Is Forensic Computing a Profession? Revisiting an Old Debate in a New Field

Forensic Computing is a new and quickly developing field. It is in the process of becoming an academic discipline or sub-discipline with all the features from full undergraduate and postgraduate course provision to conferences and journals. An important question in this process of turning into an established discipline is whether it will coincide with the recognition of the graduates as professionals. This paper hopes to stimulate the debate as to whether forensic computing is or should be a discipline. In order to approach this question, the paper will discuss the concept of forensic computing including the most salient topics of interest and the problems it has to contend with. This will lead to a discussion of the notion of professions and professionals, which will be expanded with a view to the debate on computing as a profession. Based on these considerations the paper will conclude by asking whether there is merit in promoting the debate on the status of forensic computing as a profession above and beyond the arguments already rehearsed for computing in general.