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"This isn't your father's police force": Digital evidence in sexual assault investigations
Abstract
Digital evidence, once regarded as existing only in a portion of criminal cases, in our digitized world commonly appears within all crime categories and is a factor in many (or arguably most) cases of sexual assault. In this article, we draw from 70 interviews with sex crime investigators from across Canada to demonstrate that the infusion of digital evidence into sexual assault investigations results in new opportunities and challenges for police and both negative and positive impacts on victims' experiences within the criminal justice system. We show that while digital evidence certainly provides more opportunities for documenting the context and content of acts of sexual assault, police perceive this evidence as a double-edged sword that provides both more evidence and new challenges for police and victims. While officers express that digital evidence may provide more conclusive proof in the notoriously difficult pursuit of proving sexual assault charges, they are also concerned that this evidence provides new challenges for already overburdened sex crime units and makes cases more lengthy and invasive for victims. This article contributes to emerging research on the challenges of policing in the digital age and to the dearth of research on the potential and pitfalls of digital evidence in sexual assault investigations.
... Research with investigators in Portugal found investigators use platforms, such as Facebook, in attempts to solve crimes and monitor activities (Miranda 2015). Dodge et al. (2019) found that Canadian sex crime investigators experience both new opportunities and challenges when using technology to investigate sex crimes. Although technology can help by providing more evidence, it can also complicate the case which can place further burdens on investigators and victims. ...
... The process of retrieving, examining, and downloading data and then generating a report can be time-consuming (Dodge et al. 2019). Police departments that do not have the appropriate resources to download a forensic report from a cell phone, or conduct a forensic examination of the phone ('phone dump' in police jargon), may have to rely on other departments to dump the phone. ...
... Informal training is important as technology is constantly evolving. Dodge et al. (2019) found that officers who informally learn technology applications by learning on their own or through other officers are more likely to keep up with the digital aspect of policing. Keeping abreast of social media and technological changes is paramount for the role of SRO. ...
Technology and social media have increasingly transformed contemporary policing. Yet, scarce research explores how detectives view and use technology and social media in their everyday work. This study of a mid-sized American police department fills this gap in research by exploring how technological frames inform how detectives use technology and social media. First, detectives view technology and social media as tools, yet acknowledge the barriers inherent to using them (i.e. time-consuming). Therefore, the task at hand will determine to what extent detectives use technology. Second, detectives embrace the use of technology and social media and use it more than just in their role as a crime fighter, as their job calls for them to handle a variety of tasks: (1) prioritising suicide threats; (2) acting as a school resource officer; and (3) conducting prostitution stings. I argue that technological frames can contribute to officers overcoming barriers inherent with using technology and social media and encourage proactive policing activities. The findings from this study bring about several practical and policy implications for police departments including how to adapt to technological barriers.
... Moore and Singh (2018) contend that the images depicting victimization may act as a proxy for victim voices, silencing the survivor and removing their agency throughout the judicial process, as visual evidence can be seen as more reliable and credible than the living victim. Similarly, Dodge, Spencer, Ricciardelli, and Ballucci (2019) found that from a policing perspective, digital evidence in violent sexual offenses might act as a "double edged sword". That is, while such evidence has the potential to make an iron clad case against the accused in what has previously been presented as "he-said she-said" cases, the interpretation of digital evidence is subject to the same stereotyped assumptions of how victims of sexual assault "shall" behave; therefore, the evidence may also be used against the victim and their credibility. ...
... In recent years, video evidence has become ubiquitous in the criminal justice system, bringing with it the potential to harm increasing numbers of individuals involved in criminal justice (Dodge et al., 2019;Kimpel, 2021). Through examining the long-term harms arising from the handling and use of video evidence in the Bernard trial, this case study offer insights and cautionary notes regarding the potential long-term consequences of current practices including: 1) the impact of the use of video evidence in the judicial process on victims and survivors; 2) the impact of viewing the evidence on those involved in the justice system (including professionals and jurors); and 3) the role of media distributing video evidence for public consumption. ...
... This increase in the availability of digital evidence has profound implications. In a recent qualitative analysis of 70 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with Canadian sex crimes investigators, Dodge et al. (2019) found that many investigators felt overwhelmed, illequipped, and ill-prepared to deal with the rapid influx of digital evidence in sexual violence cases. Not only was the volume of evidence a considerable challenge, but lack of training and education for how to access, manage and handle the content was also problematic in understaffed and under-resourced contexts (Dodge et al., 2019). ...
This qualitative case study examines the impact of video evidence of violent crime in the tragic Canadian case of serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Through in-depth interviews with those centrally involved in the case, interviews with criminal justice professionals currently working with video evidence of violent crime, and review of official documents and media reports, we explore the complex role video evidence played in this case and the legacy it continues to have in society, the justice system, and in the individual lives of those involved twenty-five years later. Two primary sources of harm arose in our analysis: critogenic harm related to the use of video evidence in the justice process; and harm arising from the media publicity surrounding the video evidence. Both of these sources of harm intensified the trauma for victims and their families, and contributed to distress and trauma reactions of criminal justice professionals and members of the jury. Given the global increase in the use of video-evidence in criminal justice processes, it is imperative that continuing harms to those involved in the process are considered and mitigated.
... Unsurprisingly, this digital content is also increasingly used as evidence in the criminal justice process (e.g. Brayne et al., 2018;Dodge, 2018;Dodge et al., 2019;Powell, 2016, 2018;Powell, 2015;Sandberg and Ugelvik, 2016;Spencer et al., 2019). In addition to the growth in digital evidence throughout most categories of crime, technology-facilitated sexual victimization is highly prevalent and on the rise in our increasingly technologically mediated lives (Dodge, 2018;Dodge et al., 2019;Henry and Powell, 2016;Powell and Henry, 2019). ...
... Brayne et al., 2018;Dodge, 2018;Dodge et al., 2019;Powell, 2016, 2018;Powell, 2015;Sandberg and Ugelvik, 2016;Spencer et al., 2019). In addition to the growth in digital evidence throughout most categories of crime, technology-facilitated sexual victimization is highly prevalent and on the rise in our increasingly technologically mediated lives (Dodge, 2018;Dodge et al., 2019;Henry and Powell, 2016;Powell and Henry, 2019). ...
... Importantly, however, Moore and Singh also contend that the images may sometimes silence the survivor, removing their agency throughout the judicial process, as visual evidence can be seen as more reliable and credible than the living victim (Moore and Singh, 2018). Similarly, Dodge et al. (2019) found that, from a policing perspective, digital evidence in violent sexual offences might act as a 'double edged sword'. That is, while such evidence has the potential to make an iron clad case against the accused in what has previously been presented as 'he-said she-said' cases, the interpretation of digital evidence is subject to the same stereotyped assumptions of how survivors of sexual assault 'shall' behave; therefore, the evidence may also be used against the survivor and their credibility. ...
With the ubiquity of technological devices producing video and audio recordings, violent crimes are increasingly captured digitally and used as evidence in the criminal justice process. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study involving Canadian criminal justice professionals, and asks questions surrounding the treatment of video evidence and the rights of victims captured within such images. We argue that loss of control over personal images and narratives can re-traumatize survivors of sexual violence, creating technologically-facilitated cycles of abuse that are perpetuated each time images are viewed. We find that the justice system has little to no consistent policy or procedure for handling video evidence, or for ameliorating the impact of these digital records on survivors. Subsequently, we assert that the need for a victim-centred evidence-based understanding of mediated evidence has never been greater.
... Whilst there is evidence of some improvements in how victim-survivors are treated, their interface with the legal process remains gruelling and, in many ways, the advent of a digital world has made police investigations even more intrusive. For example, victim-survivors are now routinely subjected to a "digital strip search" of their smart phones, social media, and digital technologies (Dodge et al., 2019). ...
... "Secondary victimization" includes victim-survivors not feeling believed, taken seriously or even being blamed for what happened. It also includes long police interviews and repeat questioning alongside extensive scrutiny of the victim's mobile phone, social media, medical history, social services, school and police records, and long delays in the criminal justice process (Dodge et al., 2019). Such experiences do not merely result in dissatisfaction with the process but cause psychological harm to victim-survivors. ...
The ‘justice gap’ for cases of rape and sexual assault is well-documented. Despite our rich understanding of the problem, its visibility in the public sphere, and state commitments to increasing charge and conviction rates, the justice gap is getting larger in the Western World. On a practical level, police are gatekeepers of outcome justice—arrests, charges, and convictions. As representatives of the state and society, police also wield significant symbolic power in defining the faultline between behaviour that is deemed ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. In this article we propose a theory-based and practice-oriented framework for transforming the police response to rape and sexual assault that draws on the large body of feminist literature on sexual violence and criminal justice responses, in combination with policing literature. This framework comprises five pillars: (1) suspect-focused investigations; (2) disrupting repeat offenders; (3) a procedural justice approach to victim-survivor engagement; (4) officer learning, wellbeing, and organisational change; and (5) the use of data. We conclude with a discussion of its practical implementation and empirical validation.
... I guess what I'm trying to say is that as the world becomes more digital … more and more people are going to be exposed to profoundly, emotionally generating video material and … I think that there is an inherent risk for significant parts of the population to be traumatized and perhaps [they] don't even know their own vulnerability. (JAMIE) The ubiquitous nature of high-quality video and audio that now captures much of our daily existence, increasingly serves as a valuable source of evidence in the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes (Brayne et al., 2018;Dodge, 2018;Dodge et al., 2019;Henry & Powell, 2016;Powell et al., 2015;Powell & Henry, 2018). While this may indeed serve the purposes of the criminal justice system, the effects of exposure to gruesome videos of interpersonal violence on criminal justice professionals who may be required to analyze, evaluate, and/or categorize this potentially traumatic content in the context of their work, are largely unknown. ...
... Thus, the "perpetual visibility" (Biber, 2017, p. 19) of these real moments is what allows trauma to travel in, through, and between bodies, from one body to another, across space and time. Indeed, the rapid pace of technological advance and exponential production and transmissibility of video appears to have far outpaced organizational awareness, preparedness, and response (Dodge et al., 2019). With respect to preparedness for dealing with potentially traumatic videos, work with the TFP suggests that conceptions of trauma prior to exposure can shape vulnerability to event-related distress in the days following exposure (Jones & McNally, 2021), suggesting an opportunity for the implementation of trauma prevention measures prior to and during the viewing of potentially traumatic materials. ...
High-quality video and audio recordings of violent crimes, captured using now ubiquitous digital technologies, play an increasingly important role in the administration of justice. However, the effects of exposure to gruesome material presented in this form on criminal justice professionals who analyze, evaluate, and use this potentially traumatic content in the context of their work, are largely unknown. Using long interviews and constructivist grounded theory, this qualitative study sought to explore experiences of exposure to video evidence of violent crime among Canadian criminal justice professionals. Sixteen individuals including police, lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, law clerks, and court reporters volunteered to participate in qualitative long interviews asking about workplace exposures to violent videos. Themes identified address the ubiquity of video evidence of violent crime; proximity to violence through video; being blindsided through lack of preparedness for violent content; repeated exposures through multiple and protracted viewings; insufficient customary methods for self-protection; and the enduring impact of exposure to videoed violence. We determine that criminal justice professionals are increasingly and repeatedly presented with deeply disturbing imagery that was once imperceptible or unknowable and thus previously held at a greater distance. Elements of what is newly visible and audible in video evidence of violent crime create a new emotional proximity to violence that potentially increases the risks of secondary trauma and underscores the need for improved safety measures.
... These legislative changes were intended to reduce the emphasis on victim behavior (e.g., no longer discrediting the victim based on their past sexual activities) and increase the focus on the violence committed by the perpetrator (Randall, 2010;Sheehy, 2012). The 1983 reforms saw the rise in the rate of sexual offenses reported to police, which continued steadily until 1993 until it peaked a 135 incidents per 100,000 population (Dodge et al., 2019). Since 1993, there was a steady decline, resulting in a 1997 rate that was 25% lower than the peak of 1993. ...
... Since 1993, there was a steady decline, resulting in a 1997 rate that was 25% lower than the peak of 1993. Although such legislative change can be understood as representing a partial movement away from victim blaming, there remain many complexities in the policing of sexual victimization, including within the context of navigating evidence and consent (Dodge et al., 2019). ...
Despite attempts to rectify the injustices experienced by victims of sexual violence within the criminal justice system, unfounded rates for sexual violence remain high and many victims continue to feel disempowered and voiceless. In this context, police officers wrestle with how to support victims, while protecting those who may be falsely accused and grappling with deeply imbedded cultural beliefs about who constitutes a “true” victim. In the current article, we draw on interviews with officers working in Internet Child Exploitation, sex crimes, and child abuse units across 10 Canadian police service organizations to understand how police interpret and respond to child, youth, and adult victims of sex crimes. We unpack the range of interpretations of victims, explore if and how interpretations of victims translate into police perceptions of their interactions with victims, and their interpretations of the possible outcomes that can be offered in the investigation. We highlight the difficulties officers encounter as they strive to balance their occupational role with victims’ needs. We argue that police interpretations of sexual violence and sexual violence victims are shaped by the officer’s adherence to or rejection of understandings of the “ideal victim”.
... Experiences of secondary victimisation can result from police officers behaving in ways that signal to the victim-survivor disbelief, disinterest, victim-blaming, or a lack of empathy, care, or respect towards victim-survivors (Campbell, 2005). Unnecessarily intrusive investigation of the victim-survivors' backgrounds, including their school and medical records, and 'digital strip searches' of mobile phones and social media only compound this experience (Dodge et al., 2019). ...
In England and Wales, public trust in the police has been damaged by a series of police failings in rape and sexual assault investigations, officer sexual offending, and a police culture of misogyny. Feminist scholars have analysed why police investigations of rape and sexual assault cases rarely result in a charge and documented the poor experiences many victim-survivors have of the police process. In this article, we outline how this scholarship may be integrated into procedural justice theory to advance our understanding of the impact of how officers engage with victim-survivors on their feelings of the status and value as survivors of sexual violence within the nation and society police represent, as well as on their trust in the police and willingness to (continue) engaging with police, or report future victimisation. We present tentative evidence from a pilot study (‘Project Bluestone’) in one English police force that suggests a feminist scholarship informed Procedural Justice framework is a promising tool for assessing and improving police practice in engaging with victim-survivors of rape and sexual assault. The article concludes with directions for future research.
... Studies determined that potentially useful forensic evidence in sexual assault cases in jurisdictions across the USA had been maintained in property storage facilities but never submitted to a crime laboratory for analysis Pratt et al. 2006;Strom and Hickman 2010). Research has not documented the availability, utilization, and effects of digital evidence, including information obtained from surveillance videos and cell phones, on sexual assault case outcomes (see, however, Dodge (2018) on the conceivable uses of digital evidence in sexual assault investigations, and Dodge et al. (2019) on police perceptions of the potential opportunities and challenges associated with using this type of evidence in sexual assault cases). ...
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than 125,000 sexual assaults were reported to the police annually from 2015 to 2018. The number of crimes reported represents a small portion of the sexual assault victims experience each year and significant numbers of cases that are reported “fall out” of the system at different decision points. This is known as case attrition, and research has established the importance of studying attrition. Studies that examine sexual assault case attrition and the legal system’s response have focused on key decision points, including police officers’ decision to found cases, arrest suspects, and prosecutors’ charging decisions. Few studies have examined specific investigative actions. Understanding these actions will help shed light on case attrition in the criminal-legal system. The current study utilized a sample of 493 sexual assault case files to measure the investigative actions taken in these cases. We quantified information-gathering activities from people and physical evidence and examined relationships between these activities and case characteristics. Police investigators attempted to contact victims at least once in a majority of cases, but no suspects were investigated in over half of cases. Case characteristics, including whether the victim provided a sworn statement and if they were perceived as cooperative, were associated with several investigative actions. Directions for future research are discussed.
With society becoming increasingly digital, new opportunities are afforded to potential offenders to weaponize digital features and affordances to carry out their crimes. As a result, concerns persist over online forms of crime, particularly cybercrime involving sexual exploitation, and what can be done about them. Drawing on interview and focus group data collected from 70 sex crime investigators from police service organizations across Canada, we uncover police perspectives on online sex-based crime. We demonstrate that police perceive online crimes to not necessarily be new forms of crime, but rather altered by digital media in terms of methods and weapons being used. We focus on uncovering the features and affordances police identify as contributing to the increase in crime itself as well as the creation of greater opportunities for crime to occur. In addition, resulting from crime shifting into digital spaces, we uncover the challenges digital media has presented for police in terms of how they handle, respond to, and investigate online crime. We discuss these challenges and their impact on policing and provide solutions for combatting them moving forward. Overall, this article contributes to the current body of literature investigating online crime and policing in the digital age by drawing on the theoretical framework of affordances and offering police perspectives on online sex-based crimes.
Issues regarding Fourth Amendment protections and police access to digital evidence have been an ongoing battle in the courts over the past few years. Despite growing literature on the importance of collecting digital evidence during criminal investigations, there is little research on how detectives obtain consent to get to digital evidence, particularly cell phones. The present study addresses this research gap by drawing upon participant-observation, in-situ interviews, and in-depth interviews of detectives in an American suburban police department. The data indicate that during suspect interviews, detectives attempt to obtain consent to search phones to avoid delays related to obtaining a warrant or going through a third-party (e.g., a cell phone carrier). Additionally, detectives engage suspects with minimization techniques, such as stressing the importance of cooperation, to get to the digital evidence, similar to interrogation techniques outlined in interrogation scholarship. Implications and future research are discussed.
As graphic video evidence becomes a standard element in the investigation and prosecution of violent crime, criminal justice organizations must consider and address exposure to and impact of this potentially traumatizing workplace material for criminal justice professionals. Using a discovery-oriented qualitative design and a long-interview method of data collection, this study explores organizational responses to the exposure of criminal justice professionals to a growing volume of video evidence of violent crime. Repeated exposure to high-quality video evidence has the effect of placing criminal justice professionals in the midst of traumatic events, resulting in responses that are akin to trauma contagion. However, organizational awareness and the acceptance of trauma and support systems have not kept pace with the exponential rise in exposure, often being deployed when the person is no longer able to continue in their role. As a result, affected individuals may over-rely on equally affected colleagues for support, intensifying the cycle of trauma contagion. Organizational responses to reduce trauma contagion and the psychological burden on professionals working with video evidence of violent crime should occur at three levels: prevention through moderating exposure; preparation through creating a culture of awareness and acceptance; and intervention through systematic and formal supports.
This article examines some of the complexities and tensions which lie at the intersection of popular and official constructions of technology-assisted sexual violence (TA-SV). It argues that many of the core contextual understandings of victimhood and harm which underpin the cultural and legal framing of offline forms of sexual violence are not only reproduced but augmented in virtual settings. Drawing on debates from critical victimology, the article argues that TA-SV amplifies traditional understandings of ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ behaviours concerning sexual crime. In so doing, it highlights the particular challenges around: a) the ‘ideal victim’; (b) responsibilisation and blame; and c) victim-offender-bystander continuums which emerge not only within discourses on TA-SV, but also through the use of digital evidence at trial. The article concludes by examining the broader implications for academic discourses on victimhood and the challenges for legal and cultural discourses in responding to sexual violence in the digital age.
A recent stream of government efforts have surfaced in an attempt to tackle cybercrime in Canada and improve law enforcement responses to cybercrime, such as funding, actionable intelligence, and the creation of new policing response units. However, we know little of ‘what works’ with respect to cyberpolicing, meaning that these endeavours, and policymakers and funding organizations, are operating without such insights. Therefore, this study sought to conduct an evidence assessment into research on cybercrime-related topics through a scoping review. Our findings show that the overall volume of Canadian cyberpolicing literature is low, and many important subjects are entirely lacking in research. Additionally, we found a distinct shortage of independent or rigorous evaluation of cyberpolicing strategies. From these findings, we offer a range of critical recommendations to improve the state of Canadian research on cyberpolicing.
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) disaggregates crime clearances into crimes cleared by arrest and crimes cleared by exceptional means. This feature is an improvement to the Summary Reporting System and allows law enforcement agencies to perform cross-jurisdiction comparisons of their clearance practices and investigative performances. This study uses sexual assault clearance rates to demonstrate a method of cross-jurisdiction comparison, which can be used to improve agency practices. Findings show much variability in sexual assault clearance rates across agencies, but most of this variation is explained by agency use of clearance by exceptional means. Further, no single agency characteristic examined here explained variability in exceptional clearance rates. Finally, there was additional agency variation in the offense type used to clear a sexual assault by arrest. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of NIBRS for advancing law enforcement research and practice and the need for greater attention to data quality in NIBRS.
There have been growing concerns about the malleability of digital communications evidence and its potential to reinforce embedded rape myths and cultural narratives that undermine victim-survivors in sexual offences trials. There is however a paucity of research exploring this issue in practice, and none in England and Wales. This article therefore uses two case studies, drawn from court observation research in 2019, to explore how digital communications evidence is used in English sexual offences trials. In both case studies the prosecution argued that digital communications between defendant and victim-survivor constituted admissions of guilt; both defendants resisted this by providing alternative meanings to the well-known colloquial phrases within the messages. Through the process of entextualisation, defence counsel bolstered the meanings defendants attributed to digital communications by drawing upon rape myths and deeply embedded gendered narratives. Defence counsel further employed rape myths and gendered narratives to undermine prosecution entextualisations of the digital evidence. This analysis builds on the existing literature by demonstrating that the malleability of digital evidence extends even to seemingly unambiguous communications.
This paper examines the role of social media evidence in sexual assault trials in Canada, focusing on cases with underage female victims. Teenage girls are among the heaviest social media users and face unique expectations regarding the performance of heteronormative gender norms. Society simultaneously encourages girls to enact gender roles that emphasize their femininity and sexuality and punishes them for acting according to these standards. When girls engage in performativity online, they leave behind a digital footprint that can be used against them at trial. Through a detailed case study of 14 publicly available judgments, we analyze how judges evaluate girls’ social media content in sexual assault trials that feature a mistake of age defense. Drawing on social media research, legal studies, and the concept of performativity, we show that judges vary greatly in their understandings of gender norms and that this translates to divergent case outcomes. In the ‘guilty’ cases, the judges contextualize social media content as insufficient and unreliable, noting that it is common for youth to lie or embellish facts online. In the ‘not guilty’ cases however, the judges appear to take such evidence at face value and hold girls accountable for having provocative pictures or misrepresenting themselves online. Such practices are problematic because they perpetuate rape myths and misconceptions about victim behavior. We call for greater consideration of the socio-cultural norms that govern girls’ social media use to avoid biased interpretations that adversely shape the outcome of sexual assault trials.
Although there has been significant public and academic interest in the ability of police to harness new technologies in order to solve crimes, there has been significantly less focus on how the proliferation of new technologies has impacted police workloads. In this exploratory study, we begin the process of rectifying this oversight by exploring some of the challenges mobile technologies pose to investigators working in a special investigations unit. Our work is informed by an analysis of data collected through in-depth interviews with police investigators to address the following research question: “To what extent has the complexity of special victims (sex crimes) investigations changed over time?”. Our findings indicate that technology is the most prominent factor leading to increased complexity of investigations. Specifically, technology adds to the volume of evidence that must be examined and managed, rapid advances in technology require additional training and expertise, and despite technological advances to assist in investigations, the process remains largely manual.
This paper aims to establish digital forensics and data exploration as a methodology for supporting archival practice and research into a filmmaker's creative processes. We approach this by exploring the digital legacy hard drives of the late artist Stephen Dwoskin (1939–2012), who is recognised as an influential filmmaker at the forefront of the shift from analogue to digital film production. The research findings of this case study show that digital forensics is effective in extracting a timeline of hard drive activities, data that can be explored to reveal clues about the artist's personal/professional history, stages of creative processes, and technical environment. The paper further demonstrates how this is related to current thinking around user-centred archival workflow and understanding of creative processes. The broader impact of the work for advancing digital archiving and research into creative processes is highlighted, concluding with a discussion of how, going forward, the approach can be coupled with deeper content analysis to reveal what influences editing choices taking place over time.
Criminal justice responses to sexual violence have long been critiqued for either failing or further victimizing complainants. The ways that police can be complicit in these shortcomings is well documented, but less is known about how police officers themselves identify and understand the barriers to justice within the criminal justice system. In this article, we use data from 70 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with sex crime investigators to explore police interpretations of the obstacles to achieving justice in cases of sexual violence. Our findings demonstrate that the majority of officers are critical of the present criminal justice response to sexual violence and are doubtful of its ability to provide a semblance of justice to the majority of victims.
While the low conviction rate for cases of sexual violence is often justified by the so-called ‘he-said-she-said’ nature of these cases, the increasing presence of digital evidence has begun to challenge this justification. This digital evidence can provide new opportunities for intervening in and prosecuting sexual violence. However, it may also be used against complainants or deemed still insufficient for proving guilt. Thus, while digital evidence may be challenging typical criminal justice responses to sexual violence, it may equally be utilised to buttress entrenched stereotypes and criminal justice practices that lead to complainant dissatisfaction and serve to support low conviction rates. I draw on critical feminist legal theory, feminist engagements with digital technology and sexual violence, and visual criminology to theorise the burgeoning role of the digital witness in sexual violence cases.
Over the last two decades there has been a substantive increase in the number of cybercrime and digital forensic units in local and state police agencies across the US. There is, however, little research on the occupational responses of individuals serving in specialized roles within criminal justice agencies. Individuals tasked to these units are likely to encounter psychologically harmful materials on a regular basis due to the number of child pornography and sexual exploitation cases they are assigned. As a result, this study examined the experiences of vicarious trauma and coping behaviors of digital forensic examiners in a sample culled from across the country. The findings suggest that exposure to content involving crimes against children directly and indirectly increases the likelihood of trauma and incidence of coping strategies employed.
In this paper we posit that current investigative techniques—particularly as deployed by law enforcement, are becoming unsuitable for most types of crime investigation. The growth in cybercrime and the complexities of the types of the cybercrime coupled with the limitations in time and resources, both computational and human, in addressing cybercrime put an increasing strain on the ability of digital investigators to apply the processes of digital forensics and digital investigations to obtain timely results. In order to combat the problems, there is a need to enhance the use of the resources available and move beyond the capabilities and constraints of the forensic tools that are in current use. We argue that more intelligent techniques are necessary and should be used proactively. The paper makes the case for the need for such tools and techniques, and investigates and discusses the opportunities afforded by applying principles and procedures of artificial intelligence to digital forensics intelligence and to intelligent forensics and suggests that by applying new techniques to digital investigations there is the opportunity to address the challenges of the larger and more complex domains in which cybercrimes are taking place.
Digital forensics (DF) has existed since the 1970s when industry and government first began developing tools to investigate end users engaging in Web-enabled financial fraud. Over the next 40 years, DF evolved until, in 2010, the National Research Council ‘officially’ recognized DF as a forensic discipline. Over its evolution, DF developed some of the traits of a profession, which sociologists suggest include the following: (1) specialized knowledge; (2) specialized training; (3) work that is of great value; (4) credat emptor (‘let the buyer trust’) relations with clients; (5) a code of professional ethics; (6) cooperative relations with other members; (7) high levels of autonomy; and (8) self-regulation. This paper reviews the development of DF and argues that despite making strides, DF has not yet achieved the status of a profession as described by social scientists, and that it will not achieve that status until it remedies several deficiencies and addresses impediments preventing it from attaining that status, including the perceived low social status of the field’s clientele and an inability of the field to convince the public it occupies a unique place within the larger division of labor in society.
Many social science studies are based on coded in-depth semistructured interview transcripts. But researchers rarely report or discuss coding reliability in this work. Nor is there much literature on the subject for this type of data. This article presents a procedure for developing coding schemes for such data. It involves standardizing the units of text on which coders work and then improving the coding scheme’s discriminant capability (i.e., reducing coding errors) to an acceptable point as indicated by measures of either intercoder reliability or intercoder agreement. This approach is especially useful for situations where a single knowledgeable coder will code all the transcripts once the coding scheme has been established. This approach can also be used with other types of qualitative data and in other circumstances.
Communications technologies are being used in varying ways to perpetrate and extend the harm of sexual violence and harassment against women and girls. Yet little scholarship has explored the uses of communications technologies, to support reporting, investigation and prosecution of sexual assault, nor indeed less formal mechanisms of justice. In this article, I contend that communications technologies are not simply new tools for conventional formal justice, but rather that these technologies are mediating new mechanisms of informal justice outside of the state, in turn challenging meanings of justice in western liberal democracies. In so doing I employ concepts of technosocial practices operating in counter-public online spaces, to explore the potential (and limits) of communications technologies as mediators of rape justice.
Many social science studies are based on coded in-depth semistructured interview transcripts. But researchers rarely report or discuss coding reliability in this work. Nor is there much literature on the subject for this type of data. This article presents a procedure for developing coding schemes for such data. It involves standardizing the units of text on which coders work and then improving the coding scheme's discriminant capability (i.e., reducing coding errors) to an acceptable point as indicated by measures of either intercoder reliability or intercoder agreement. This approach is especially useful for situations where a single knowledgeable coder will code all the transcripts once the coding scheme has been established. This approach can also be used with other types of qualitative data and in other circumstances.
This article considers the dominant structure and patterns of policing as related to Internet-based sex offences. It is argued that the policing of Internet sex offences occupies an anomalous position, as compared to other forms of online offending. One the one hand, the policing of Internet sex offences partakes of a wider trend towards the dispersed and pluralised governance of crime, a trend that is in many ways typified by responses to Internet crime. One the other hand, Internet sex offences are policed in ways at odds with responses to other forms of online offending – most especially in the extent of time, attention and resources directed to such offences by state-centred agencies. The state-centric response to such offences can be understood by appreciating their position within a ‘hierarchy of standing’ amongst and between Internet crimes. ‘Hierarchies of standing’ define offences differently according to their perceived seriousness and urgency, drawing upon collective judgements about the vulnerability of victims, the dangerousness of offenders, levels of risk and extent of harm caused. Public, political, media and expert assessments of sex offences serve to place them at the apex of the ‘hierarchy of standing’, and as such drive expectations that they will be subject to urgent and concerted action by state agencies, rather than being delegated to the responsibility of non-state actors.
This article outlines the significant impact the Internet is having in reshaping forms and patterns of crime. The Internet is reconfiguring the landscape of crime threats online. In particular, the ‘social web' is contributing to the creation of new forms of vulnerability to predation, and so reconstituting the prevalent patterns of online crime. Online crime is evolving to such an extent that society is experiencing the rise of ‘E-Crime 2.0', comprising offences that exploit the ways in which users of new communication technologies make themselves publicly visible and available through new social media.
Boundaries are a defining characteristic of organizations, and boundary
roles are the link between the environment and the organization.
The creation, elaboration, and functions of boundary spanning roles
are examined, with attention to environmental and technological
sources of variation in the structure of boundary roles. Eleven hypotheses
integrate the material reviewed and are amenable to empirical
test. Future research should overcome problems created when organizations
are treated as "wholes" or single entities.
Despite recent reforms internationally, significant criticism has been levelled at police departments regarding their service delivery to crime victims, and particularly for the disbelieving and insensitive attitudes officers may display towards women reporting rape and sexual assault. Police responses are frequently influenced by negative judgements regarding the victim’s dress, behaviour, and demeanour. These are flawed and ‘imperfect’ women – what right have they to expect ‘perfect’ treatment? This paper approaches this issue from the other end of the lens by considering the positive lessons to be learned from how ‘perfect victims’ were policed.
The material presented is based on interviews conducted with 14 of the women attacked by the same serial rapist, supplemented by interviews with police investigators. The paper aims to identify what contributed most to victim satisfaction with police performance, and to present this as evidence of ‘best practice’ to inform future developments in adult sexual assault investigations.
The archetype of the ideal sexual assault victim still functions to disqualify many complainants' accounts of their sexual assault experiences. To this extent, the "ideal victim" myth continues to undermine the credibility of those women who are seen to deviate too far from stereotypical notions of "authentic" victims and too far from what are assumed to be predictable and "reasonable" victim responses. Credibility assessments, which are absolutely pivotal in sexual assault trials, remain deeply influenced by myths and stereotypes surrounding "ideal," "real," or "genuine" victims of sexual assault. Despite progressive Canadian sexual assault law reform with regard to consent, the onus of proof and credibility of consent in practice remains with the victim and plays out in often harmful and discriminatory ways. The persistence of the idea that "real" victims of sexual assault resist remains inextricably bound up with the myth that "ideal" or "real" victims can prove their victim status and establish the credibility of their rape claims by demonstrating that they resisted the assault and that their resistance took a socially expected form, by preferably vigorous physical fighting back. In this article, I assess some of the key problems that remain deeply in need of redress with regard to the law's response to sexual assault, analyzing the tenacity of distorted legal images of "ideal" or "real" sexual assault victims, the tendency still to blame sexual assault victims and "disappear" perpetrators, and the persistence of a kind of psychological illiteracy in law about the nature, complexities, and range of ways in which women cope with the violation and trauma of sexual assaults.
Researchers have used the absorptive capacity construct to explain various organizational phenomena. In this article we review the literature to identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct. Building upon the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity. We then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's potential and realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.
The infusion of digital technology into contemporary society has had significant effects for everyday life and for everyday crimes. Digital Criminology: Crime and Justice in Digital Society is the first interdisciplinary scholarly investigation extending beyond traditional topics of cybercrime, policing and the law to consider the implications of digital society for public engagement with crime and justice movements. This book seeks to connect the disparate fields of criminology, sociology, legal studies, politics, media and cultural studies in the study of crime and justice. Drawing together intersecting conceptual frameworks, Digital Criminology examines conceptual, legal, political and cultural framings of crime, formal justice responses and informal citizen-led justice movements in our increasingly connected global and digital society. Building on case study examples from across Australia, Canada, Europe, China, the UK and the United States, Digital Criminology explores key questions including: What are the implications of an increasingly digital society for crime and justice? What effects will emergent technologies have for how we respond to crime and participate in crime debates? What will be the foundational shifts in criminological research and frameworks for understanding crime and justice in this technologically mediated context? What does it mean to be a ‘just’ digital citizen? How will digital communications and social networks enable new forms of justice and justice movements? Ultimately, the book advances the case for an emerging digital criminology: extending the practical and conceptual analyses of ‘cyber’ or ‘e’ crime beyond a focus foremost on the novelty, pathology and illegality of technology-enabled crimes, to understandings of online crime as inherently social.
This ethnographic study of criminal sexual assault adjudication shows how prosecutors, defense attorneys, and witnesses animate text message evidence. In contrast to other forms of courtroom testimony, text messages function as multiauthored representations of recorded correspondence in the past. Attorneys and witnesses animate texts authored by or said to characterize persons represented at trial. By whom and how the texts are animated shapes trial processes. Through a detailed comparative case analysis of two Milwaukee, WI, sexual assault trials, this article attends to the process by which text messages are said to personify or characterize authors’ meaning and intent. This animation of electronically transmitted text speaks to credibility and variably emphasizes a witness's place within gendered and racialized cultural norms. Rather than unsettling the trope of “he said, she said,” text messages become contested evidence animated by court actors within contexts of long‐standing cultural narratives of sexual victimization and offending.
One of the key challenges in digital forensics today is the huge amounts of unstructured data, often with inherent uncertainties and errors. It should be clear that each phase of the digital forensics process can be very time and resource demanding, often exceeding the time and resources available for the investigation. Due to this, there has been substantial interest in leveraging big data, automation, and computational methods as part of the forensic process. While automation was included as one of the objectives of computational forensics, the problem of automation and standardization deserves additional attention. This chapter gives a brief introduction to some open research topics, mainly based on research at the Norwegian Information Security Laboratory (NISLab). The purpose of the chapter is to inspire further studies and research projects within this domain. Finally, the chapter includes the research agenda from the Testimon Forensics Group.
Now approximately 30 years old, the field of digital forensics is arguably facing some of its greatest challenges to date. Whilst currently supporting law enforcement in numerous criminal cases annually, questions are beginning to emerge regarding whether it can sustain this contribution, with digital crime remaining prevalent. In his first live interview in September 2015, Head of MI5, Andrew Parker indicated that individuals are now engaging in computing acts which are beyond the control of authorities, confirming earlier remarks made by British Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Such comments cast doubt on the future effectiveness of the digital forensic discipline and its ability to effectively investigate those who implement the latest forms of technology to carry out illicit acts. This article debates the controversial question, could we be facing an era where digital crime can no longer be effectively policed?
Police investigations involving digital evidence tend to focus on forensic examination of storage units on personal electronic devices (laptops, smartphones, etc). However, a number of factors are making digital forensic tools increasingly ineffective: (i) storage capacities of electronic devices have increased, and so has the amount of personal information held on them, (ii) cyber crimes are increasingly committed on social media, and evidence of crimes are held on social media platforms, not necessarily on personal devices, (iii) there is a greater need for protecting digital privacy, especially when examining digital evidence from witnesses and victims of cyber crimes. These factors pose a number of practical challenges for both law enforcement agencies and citizens when disclosing and handling the digital evidence. This paper defines and illustrates the key challenges, and proposes the concept of verifiable limited disclosure, which defines a communication protocol to ensure privacy, continuity and integrity of digital evidence. More specifically, the protocol allows (i) citizens to decide what evidence to disclose to law enforcement agencies and (ii) any of the two parties to be able to prove any tampering of the disclosed evidence. The paper discusses methods for implementing the communication protocol using standard security and privacy tools and presents a pathway to evaluating their effectiveness.
Traditionally, law enforcement agencies have had an unfriendly
relationship with technology. However, there is no way one can ignore and/or
resist the adoption of new technologies any longer since recent developments
in information technology have changed the attitudes and perceptions of
police forces as well as criminals. The technological advances over the years
have provided law enforcement agencies new perspectives and considerations
beyond the traditional methods and opportunities to utilize a wide range of
innovations in different contexts. The recent innovations and implementations
which increase the efficiency and effectiveness of policing including network
analysis, GIS, crime mapping, biometrics, fingerprints, DNA research, facial
recognition, speech recognition, social media policing, shotspotter detection
system, and CCTV are detailed in this study.
The widespread use of computers in recent years has led to a new type of evidence in criminal cases: digital evidence, consisting of zeros and ones of electricity. In this Essay, Professor Kerr considers whether traditional rules of criminal procedure can effectively regulate investigations involving digital evidence. Kerr concludes that the new methods of gathering digital evidence trigger a need for new legal standards. Existing law is tailored to the gathering of physical evidence and eyewitness testimony; applying that law to digital evidence collection produces a number of surprising results. Professor Kerr contends that new rules are needed, and offers preliminary thoughts on what those rules should look like and which institutions should generate them.
To date, the majority of attention to technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) in both policy and practice has been on child sexual exploitation and abuse. Far less attention has been paid to digital sexualised violence against adult members of the population. The aim of this paper is to examine police responses to these serious and emerging harms, which we identify as including the following: (1) online sexual harassment; (2) gender and sexuality-based harassment; (3) cyberstalking; (4) image-based sexual exploitation (including ‘revenge pornography’); and (5) the use of communications technologies to coerce a victim into an unwanted sexual act. While these are variously criminal offences, unlawful civil behaviours or not subject to criminal or civil sanctions or remedies, we claim in this paper that they exist on a continuum of violence and yet the ‘real’ harms of TFSV are frequently minimised in practice. Drawing on 30 stakeholder interviews with police, legal services and domestic and sexual violence service sector providers, we explore the issues, challenges and promises of law enforcement in this area. We argue that greater attention must be paid to recognising the serious harms of digital abuse and harassment; the role of criminal law in responding to these behaviours; and the importance of investing in police resources to adequately tackle these growing behaviours in a constantly shifting and amorphous digital era.
Boundaries are a defining characteristic of organizations, and boundary roles are the link between the environment and the organization. The creation, elaboration, and functions of boundary spanning roles are examined, with attention to environmental and technological sources of variation in the structure of boundary roles. Eleven hypotheses integrate the material reviewed and are amenable to empirical test. Future research should overcome problems created when organizations are treated as “wholes” or single entities.
Various terms have been used to describe the intersection between computing technology and violations of the law-including computer crime, electronic crime, and cybercrime. While there remains little agreement on terminology, most experts agree that the use of electronic devices to commit crime has increased dramatically and is now commonplace. It is the role of the digital investigator to bring cybercriminals to justice. Cybercrime however differs from traditional crime and presents a variety of unique challenges including the variety of electronic devices available, amount of data produced by these devices, the absence of standard practices and guidelines for analyzing that data, the lack qualified personnel to perform investigations and the lack of resources to provide on-going training. This paper examines these challenges 2015
With the rise of surveillance technology in the last decade, police departments now have an array of sophisticated tools for tracking, monitoring, even predicting crime patterns. In particular crime mapping, a technique used by the police to monitor crime by the neighborhoods in their geographic regions, has become a regular and relied-upon feature of policing. Many claim that these technological developments played a role in the crime drop of the 1990s, and yet no study of these techniques and their relationship to everyday police work has been made available. Noted scholar Peter K. Manning spent six years observing three American police departments and two British constabularies in order to determine what effects these kinds of analytic tools have had on modern police management and practices. While modern technology allows the police to combat crime in sophisticated, detail-oriented ways, Manning discovers that police strategies and tactics have not been altogether transformed as perhaps would be expected. In The Technology of Policing, Manning untangles the varying kinds of complex crime-control rhetoric that underlie much of today's police department discussion and management, and provides valuable insight into which are the most effective-and which may be harmful--in successfully tracking criminal behavior. The Technology of Policing offers a new understanding of the changing world of police departments and information technology's significant and undeniable influence on crime management.
Today, the ubiquity of cameraphones and online social media’s contributions to sociopolitical discourses on policing have
exponentially increased the public’s exposure to police mis/conduct. This article reports on research that inquired into the
influence of ‘policing’s new visibility’ on front-line officers. Participants in the project included 231 operational police
officers and institutional policing officials in Toronto and Ottawa (Canada). The study found that videorecording capabilities
across the citizenry and concurrent opportunities for the public to disseminate footage of police occurrences (and conduct)
through online file-sharing are profoundly integrated into the consciousness of most rank-and-file officers and have influenced
significant behavioural changes through the deterrence of certain practices, including moderations in police violence across
a majority of study participants.
This paper develops a typology of boundaries faced by public police organizations. Following trends in police organization structure and developments in organization theory, the paper focuses on the work-unit level as the locus of organizational boundary activity. Treating boundaries as sites of negotiation that arise when overlap occurs between units inter- and intra-organizationally, the paper focuses on operational aspects of public policing in creating typological categories. The typology elaborates three boundary types: scarcity, proximity, and technical/systemic. These can each be subdivided into two further categories: physical and virtual. Using examples from recent fieldwork in British Columbia's Lower Mainland District, the paper provides examples of each boundary type and suggests common strategies for boundary negotiation. In using the typology to understand public police as organizations within a complex web of similarly organized actors, the paper emphasizes the particular importance of informal and personal contact networks for comprehending boundary activity in public police work. The implications of this finding for the challenges of twenty-first century-policing are explored, and a future research agenda is outlined.
Social network sites have gained tremendous traction recently as a popular online hangout spaces for both youth and adults. People flock to them to socialize with their friends and acquaintances, to share information with interested others, and to see and be seen. While networking socially or for professional purposes is not the predominant practice, there are those who use these sites to flirt with friends-of-friends, make business acquaintances, and occasionally even rally others for a political cause. I have been examining different aspects of social network sites, primarily from an ethnographic perspective, for over six years. In making sense of the practices that unfold on and through these sites, I have come to understand social network sites as a genre of "networked publics." Networked publics are publics that are restructured by networked technologies. As such, they are simultaneously (1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined collective that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice. Networked publics serve many of the same functions as other types of publics – they allow people to gather for social, cultural, and civic purposes and they help people connect with a world beyond their close friends and family. While networked publics share much in common with other types of publics, the ways in which technology structures them introduces distinct affordances that shape how people engage with these environments. The properties of bits – as distinct from atoms – introduce new possibilities for interaction. As a result, new dynamics emerge that shape participation. Analytically, the value of constructing social network sites as networked publics is to see the practices that unfold there as being informed by the affordances of networked publics and the resultant common dynamics. Networked publics' affordances do not dictate participants' behavior, but they do configure the environment in a way that shapes participants' engagement. In essence, the architecture of a particular environment matters and the architecture of networked publics is shaped by their affordances. The common dynamics fall out from these affordances and showcase salient issues that participants must regularly contend with when engaging in these environments. Understanding the properties, affordances, and dynamics common to networked publics provides a valuable framework for working out the logic of social practices.
This research study investigates how communication technologies facilitate sexual violence against young people and what challenges this presents for the Victorian criminal justice system. Based on interviews with young people and professionals working with young people, it examines the effects of technology on the lives of young people, the interface between emerging communication technologies and experiences of sexual violence, and the factors that enable or hinder appropriate legal responses. Communication technologies such as online social networking sites and mobile phones are considered, and their use in identifying and grooming potential victims, blackmail and intimation, sexting, harassment, and pornography.
Contemporary teens and young adults, often collectively referred to as the .NET generation or the ‘digital generation’, represent the largest proportion of end-users in the information and communication technologies market (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2007; Australian Communications and Media Authority [ACMA], 2007, 2008). While there is much written concerning the rise in pornographic and other sexual material via the internet and mobile phones there is comparatively little published work regarding the use of information and communication technologies for the distribution of unauthorised sexual images, more particularly, where a sexual assault has occurred. This article considers the issues raised by the use of information and communication technologies in sexual violence and the distribution of unauthorised sexual images. The implications of this emerging issue are considered in light of existing and potential legislative frameworks.
Intercoder reliability is a measure of agreement among multiple coders for how they apply codes to text data. Intercoder reliability can be used as a proxy for the validity of constructs that emerge from the data. Popular methods for establishing intercoder reliability involve presenting predetermined text segments to coders. Using this approach, researchers run the risk of altering meanings by lifting text from its original context, or making interpretations about the length of codable text. This article describes a set of procedures that was used to develop and assess intercoder reliability with free-flowing text data, in which the coders themselves determined the length of codable text segments. Content analysis of open-ended interview data collected from twenty third-generation Japanese American men and women generated an intercoder reliability of more than .80 for fifteen of the seventeen themes, an average agreement of .90 across all themes, and consistency among the coders in how they segmented coded text. The findings suggest that these procedures may be useful for validating the conclusions drawn from other qualitative studies using text data.
Cybercrime: The Investigation, Prosecution and Defense of a Computer-Related Crime is a legal workbook for anyone involved in the rapidly developing area of cyber crimes. It comprehensively covers: determining what conduct is considered a cybercrime, investigating improper cyber conduct, trying a cybercrime case as a prosecuting or defending attorney, and handling the international aspects of cybercrimes. The book includes the contributions of four authors chosen for their proficiency and experience in cybercrime cases. Professor Susan Brenner is a nationally recognized expert in computer-based criminal conduct. Prosecuting attorney Ivan Orton has investigated and prosecuted numerous cybercrimes for the Seattle, Washington prosecutor's office. Likewise, defense attorney Joseph Savage has defended many individuals accused of cybercrimes. Finally, attorney Jessica Herrera has been involved in the international attempts to address cybercrimes as a member of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. The combined expertise of these authors will give those involved with cybercrimes - whether as attorneys, police officers, or policy makers - the knowledge they will need to be effective.
Cyber attackers are rarely held accountable for their criminal actions. One explanation for the lack of successful prosecutions
of cyber intruders is the dependence on digital evidence. Digital evidence is different from evidence created, stored, transferred
and reproduced from a non-digital format. It is ephemeral in nature and susceptible to manipulation. These characteristics
of digital evidence raise issues as to its reliability. Network-based evidence – ie digital evidence on networks – poses additional
problems because it is volatile, has a short life span, and is frequently located in foreign countries. Investigators face
the twin obstacles of identifying the author of a cyber attack and proving that the author has “guilty knowledge.” Even more
is at stake when the cyber attacker is a trusted insider who has intimate knowledge of the computer security system of the
organisation. As courts become more familiar with the vulnerabilities of digital evidence, they will scrutinise the reliability
of computer systems and processes. It is likely that defence counsel will increasingly challenge both the admissibility and
the weight of digital evidence. The law enforcement community will need to improve competencies in handling digital evidence
if it is to meet this trend.
This study examines the current level of digital crime experience and investigative capabilities of law enforcement in Michigan. Information was obtained through interviews with members of Michigan Sheriff Departments. Following the collection and analysis of data, the results were extrapolated to the national level in order to provide a picture of what is facing law enforcement at the national level. The extrapolation was supported by FBI crime reports and other information sources. The results of the study argue that law enforcement is in a dire situation when it comes to dealing with digital crime. The pace of technical change and digital/cyber crime trends when juxtaposed with law enforcement’s ability to deal investigate and prosecute these crimes provides for a bleak prognosis for the law enforcement and legal system.
Today, documents and data are likely to be encountered in electronic form. This creates a challenge for the legal system since its rules of evidence evolved to deal with tangible (“physical”) evidence. Digital evidence differs from tangible evidence in various respects, which raise important issues as to how digital evidence is to be authenticated, ascertained to be reliable and determined to be admissible in criminal or civil proceedings. This article explains how digital evidence differs from traditional “physical” evidence and reviews the current state of the law with regard to the processes of authentication, reliability and admissibility.
This essay argues that the success of organizations depends on their ability to design themselves as social learning systems and also to participate in broader learning systems such as an industry, a region, or a consortium. It explores the structure of these social learning systems. It proposes a social definition of learning and distinguishes between three `modes of belonging' by which we participate in social learning systems. Then it uses this framework to look at three constitutive elements of these systems: communities of practice, boundary processes among these communities, and identities as shaped by our participation in these systems.
Police forces 'overwhelmed' by digital evidence, watchdog finds
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Baym, N. (2011). Personal connections in the digital age. Cambridge: Polity.
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Digital forensic research: The good, the bad, and the unaddressed
- N Beebe
Beebe, N. (2009). Digital forensic research: The good, the bad, and the unaddressed. Advances in
Digital Forensics, V, 17-36.
Australian Institute of Family Studies
- Australia Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia: Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Rape and sexual assault
- G Carimico
- T Huynh
- S Wells
Carimico, G., Huynh, T., & Wells, S. (2016). Rape and sexual assault. Georgetown Journal of
Gender and the Law, 17, 359-410.
Whether you "like" it or not: The inclusion of social media evidence in sexual harassment cases and how courts can effectively control it
- L Diss
Diss, L. (2013). Whether you "like" it or not: The inclusion of social media evidence in sexual
harassment cases and how courts can effectively control it. Boston College Law Review,
54(4), 1841-1880.
Digital evidence and the US criminal justice system
- S E Goodison
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Goodison, S. E., Davis, R. C., & Jackson, B. A. (2015). Digital evidence and the US criminal justice
system (Report). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.
Connected discovery: What the ubiquity of digital evidence means for lawyers and litigation
- G Gottehrer
Gottehrer, G. (2015). Connected discovery: What the ubiquity of digital evidence means for
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Digital evidence in criminal law
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Scanlan, D. (2011). Digital evidence in criminal law. Aurora, IL: Thomson Reuters.