Next Generation of Evidence Collecting: The Need for Digital Forensics in Criminal Justice Education

Digital forensics poses significant challenges to law enforcement as the information found in a computer system is often present at most crime scenes in the form of computer data and cell phones. Digital evidence contained on common devices, such as cell phones and laptops, includes information that can be pertinent to the investigation of crimes. Law enforcement is increasingly identifying the need to be able to process their evidence internally warranting the exploration of the need for digital forensics training as part of a broader study of criminal justice for future law enforcement practitioners. This paper uses telephone surveys of police agencies in the North Texas area to explore their capabilities and need for trained digital forensic examiners (n=42). Findings suggest that digital forensic education is needed as most police examiners are trained first as police officers and secondly as digital forensics examiners. Future education challenges and policy implications are discussed

The Relationship Between Race and Suicide Ideation in Delinquent Females in the Texas Juvenile Justice System

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2002) reported that suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 14 to 25 in the United States. This research examined the effect race has on suicidal ideation among a cohort of delinquent girls in Texas. This study examined 2004 data provided by the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission on referrals to the juvenile justice system in Texas (N = 6850). Other variables such as age, family structure, and sexual abuse were also examined to determine the strength and effect that sexual abuse has on a juvenile becoming suicidal. The results revealed that race has a minor effect on suicidal thoughts among females in the juvenile justice system when controlling for sexual abuse, age, and family structure. Implications for practice are further explained

Teaching About the Dark Web in Criminal Justice or Related Programs at The Community College and University Levels.

Increasingly, criminal justice practitioners have been called on to help solve breaches in cyber security. However, while the demand for criminal justice participation in cyber investigations increases daily, most universities are lagging in their educational and training opportunities for students entering the criminal justice fields. This article discusses the need to incorporate courses discussing the Dark Web in criminal justice. A review of existing cyber-criminal justice programs in Texas and nationally suggests that most community colleges and 4-year universities have yet to develop courses/programs in understanding and investigating the Dark Web on the internet. The Dark Web serves as the new “Criminal Underground” for illegal activity and needs to be understood. This research outlines the need for criminal justice programs to teach courses in the Dark Web and offer course recommendations. Recommended syllabi material for Dark Web courses in criminal justice, and recommendations for development of these programs are included

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Efficacy for Reducing Recidivism Rates of Moderate- and High-Risk Sexual Offenders: A Scoping Systematic Literature Review

Published ArticleThis literature scoping review compared recidivism rates of moderate- and highrisk sexual offenders who received cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) oriented treatments. Ten empirical studies from 2001 to 2014 were selected for review that met the following criteria: (a) Treatment program included a CBT-based intervention with a comparative intervention; (b) participants included adult, male, moderate- and high-risk sexual offenders only; and (c) follow-up data for up to 12 months. Data were analyzed using a summative metric for recidivism rate comparisons (N = 3,073 for CBT and N = 3,588, for comparison approaches). Sexual offense recidivism rates varied from 0.6% to 21.8% (with CBT) and from 4.5% to 32.3% (with comparison intervention). The within-sample median rate of violent recidivism with a history of sexual offense was 21.1% (with CBT) versus 32.6% (comparison). Sexual offenders had a general felonies (within-sample) median recidivism rate of 27.05% (with CBT) versus 51.05% (comparison). The evidence supports the conclusion that CBT in its various forms is an efficacious treatment modality to prevent offense recidivism by sexual offenders. Suggestions for future research are considered

Systematic Analysis and Biomarker Study for Alzheimer's Disease.

Revealing the relationship between dysfunctional genes in blood and brain tissues from patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) will help us to understand the pathology of this disease. In this study, we conducted the first such large systematic analysis to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in blood samples from 245 AD cases, 143 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) cases, and 182 healthy control subjects, and then compare these with DEGs in brain samples. We evaluated our findings using two independent AD blood datasets and performed a gene-based genome-wide association study to identify potential novel risk genes. We identified 789 and 998 DEGs common to both blood and brain of AD and MCI subjects respectively, over 77% of which had the same regulation directions across tissues and disease status, including the known ABCA7, and the novel TYK2 and TCIRG1. A machine learning classification model containing NDUFA1, MRPL51, and RPL36AL, implicating mitochondrial and ribosomal function, was discovered which discriminated between AD patients and controls with 85.9% of area under the curve and 78.1% accuracy (sensitivity = 77.6%, specificity = 78.9%). Moreover, our findings strongly suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction, NF-κB signalling and iNOS signalling are important dysregulated pathways in AD pathogenesis