Cyberpsychology and Human Factors

The online environment has become a significant focus of the everyday behaviour and activities of individuals and organisations in contemporary society. The increasing mediation of communication has led to concerns about the potential risks and associated negative experiences which can occur to users, particularly children and young people. This is related to the emergence of the online environment as a location for criminal and abusive behaviour (e.g., harassment, sexual exploitation, fraud, hacking, malware). One of the key aspects of understanding online victimisation and engagement in criminal behaviours is the characteristics of online communication that are related to the affordances of the technologies, services and applications which constitute digital environments. The aim of this paper is to examine the influence of these characteristics on individual and group behaviour, as well as the associated opportunities for victimisation and criminal behaviour. These issues are of relevance for those involved in the design and implementation of technologies and services, as the ability to assess their potential use in this way can enhance strategies for improving the security of systems and users. It can also inform educational strategies for increasing user understanding of potential informational, privacy and personal risks, and associated steps to improve their security and privacy. Each of the main characteristics of mediated communication is examined, as well as their potential impact on individual and group behaviour, and associated opportunities for victimisation and offending. The article ends by considering the importance of recognising these issues when designing and implementing new technologies, services and applications

Implementing change in primary care practice: lessons from a mixed-methods evaluation of a frailty initiative

© 2018, BJGP Open. Background: The NHS is facing increasing needs from an aging population, which is acutely visible in the emerging problem of frailty. There is growing evidence describing new models of care for people living with frailty, but a lack of evidence on successful implementation of these complex interventions at the practice level. Aim: This study aimed to determine what factors enable or prevent implementation of a wholesystem, complex intervention for managing frailty (the PACT initiative) in the UK primary care setting. Design & setting: A mixed-methods evaluation study undertaken within a large clinical commissioning group (CCG). Design and analysis was informed by normalisation process theory (NPT). Method: Data collection from six sites included: observation of delivery, interviews with staff, and an online survey. NPT-informed analysis sought to identify enablers and barriers to implementation of change. Results: Seven themes were identified. PACT was valued by professionals and patients but a lack of clarity on its aims was identified as a barrier to implementation. Successful implementation relied on champions pushing the work forward, and dealing with unanticipated resistance. Contracts focused on delivery of service outcomes, but these were sometimes at odds with professional priorities. Implementation followed evidence-informed rather than evidence-based practice, requiring redesign of the intervention and potentially created a new body of knowledge on managing frailty. Conclusion: Successful implementation of complex interventions in primary care need inbuilt capacity for flexibility and adaptability, requiring expertise as well as evidence. Professionals need to be supported to translate innovative practice into practice-based evidence

Behavioural Evidence Analysis Applied to Digital Forensics: An Empirical Analysis of Child Pornography Cases using P2P Networks

The utility of Behavioural Evidence Analysis (BEA) has gained attention in the field of Digital Forensics in recent years. It has been recognized that, along with technical examination of digital evidence, it is important to learn as much as possible about the individuals behind an offence, the victim(s) and the dynamics of a crime. This can assist the investigator in producing a more accurate and complete reconstruction of the crime, in interpreting associated digital evidence, and with the description of investigative findings. Despite these potential benefits, the literature shows limited use of BEA for the investigation of cases of the possession and dissemination of Sexually Exploitative Imagery of Children (SEIC). This paper represents a step towards filling this gap. It reports on the forensic analysis of 15 SEIC cases involving P2P filesharing networks, obtained from the Dubai Police. Results confirmed the predicted benefits and indicate that BEA can assist digital forensic practitioners and prosecutors

Principles for management of inshore scallop fisheries around the United Kingdom

Fisheries for scallops, particularly the great scallop Pecten maximus and to a lesser extent the queen scallop, Aequipecten opercularis, are of considerable economic importance to the United Kingdom (UK) fishing industry. Landings of great scallops have been growing steadily since the 1970s and now consistently place this fishery in the top five most valuable species in the UK. Queen scallop catches have been much more variable over the same time period. Great scallops are predominately taken using Newhaven scallop dredges while queen scallops are mostly captured with otter trawls. A very small percentage (< 5 %) of the great scallop catch is taken by hand by SCUBA divers. There are no catch limits on UK scallop fisheries and licence number restrictions are widely regarded as ineffective. Instead great scallop fisheries are mostly managed through minimum sizes, restrictions on dredge number and seasonal closures in some regions. The use of towed fishing gear (dredges and trawls) is also prohibited in a few small areas, generally for conservation purposes. There are few management measures for queen scallops. UK fisheries for great scallops appear to be stable at present, but there is considerable evidence that their productivity could be improved dramatically by better management. This is because at present the fishery has a number of negative effects on juvenile scallops and provides few spawning refuges for replenishment of stocks. The use of towed fishing gear also damages much of the habitat that is crucial for the settlement and survival of young scallops. The negative effects of towed fishing gear, particularly scallop dredges, on benthic habitats and communities are also of considerable conservation concern. In general, areas subject to high fishing pressure tend to lose structural complexity and have lower biodiversity, species richness, species abundance and rates of benthic production. Biogenic reefs / substrates are the most sensitive to disturbance, followed by sandy / gravel areas. However, sandy / gravel substrates have strong potential for recovery if protected. Shallow, sandy areas subject to high levels of natural disturbance are more resilient to fishing disturbance, but tend to support few scallops and lower diversity of benthic species in general. Scallop fisheries also have a high by-catch of mobile benthic species such as crabs, starfish and some fish species. Although the ecological significance of this bycatch is unclear it has the potential to negatively affect crab fisheries. A new management regime for UK scallop fisheries that provided better protection to key scallop nursery and breeding areas, and maintained healthier benthic ecosystems in general would undoubtedly result in more productive and sustainable fisheries. We therefore examined a series of well managed scallop fisheries from around the world to glean how this might be achieved. These fisheries provide good insight into successful management practices for scallops. In Australia the Queensland scallop fishery was incorporated into the Management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as a whole showing that an ecosystem level approach is feasible. In fisheries such as the US sea scallop where the stock was officially declared overfished, reduction in fishing effort resulted in a return to healthy biomass levels. This has included improvement of the size class structure, a characteristic which would be of great benefit to the UK fishery. Protection of juveniles has proven to be a key factor in several cases and in the French fishery in the Bay of Saint Brieuc it was considered a main reason for their success by increasing the number of virgin (previously undisturbed / captured) scallops and therefore the yield per recruit. Habitat mapping has proven invaluable in most examples for providing information on the location of areas that should be protected for the benefit of juvenile scallop settlement and nursery grounds for other commercial species as well as habitat types that should be protected in their own right to conserve biodiversity. There appear to be two successful ways of implementing these changes. One way is with firm government legislation, which includes tight fishing restrictions that is backed up by a strong enforcement plan. This would include measures such as satellite tracking, patrol boats, on board observers and dockside monitoring. An alternative strategy would be to confer on the fishers a level of ownership of their resource and in some cases this has lead to an industry funded and managed recovery of the resource. This strategy ultimately requires little policing. We suggest a UK management plan primarily based on conferring a level of ownership to fishers operating within the 6 mile zone. This may be met with some resistance in the first instance and we would envisage that a level of enforcement may be required at first. This has been found in other examples but as time passes less enforcement is necessary. This should be set within a framework of zones that should consider all users. We further suggest that all interested parties should be included in an ecosystem level management plan and that the scallop fishery should fit into that plan. Provision should be made to minimize the negative effects of one user group on another such as scallop dredges damaging crabs and tangling in crab pots. The inshore area up to 3 miles should be considered a low impact zone with the 3-6 mile area being a medium impact zone. The low impact zone would include fully protected areas, areas just for static gear fisheries (e.g. crab fishers) and scallop divers and other low impact uses such as recreation. Most of the inshore scallop fleet which uses dredges or trawls should operate within the medium impact zone. The larger vessels in the nomadic offshore fleet should operate outside 6 miles. The key to the success of this scheme for the scallop fishery would be to improve the productivity by increasing spawning stock biomass and improving the size class structure of the populations. Recommended management measures include reducing fishing effort, increasing minimum dredge belly ring size and protecting juveniles and key habitats. If these measures were to be put in place, the UK scallop industry has the potential to provide a much more profitable and stable income for its stakeholders

‘I put my “police head” on’: Coping strategies for working with sexual offending material

This paper explores the coping strategies of UK Police staff who are exposed to sexual offence material (SOM). Eleven Police staff completed a questionnaire then took part in semi-structured interviews. Themes were identified using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This paper explores the theme ‘Coping strategies for working directly with material’, focusing on the most common strategies employed: ‘Detachment’, ‘Avoidance’, and ‘Process-driven’ approaches. Links between coping and different features of SOM are examined, including victim characteristics and audio content. The impact of organisational factors which make coping strategies more or less effective are also explored, along with potential sources of support

ICTs and child sexual offending: Exploitation through indecent images

This chapter provides an overview of the currently available literature on IIOC offending, with a specific focus on offences associated with possession and downloading of this material. It starts by briefly outlining offence definitions and prevalence, before reviewing the available evidence about victim experiences and impacts. It then examines offender motivations and psychological characteristics, as well as the relationship between possession and potential escalation to contact offending. The final section considers the investigative utility of IIOC, offender collections and related digital forensic evidence. The overall aim of the chapter is to identify the current knowledge gaps and research challenges associated with this category of cybercrime, as well as the implications of the intersection between technology and this form of sexual offending for the criminal justice system

Special Issue on Cyberharassment Investigation: Advances and Trends

Empirical and anecdotal evidence indicates that cyberharassment is more prevalent as the use of social media becomes increasingly widespread, making geography and physical proximity irrelevant. Cyberharassment can take different forms (e.g., cyberbullying, cyberstalking, cybertrolling), and be motivated by the objectives of inflicting distress, exercising control, impersonation, and defamation. Little is currently known about the modus operandi of offenders and their psychological characteristics. Investigation of these behaviours is particularly challenging because it involves digital evidence distributed across the devices of both alleged offenders and victims, as well as online service providers, sometimes over an extended period of time. This special issue aims to improve understanding of cyberharassment from a multidisciplinary perspective in order to further develop theoretical knowledge and investigative practice