Computer and Internet Crime, Juvenile

Police futurist William Tafoya predicted in 1990 that computer-related crimes would increase dramatically. He noted that high-technology crimes would [Page 73]become increasingly complex, leading police to become mere report takers, lacking the technological expertise to adequately combat cybercrime.

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Louis Freeh, testifying in 2000 before the Subcommittee for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies of the Senate Committee on Appropriations stated that there were more than 100 million Internet users in the United States in 1999, and Internet use is projected to reach 177 million in the United States and 502 million worldwide by the end of 2003. During the same period, electronic commerce doubled to $100 billion from 1998 to 1999 and is expected to exceed $1 trillion by the year 2003. Once thought to be a mere nuisance, denial-of-service attacks, which deliberately flood a computer with more requests for information than it can handle, have had a dramatic impact on many people and businesses.

Meyer and Thomas (1990) examined the relationship between cybercrime and juveniles from an ethno-graphic standpoint. Mirroring the growth in computer technology is a “computer underground” composed of individuals who hack into computers. This behavior is often considered to be deviant behavior rather than criminal, particularly if there seems to be no monetary loss. Meyer and Thomas characterized members of the underground as, in effect, a shadow society with its own set of values, rules and regulations, and networks.

The society of “hackers” has been characterized in a number of ways, ranging from “crazy kids dedicated to making mischief” to computer saboteurs to “hightech street gangs.” Unfortunately, characterizations by the media fail to distinguish between the curious hacker who enters computer systems to see of it can be done and the criminal who enters a company's computer system to damage or destroy data or the company's ability to use the system.