The Concept of Computer Crime

• Author: ?tef?nu? Radu
• Position: Assistant Associate Professor, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania
• Pages: 33-43

ISSN: 2067 – 9211 Legal Sciences in the New Millennium

33

The Concept of Computer Crime

Ștefănuț Radu1

Abstract: The object of this scientific study is represented by the analysis of the concept of co mputer crime

also called computer-oriented crime, which is not generally acknowledged or accepted.The result of the study

consists in analysing the evolution of computer crime.The conclusion is that certain legal provisions shall lead,

sooner or later, to an Internet Law.

Keywords: computer crime; Internet Law; illegal action

Computer crime is a phenomenon of our times, frequently reflected in the media. A study even indicates

that the fear of cyber attacks far outweighs that of ordinary thefts or frauds. Criminological research on

offenses committed through computer systems are still in the exploratory process. Even those achieved

so far tend to change the classical way in which crimes are viewed in the current criminal justice systems.

(Amza, 2003, p. 14).

The specialists in the field have defined the phenomenon in many ways, not reaching a common point,

because of the complexity of this criminal act, and the different ways of regulating the computer crime

in each state have led to the impossibility of creating an international legal pattern.

The concept of computer crime has received several definitions, including: any crime in which a

computer or computer network is the subject of a crime, or in which a computer or computer network is

the instrument or means of committing a crime; any unlawful, unethical or unauthorized behaviour

regarding automatic data processing and/or data transmission.

Computer systems currently provide new opportunities, some even sophisticated, for violation of laws

and create a high potential for committing types of crimes committed other than in known, traditional

ways. Although the society, as a whole, pays for all the economic damage caused by “computer crime”,

it continues to rely on computerized systems in almost all areas of social life: air traffic, trains and

subways control, coordination of medical service or national security. A single breach achieved in the

operation of these systems can endanger human lives, which denotes that the society’s dependence on

information systems has taken on a much deeper dimension than initially anticipated (Dobrinoiu, 2006,

p. 59).

A definition on computer crime that seems more eloquent is “any illegal action in which a computer is

the instrument or object of the crime, that is to say, any offense whose means or purpose is to influence

the function of a computer (Dobrinoiu, 2006, p. 62)”.

1 Assistant Associate Professor, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., 800654 Galati,

Romania, Tel.: +40372361102, Fax: +4037236129 0, Corresponding author: stefanut.radu@univ-danubius.ro.