2,116 research outputs found

    Representing narrative and testimonial knowledge in sense-making software for crime analysis.

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    Abstract. In the AVERs sense-making tool for crime analysis different types of information are represented in different ways. More precisely, narrative knowledge is represented in an explanatory direction and testimonial knowledge in an indicative direction. This paper shows that this distinction agrees with the preference of potential users and reduces the number of interpretation errors made by them

    Supporting the externalisation of thinking in criminal intelligence analysis

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    At the end of the criminal intelligence analysis process there are relatively well established and understood approaches to explicit externalisation and representation of thought that include theories of argumentation, narrative and hybrid approaches that include both of these. However the focus of this paper is on the little understood area of how to support users in the process of arriving at such representations from an initial starting point where little is given. The work is based on theoretical considerations and some initial studies with end users. In focusing on process we discuss the requirements of fluidity and rigor and how to gain traction in investigations, the processes of thinking involved including abductive, deductive and inductive reasoning, how users may use thematic sorting in early stages of investigation and how tactile reasoning may be used to externalize and facilitate reasoning in a productive way. In the conclusion section we discuss the issues raised in this work and directions for future work

    The Family Business: DNA Ancestry Tests and White Identity

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    DNA ancestry tests have emerged in the past two decades as a exponentially growing industry, and advertisements for these products in recent years have permeated households throughout the global West. This research explores the history of nation and race as human social categories and how these concepts relate to modern studies on the consumers of DNA ancestry tests and participants in the hobby of genealogy. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis on key pages from the websites of top DNA ancestry testing companies, this research identifies examples of advertising where historical oppression is ignored in favor of highlighting pseudoscientific ideas about identity and enforcing a female gender role as caretaker of both family genetics and cultural traditions. Findings on how DNA ancestry tests are already interpreted by consumers note that white nationalist groups already favor them for promoting claims about the genetic reality of racial categorizations and the existence of genetic purity. The implications of this research are useful in understanding what messages about identity consumers have absorbed from interaction with DNA ancestry companies already, and what future target audiences including children may learn through company advertising

    Supporting the externalisation of thinking in criminal intelligence analysis

    Get PDF
    At the end of the criminal intelligence analysis process there are relatively well established and understood approaches to explicit externalisation and representation of thought that include theories of argumentation, narrative and hybrid approaches that include both of these. However the focus of this paper is on the little understood area of how to support users in the process of arriving at such representations from an initial starting point where little is given. The work is based on theoretical considerations and some initial studies with end users. In focusing on process we discuss the requirements of fluidity and rigor and how to gain traction in investigations, the processes of thinking involved including abductive, deductive and inductive reasoning, how users may use thematic sorting in early stages of investigation and how tactile reasoning may be used to externalize and facilitate reasoning in a productive way. In the conclusion section we discuss the issues raised in this work and directions for future work

    Consent: Objectivity and the Aesthetics of Re-enactment in Locative Audio Journalism about a Sexual Assault Trial

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    Consent – walk the walk, a geo-locative audio documentary walk in St. John’s, Canada, explores a 2017 sexual assault trial that led to days of protests in the Newfoundland city: an on-duty police officer is charged with sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman he drove home from the town’s nightclub precinct. Producers Chris Brookes and Emily Deming’s work of ‘landscape journalism’ was designed to highlight the tension between popular and legal understandings of the term ‘consent’ in sexual assaults. While the audio walk is a compelling place-based listening experience, Consent raises issues around the impact of dramatised re-enactment in the documentary field, and the role that sound design treatment can play, in affective influence over the audience’s response. To protect the identity of the assault victim, the producers were not permitted to use the court audio recordings, so they employed actors to perform the court transcripts. While the original trial acquitted the police officer, the Supreme Court of Canada in 2019 has ordered a re-trial on the grounds the trial judge erred in directing the jury. This article explores the design choices and the aesthetic, ethical and legal challenges faced by the audio walk’s producers in applying journalistic concepts of objectivity and balance

    Evidential Reasoning & Analytical Techniques In Criminal Pre-Trial Fact Investigation

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    This thesis is the work of the author and is concerned with the development of a neo-Wigmorean approach to evidential reasoning in police investigation. The thesis evolved out of dissatisfaction with cardinal aspects of traditional approaches to police investigation, practice and training. Five main weaknesses were identified: Firstly, a lack of a theoretical foundation for police training and practice in the investigation of crime and evidence management; secondly, evidence was treated on the basis of its source rather than it's inherent capacity for generating questions; thirdly, the role of inductive elimination was underused and misunderstood; fourthly, concentration on single, isolated cases rather than on the investigation of multiple cases and, fifthly, the credentials of evidence were often assumed rather than considered, assessed and reasoned within the context of argumentation. Inspiration from three sources were used to develop the work: Firstly, John Henry Wigmore provided new insights into the nature of evidential reasoning and formal methods for the construction of arguments; secondly, developments in biochemistry provided new insights into natural methods of storing and using information; thirdly, the science of complexity provided new insights into the complex nature of collections of data that could be developed into complex systems of information and evidence. This thesis is an application of a general methodology supported by new diagnostic and analytical techniques. The methodology was embodied in a software system called Forensic Led Intelligence System: FLINTS. My standpoint is that of a forensic investigator with an interest in how evidential reasoning can improve the operation we call investigation. New areas of evidential reasoning are in progress and these are discussed including a new application in software designed by the author: MAVERICK. There are three main themes; Firstly, how a broadened conception of evidential reasoning supported by new diagnostic and analytical techniques can improve the investigation and discovery process. Secondly, an explanation of how a greater understanding of the roles and effects of different styles of reasoning can assist the user; and thirdly; a range of concepts and tools are presented for the combination, comparison, construction and presentation of evidence in imaginative ways. Taken together these are intended to provide examples of a new approach to the science of evidential reasoning. Originality will be in four key areas; 1. Extending and developing Wigmorean techniques to police investigation and evidence management. 2. Developing existing approaches in single case analysis and introducing an intellectual model for multi case analysis. 3. Introducing a new model for police training in investigative evidential reasoning. 4. Introducing a new software system to manage evidence in multi case approaches using forensic scientific evidence. FLINTS
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