Economic Crimes Investigation - A Major Whose Time Has Arrived

• NCJ Number: 79941
• Author(s): L E Somers
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented to the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Educators, 5th Conference, October 30, 31, 1980

Annotation

This paper describes a criminal justice curriculum whose graduates will be prepared to investigate white-collar economic crimes.

Abstract

The financial losses suffered by businesses victimized by persons trained in the use of computers and accounting systems dwarfs the economic losses inflicted by street crime. Law enforcement attention to such crimes is paltry, largely because there are few law enforcement personnel trained to bring investigations of such crimes to successful conclusions. The criminal justice curriculum proposed would provide such training by focusing on (1) accounting, since the investigator must be able to decipher the accounting system of the victim and the perpetrator; (2) computer systems, since some of the largest economic crimes are committed through computer systems; and (3) the basic methods of traditional criminal investigation. In addition to providing courses that will supply the aforementioned knowledge, the proposed curriculum would also have an arts and sciences component, which would be comprised of courses designed to develop the creative and critical skills of the student. The curriculum would have a total of 120 semester hours, of which 60 would be arts and sciences, 24 business and accounting, 12 computer science, and 24 applied criminal justice. Six references are listed.