Electronic Crime

NIJ's Electronic Crime Program is designed to address any type of crime involving digital technology, including cyber-crime and cyber-terrorism. The goal of the program is to enable the criminal justice community to better address electronic crime by building capacity for and conduits among Federal, State, and local agencies, industry, and academia.

The program was established to address the needs identified by the law enforcement and public safety community in NIJ's, Electronic Crime Needs Assessment for State and Local Law Enforcement. That assessment found there is:

1. Insufficient resources to establish computer crime units, pursue investigations and prosecutions, and develop tools.
2. Lack of knowledge on how to structure a computer crime unit.
3. Lack of uniform training for personnel.
4. Inability to retain trained personnel.
5. Lack of knowledge of existing technical tools or other resources.
6. Insufficient technical tools.
7. Lack of standards and certification for technical tools.
8. Lack of standards and certification for training.
9. Need for updated laws and regulations.
10. Insufficient cooperation with the private sector and academia.

Helping State and Local Agencies

It is particularly critical to increase the capacity of the State and local criminal justice community to effectively combat electronic crime (visit the NIJ compiled Electronic Evidence Resource List to contact organizations that offer legal, technical, and training resources to combat e-crime). Those agencies are vital if we are to succeed in the fight again e-crime because:

• The overwhelming majority of law enforcement is at the State and local level.
• While Federal agencies have a major responsibility in combating e-crime, they cannot handle the sheer number of incidents.
• Preventing and combating e-crime depends on building relationships and partnerships in local communities. Businesses need a trusting relationship with local law enforcement agencies to deal with problems that Federal agencies do not have the resources to address.