Computer Crime
CRJ 105- Crime and Criminal Behavior 08 September 2014

Computer Crime Computer crime corresponds with what is known as Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism. Computer crime is often times defined as one where the computer is the victim (Stephenson & Gilbert, 2013). According to the text there are four main categories of computer crime which are, the computer as a target, the computer being an instrument of a crime, the computer being incidental to a crime, and crimes associated with the prevalence of computers (Taylor, Fritsch, Liederbach, & Holt, 2011).
4 Categories of Computer Crime

The Computer as a Target In crimes where the computer is the main target “the attack seeks to deny the legitimate user or owner of the system access to their data or computer” (Taylor et al., 2011). An attack that is aimed at the computer is meant to destroy the computers system and its data. For example, if a hacker decided to hack into a large corporations system and give it an immediate virus that would attack their database and destroy the computer systems entirely, then that would indicate that the computer was the primary target.
The Computer as an Instrument of a Crime When the computer is being used to gain or commit another criminal act it then becomes an instrument to a crime (Taylor et al., 2011). In other words the computer provided services to the committing of a crime. An example of this kind of crime is if someone were to hack into a computer database to get a bank code or a code to a safety deposit, then that would be using the computer as a tool to get something that would be used to commit a crime elsewhere.

The Computer as Incidental to a Crime
The facilitation of a criminal transaction by the use of a computer is when the computer becomes incidental to a crime (Taylor et al., 2011). The internet can be used for illegal activities such as the selling of drugs or prostitution. Only when someone receives money through the use of a computer or makes a transaction for something that is illegal by law, only then is a computer incidental to a crime.
Crimes Associated with the Prevalence of Computers “Targets of these types of crimes are mainly the industry itself. These crimes include intellectual property violations, component theft, counterfeiting, identity theft, and a variety of corporate offenses” (Taylor et al., 2011).
Greatest Overall Threat Because the war on terrorism is still in effect since post 9/11, computer crime has become a means for terrorist to access information from databases illegally. Because of this being a threat to nations worldwide our greatest overall threat would be when a computer is an instrument to a crime. This specific category of computer crime embodies much of the information that is within the other three categories. Information is taken this way and not only gives the perpetrator a chance to commit the crime on the computer but also in person, or by other means.
Addressing the Issue Computer crime is an easy thing to commit but it is hard to put a stop to. Because society is so dependent on technology today, it makes it harder to put a limit on such a valuable resource that is needed as an everyday use. Much has been done to protect our systems from being targets to threats of all kinds so that accessibility to private or important information is harder obtain. To prevent existing and future computer crimes there needs to be constant ideas of how to better this situation. The government should have the people more aware of the danger of computer