NCJ Number
86968
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The magnitude of the potential harm of computer crime warrants Federal legislation specific to it, based upon Federal power to regulate commerce and punish crimes where the Government itself is the victim.
Abstract
Because there is presently no sanction that deals specifically with computer-related crime, any enforcement action related to such crime must rely upon a statute dealing with some other offense such as theft, embezzlement, or even the illegal conversion of trade secrets. Trying to make these traditional laws fit a particular form of modern criminality is frequently awkward and can lead to dismissal. A limited approach to Federal legislation would be to address computer crime involving Federal Government-owned computers and federally insured financial institutions. A broader approach would target crime involving computers used in or affecting interstate commerce. Proscribed conduct would include (1) fraud in the use of a computer, where the computer is the vehicle much as the mails and wire communication are the vehicles in the mail and wire fraud statutes; (2) theft of property, services, or money through the use of these computers; and (3) the illegal use, damage, or destruction of such computers. In the Ribicoff legislation (S. 240), classical fraud language was used to suggest reliance on existing legal interpretations of mail and wire fraud cases, so as to ensure that the computer fraud statute would have solid legal underpinnings in covering virtually any type of bogus scheme using the designated computers.