General criminology courses such as the one offered at Bergen Community College in Paramus (bergen.edu) and The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in Ewing (tcnj.edu) discuss theories to explain and predict criminal behavior. General concepts of criminal law apply to cyber crime as well and so provide important basis for those without law enforcement or justice background. Basic criminology courses focus on demographics, motivations and societal effects of crime. Some schools such as TCNJ offer courses investigating social connections to white-collar crime specifically.
Many schools with computer information systems programs include courses about computer security. Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg (raritanval.edu) and Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison and Teaneck (fdu.edu), for instance, teach how security networks and data protection systems work. Such information can help investigators find data and enter secured systems to determine criminal activity including the dissemination of computer viruses. For example, Farleigh's course titles include introduction to countermeasures for malware, introduction to computer security and computer security administration.
Schools teaching computer forensics courses such as Strayer University in Rockville (strayer.edu) discuss ethics, procedure and techniques of cyber sleuthing such as understanding disk structures and safely retrieving information, building upon computer security foundations. Computer fraud crimes may involve accounting issues, so programs such as one at Berkeley College in Newark and Paramus (berkeleycollege.edu) offer courses in forensic accounting and investigation that cover both paper and computer accounting programs. Strayer offers a class in computer CSI, combining the information in computer forensics and criminology classes.
Cyber crime courses make up some of the requirements for criminal justice programs throughout the state. TCNJ houses an entire criminology department and offers other courses that may be helpful to cyber crime students, such as justice and social control, policing civil societies, courts and judicial procedure and applied criminal processing. Strayer's criminal justice program is only available online, but all campuses offer information technology courses. Strayer students can aim for associate, bachelor or master's degrees. At other New Jersey schools, students may earn associate degrees or certificates in criminal justice (Raritan) or computer security and forensic administration (Fairleigh).