Taking A Closer Look At Risk Prosecution Of Computer Crimes

When computer crimes are brought to the discussion, the most common aspects of these crimes are either where one person suffers a loss, and another person makes a gain; or that a computer is used to commit an emotional or physical harm toward another individual related to a special type of bullying. However, McMullan and Perrier state that individuals have become sophisticated enough to become involved in theft and frauds that are related to electronic gambling machines where “ghost” programs are used to manipulate these machines into paying out on an arranged and predictable basis (2003). In these types of situations, players are sometimes the victims, however, the larger victim at stake is the operator that houses the machine and is at risk

Bell states that the current legislation was drafted before the personal computer was developed and the Internet became so widely used by almost everyone (2002). It is important to increase this legislation and make it applicable in modern day in order to begin properly prosecuting those who have been using computers with unlawful intentions. After updating the current legislation to further define what computer crimes actually are and how a criminal acting in this behavior can be prosecuted, the next step is to find computer literate staff that is able to prosecute the more complex computer crime cases (Bell, 2002). If the prosecutorial expertise is not sufficient and the idea of what a computer crime is and how it can be defined in numerous ways cannot be understood on all levels, it will make prosecuting these criminals that much more difficult; which is why many of these individuals have not been charged or found with serious offenses due to the fact that there has not been an established state of how serious one computer offense is in relation to the law. Once certain procedures are established and the seriousness of each computer offense is fully determined as any traditional crime is, then the final steps into prosecuting individuals whom are caught misusing these computers can be prosecuted to the fullest capabilities of the law. In order for these prosecutions to be successful and even possible, it is partially up to the computer users whom are affected by these computer criminals to report any misuse or abuse that they receive from computer crimes (Bell, 2002). If these victims do not report how they have been affected by computer criminals when the event occurs, then it is not possible to find and apprehend those whom are responsible for causing harm to day-to-day computer users, as well as large corporations who may be largely affected by computer criminals. If these