Understanding cybercrime in ‘real world’ policing and law enforcement

Cybercrime is a growing issue, still not fully understood by researchers or policing/law enforcement communities. UK Government reports assert that victims of cybercrime were unlikely to report crimes immediately due to the perception that police were ill-equipped to deal with these offences. Additionally, these reports identify policing issues including a lack of cybercrime knowledge. This paper reviews current research, providing a comprehensive account of cybercrime and addressing issues in policing such offences. We achieve this by describing the technological, individual, social and situational landscapes conducive to cybercrime, and how this knowledge may inform strategies to overcome current issues in investigations

Progress towards omnidirectional transformation optics with lenses

We study, theoretically, omni-directional Euclidean transformation-optics (TO) devices comprising planar, light-ray-direction changing, imaging, interfaces. We initially studied such devices in the case when the interfaces are homogeneous, showing that very general transformations between physical and electromagnetic space are possible. We are now studying the case of inhomogeneous interfaces. This case is more complex to analyse, but the inhomogeneous interfaces include ideal thin lenses, which gives rise to the hope that it might be possible to construct practical omni-directional TO devices from lenses alone. Here we report on our progress in this direction

What works in investigative interviewing? Using Systematic Maps to examine the evidence base

Competent investigative interviewing skills are key to securing reliable information from victims, witnesses, informants, and suspects. Information obtained in interviews often plays an important role in directing an investigation, informing effective decision-making, promoting efficient allocation of resources, as well as securing reliable prosecutions and mitigating risk of miscarriages of justice. However, effective investigative interviewing is a complex skill to master; demanding a sound understanding of the many cognitive, social, and environmental factors that influence the content and accuracy of witness and suspect accounts. To ensure that investigative interviewing and intelligence gathering produces usable, credible, and reliable information in an effective and ethically defensible manner, training and practice must be evidence-based. This short article outlines how practitioners, trainers and policy makers can navigate the best available research evidence to evaluate ‘what works?’ in investigative interviewing

Effective evaluation of forensic interviews: The Forensic Interview Trace (FIT)

Forensic interviewing forms an integral part of a police/law enforcement officer’s main duties and responsibilities. However, not every interviewer possesses suitable interview skills to be able to complete this effectively. Despite the introduction of the PEACE model of interviewing, with the last ‘E’ focusing specifically on ‘Evaluation’, this stage of the interview model rarely gets the attention it deserves. This is concerning given the need for forensic interviews to be legally ‘bomb-proof’. Although the Griffiths Question Map (GQM) has gone some way to assist in the effective evaluation of forensic interviews, focusing solely on question types restricts its use in evaluating the entirety of a forensic interview. However, the more recently developed Forensic Interview Trace (FIT) ã allows the reviewer to record all aspects of a forensic interview, including questioning, interviewee responses, and interviewer and interviewee characteristics. This ensures that effective evaluations of forensic interviews can be undertaken to ensure compliance with relevant guidance and legislation, whilst continuously evaluating individual interview performance to ensure that effective interview skills pertain to best practice

Title: The impact of question type and empathy on police interviews with suspects of homicide, filicide and child sexual abuse. Running title: Police interviews with murderers and sex offenders

The impact of question type and empathy on police interviews with suspects of homicide, filicide and child sexual abuse. Abstract Conducting interviews with 'high-stake' offenders, especially those accused of murder and sexual offences, represents a complex and emotive area of work for police officers. Using an English sample of fifty-nine actual police interviews, the effects of empathy and question type on the amount of investigation relevant information obtained from interviews with suspects of child murder, child sex offences and adult murder were analysed and compared. No direct effects of empathy on the amount of information elicited was found, however, in interviews classified as empathic, interviewers asked significantly more appropriate questions than they did in interviews classified as non-empathic, and significantly more items of information were elicited from appropriate questions. There was a significant effect of offence type on the number of inappropriate, questions asked, with significantly more inappropriate questions being asked in interviews with suspects of child sex offences than they did in interviews with suspects of child or adult murder