Investigative Skills for the 1990 S and Beyond

COMPUTER CRIME, HIGH-TECH CRIME, AND COMPUTER FRAUD ARE ALL terms used to describe the involvement of computers in the commission of crime. Computers have become a common business and household item and come in the form of personal organisers, notebooks, laptops, desktops, networks, mini and mainframe computers. Computer technology has not introduced a new crime but has changed the form of traditional commercial-type crimes. Committing crimes by computer can be viewed as a new modus operandi in the commercial crime field. Crimes that were once committed with pen and paper are now often committed in a computer environment. Due to the changing form of business information systems, investigators are experiencing a substantial increase in the amount of computerised information forming part of current investigations. This information ranges from complainants’ computerised company records to the seizure of suspects’ computers and computerised records. Since 1980, the form of business information systems has changed substantially. Many organisations now operate some form of computerised information system ranging from word processing to entirely paperless trading (which involves only computerised transactions and documents).