten more go free, even our law enforcement agencies are swamped and at this time, there is no light at the end of tunnel. The areas to be investigated in this paper are pedophiles, hackers, how it affects the banking industry, software thievery, and how it effects everyday businesses.

According to Wasch (1985), software thievery is out of control and security managers do not have a firm control of this problem. Many employees make copies of software programs, thinking that this is "ok" when in fact it is not. Many software companies spend untold hours and millions of dollars in making a software program. When a em...

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...de the power group." To state this in laymans terms, very few of the right side of the law will object to the creation of laws that are placed to protect the innocent, where those who do object, are those that may possibly be on the wrong side of the law.

With the radical conflict perspective, there is an inequality in the distribution of power, and scarcity of the resources. This inequality is the difference of "power", those with and those without. Within this perspective, there is a class struggle and its effect on crime. There are three different fronts on which crime could be affected. The first one is that the law in itself is the means in which the ruling party can enforce on others. The second front is according to radical criminologists is the why they view crime in itself. These criminologists believe that the product of class struggle is all crime which in itself causes individualism and competition within themselves. The third front is that a surplus of labor may cause problems. If we have more labors than there are jobs, then these unemployed individuals will turn to whatever means are available to them, to support their families, habits, and themselves.

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