NCJ Number
219494
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 97 Issue: 2 Dated: Winter 2007 Pages: 601-629
Date Published
2007
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This article argues for a community policing model to combat cybercrime that relies on the use of open source software.
Abstract
The main argument is that the effective fight against cybercrime requires a methodology developed on the community policing model that places the power to deter and prevent cybercrime in the hands of individual computer users. One strategy for achieving this community policing model against cybercrime is to use open source software in which users are given access to the underlying source code and may make modifications to it in order to strengthen vulnerabilities that may enable cybercrime. In making this argument, the author shows how current strategies deployed by law enforcement agencies to prevent and identify cybercrime have proven ineffective. These strategies tend to rely on traditional policing techniques that are usually ill-suited to prevent crime in the cyber world. On the other hand, the development of the community policing model offers an interesting avenue for the development of like strategies for the prevention and identification of cybercrime. Using open source software is a unique way to apply community policing strategies to the cyber world because it allows software programmers and developers to monitor the code that shapes cyberspace and deters cybercrimes. The author further argues that the government should take an active role in promoting the use of open source software but that, in this case, the increased use of open source software lies in the hands of the private sector--those who write, use, and distribute computer software. The government can take an active role in promoting open source software by offering subsidies to open source software developers. Footnotes