Criminology in the Future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminology in the Future - Essay Example As criminals become more sophisticated in their use of technology, forms of crime committed by them also become increasingly complex and difficult to understand and manage. Thus police and security officials must stay current in their knowledge and understanding of emerging crime, and both well resourced and expert regarding their own technological capabilities (p.36). Schmalleger (2012, Chapter 13) considered technology to be one of the causes of new forms of crime, since it facilitates new forms of criminal behavior. In his Chapter 13, Schmalleger (2012) named several types of cybercrimes, including crimes requiring use of modern technology, such as identity theft. All of these types of crimes arose out of technological innovations. However, criminal justice system has been revolutionized too since the 1970’s, all due to new technologies (Peterson & Leggett, 2007, p.621). Modern technology has revolutionized the criminal justice system. DNA testing by forensic biologists has become crucial in many capital offenses, as it exonerated many innocent defendants and eliminated blind faith in the criminal justice system (Petherick, Turvey & Ferguson, 2010, p.309). In 1990, the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) was established in order to gather DNA of all convicted felons (Peterson & Leggett, 2007, p.635 - 636). Use of computers has been crucial in fighting crime as well. In the 1980’s, first computerized databases of forensic evidence were established (Peterson & Leggett, 2007, p.630). Database forensics evolved, and soon became crucial in fighting cybercrimes (Khanuja & Adane, 2011, p.170). More subfields evolved. Forensic toxicology enables testing of drugs and other chemical compounds found on the crime scene (Petherick, Turvey & Ferguson, 2010, p.432). Other forensic scientists conduct fire debris analysis, which is again a chemical compound analysis (Petherick, Turvey & Ferguson, 2010, p.434). Trace evidence analysis