Foreword

With the virtual explosion of technological advances in the 1980’s, computers and their applications have become an integral and indispensible part of our society and its institutions. Computers were found in one home in a hundred at the beginning of the decade—by 1987 one in five households had them. Today they are as common a business tool as the ledger or the cash register. Given this dramatic increase in the use and accessibility of computers in the home and in business, it is not surprising to see an increase in the use of computers in the commission of crime.

Law enforcement faces new challenges as it seeks to strengthen capabilities for successfully investigating and prosecuting computer crime into the 1990’s. Use of computers has proliferated not only in traditional crimes of theft such as embezzlement and fraud; increasingly, drug rings, prostitution rings, child pornographers and pedophiles have turned to computers to facilitate their illicit operations just as legitimate businesses do. Police say they arrive at the scene of these criminal networks and discover computers in operation.

Detectives and prosecutors realize that if law enforcement is to make greater inroads in investigating and prosecuting these types of cases, they need to become conversant with computer operations. In fact, the 1986 National Assessment Program Survey conducted by the National Institute of Justice found that 65 percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs sampled considered approaches for handling computer crime to be a high priority for further research and information sharing.

As part of its response to this need, the National Institute of Justice has published this resource manual for the criminal justice system. An earlier edition produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics proved to be an invaluable resource for criminal justice. This edition reflects the tremendous technological advances and statutory changes of the past decade. It is intended as a training and reference guide for investigators and prosecutors—and should prove useful to those who have limited knowledge of computers as well as to those who are familiar with computer operations.

Two companion volumes, Organizing for Computer Crime Investigation and Prosecution and Dedicated Computer Crime Units, are other important parts of NIJ’s effort to provide resources to law enforcement so they can meet the challenges posed by computer crime. These reports show how state and local jurisdictions have responded to confront the growing problem of computer-related crime.

The proud history of law enforcement in the United States has been marked by a remarkable capacity to successfully confront and overcome new challenges. With the publication of these volumes, the National Institute of Justice hopes to assist law enforcement and prosecutorial efforts to meet the challenges they face combating crime in the computer age.

James K. Stewart
Director