Preparing for high technology crime: An educational assessment of criminal justice and criminology academic programs

The primary objective of this study was to determine the extent to which undergraduate criminal justice and criminology students were exposed, under current academic curricula, to the essential knowledge elements associated with high technology crime investigation. The study also explored the degree of changing, or the likelihood for changing, the criminal justice curriculum to accommodate the increasing level of sophistication of crime in society. The study revealed that a significant number of criminal justice and criminology academic programs were not exposing their students to the knowledge elements that have been identified as being essential to the investigation of high technology crime. A large proportion of the programs indicated they were not planning to modify their academic curricula to include the knowledge elements associated with the investigation of high technology crime.