Algorithmic crime prevention. From abstract police to precision policing.

The growing digitisation in our society also affects policing, which tends to make use of increasingly refined algorithmic tools based on abstract technologies. But the abstraction of technology, we argue, does not necessarily entail an increase in abstraction of police work. This paper contrasts the 'abstract police' debate with an analysis of police practices that use digital technologies to achieve greater precision. While the notion of abstract police assumes that computerisation distances police officers from their community, our empirical investigation of a geo-analysis unit in a German Land Office of Criminal Investigation shows that the adoption of abstract procedures does not by itself imply a detachment from local reference and community contact. What we call contextual reference can be productively combined with the impersonality and anonymity of algorithmic procedures, leading also to more effective and focused forms of collaboration with local entities. On the basis of our empirical results, we suggest a more nuanced understanding of the digitalisation of police work. Rather than leading to a progressive estrangement from the community of reference, the use of digital techniques can enable experimentation with innovative forms of 'precision policing', particularly in the field of crime prevention.

Forensic species identification: practical guide for animal and plant DNA analysis.

The importance of non-human DNA in the forensic field has increased greatly in recent years, together with the type of applications. The molecular species identification of animal and botanical material may be crucial both for wildlife trafficking and crime scene investigation. However, especially for forensic botany, several challenges slow down the implementation of the discipline in the routine.Although the importance of molecular analysis of animal origin samples is widely recognized and the same value is acknowledged to the botanical counterpart, the latter does not find the same degree of application.The availability of molecular methods, especially useful in cases where the material is fragmented, scarce or spoiled preventing the morphological identification, is not well known. This work is intended to reaffirm the relevance of non-human forensic genetics (NHFG), highlighting differences, benefits and pitfalls of the current most common molecular analysis workflow for animal and botanical samples, giving a practical guide. A flowchart describing the analysis paths, divided in three major working areas (inspection and sampling, molecular analysis, data processing and interpretation), is provided. More real casework examples of the utility of non-human evidence in forensic investigations should be shared by the scientific community, especially for plants. Moreover, concrete efforts to encourage initiatives in order to promote quality and standardization in the NHFG field are also needed.

Hate, crime and epistemic vulnerability: on sense-making and feelings of (un)safety among Danish Muslims.

This article investigates feelings of (un)safety emerging from knowing and sharing knowledge about hate crime and hate incidents. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with young Muslims living in the greater Copenhagen area, the article explores the way the interlocutors seek to make sense of their experiences through available epistemic categories, and how this sense-making is shaped by reactions from the surrounding society, e.g., whether it is questioned, supported, ignored etc. Combining criminological and psychological research on direct and indirect harms of hate crime with insights from philosophy on epistemic encounters and their ethical implications the article provides a framework for investigating safety in epistemic interactions. Based on this framework, the article show the often hard work that people perform in order to balance epistemic needs (e.g. the need for knowledge and for recognition) with epistemic risks (e.g. the risk of testimonial rejection, of damaged epistemic confidence, or loss of credibility).

Exposure to Crime and Racial Birth Outcome Disparities.

Urban communities in the United States were transformed at the end of the twentieth century by a rapid decline in neighborhood crime and violence. We leverage that sharp decline in violence to estimate the relationship between violent crime rates and racial disparities in birth outcomes. Combining birth certificate data from US counties with the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting statistics from 1992 to 2002, we show that lower crime rates are associated with substantially smaller Black-White disparities in birth weight, low birth weight, and small for gestational age. These associations are stronger in more segregated counties, suggesting that the impacts of the crime decline may have been concentrated in places with larger disparities in exposure to crime. We also estimate birth outcome disparities under the counterfactual that the crime decline did not occur and show that reductions in crime statistically explain between one-fifth and one-half of the overall reduction in Black-White birth weight, LBW, and SGA disparities that occurred during the 1990s. Drawing on recent literature showing that exposure to violent crime has negative causal effects on birth outcomes, which in turn influence life-course outcomes, we argue that these results suggest that changes in national crime rates have implications for urban health inequality.

The legally charged issue of cross-border surrogacy: Current regulatory challenges and future prospects.

The article aims to shed a light on the unique complexities inherent in surrogacy and the legal-ethical challenges that currently exists even in many advanced democracies, which frequently result in uneven and ill-defined standards and processes. The recent proposal of making surrogacy a "universal crime", meant to prevent cross-border surrogacy, i.e. travels by citizens from countries where it is illegal to countries where it is legal, has also been weighed, by exploring the current legislative state of affairs, trends and future horizons. Recent case-law has been analyzed and interpreted, with a close focus on Italian Supreme Court ruling n. 38162, issued on 30th December 2022 and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings issued over the past decade. Uncertainty and ill-defined norms and court rulings risk harming the rights of children, surrogate mothers and intended parents. So far, court decisions have somehow filled the legal vacuum, considering that cross-border surrogacy is not specifically regulated in many countries and the status of children born abroad is still controversial. The views and judgments of supranational courts on the issue need to be accounted for when drafting new specific legislation. It is of utmost importance to uphold the rights of children born through surrogacy abroad, whose best interests risk being damaged. Legislative harmonization at the international level is essential to prevent the cross-border surrogacy trend. The "universal crime" draft bills appear to be difficult to enforce and too vague to be credible at the moment.

U.S.-U.K. PETs Prize Challenge: Anomaly Detection via Privacy-Enhanced Federated Learning.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) have the potential to enable collaborative analytics without compromising privacy. This is extremely important for collaborative analytics can allow us to really extract value from the large amounts of data that are collected in domains such as healthcare, finance, and national security, among others. In order to foster innovation and move PETs from the research labs to actual deployment, the U.S. and U.K. governments partnered together in 2021 to propose the PETs prize challenge asking for privacy-enhancing solutions for two of the biggest problems facing us today: financial crime prevention and pandemic response. This article presents the Rutgers ScarletPets privacy-preserving federated learning approach to identify anomalous financial transactions in a payment network system (PNS). This approach utilizes a two-step anomaly detection methodology to solve the problem. In the first step, features are mined based on account-level data and labels, and then a privacy-preserving encoding scheme is used to augment these features to the data held by the PNS. In the second step, the PNS learns a highly accurate classifier from the augmented data. Our proposed approach has two major advantages: 1) there is no noteworthy drop in accuracy between the federated and the centralized setting, and 2) our approach is flexible since the PNS can keep improving its model and features to build a better classifier without imposing any additional computational or privacy burden on the banks. Notably, our solution won the first prize in the US for its privacy, utility, efficiency, and flexibility.

The Relationship between Cyber Violence and Cyber Sex Crimes: Understanding the Perception of Cyber Sex Crimes as Systemic Issues.

This study examines the relationship between cyber violence and cyber sex crimes, specifically focusing on these crimes as systemic issues among adolescents. The research highlights the severe impact of cyber sex crimes, characterized by the non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit content. It examines various factors that may contribute to witnessing cyber sex crimes, including exposure to violent online content, personal experiences of cyber violence (either as a victim or perpetrator), and the role of parental and teacher interventions. Utilizing data from a nationwide survey conducted by the Korea Communications Commission, the study analyzes responses from 9016 adolescents in 2021 and 9693 in 2022. This analysis reveals significant predictors of witnessing cyber sex crimes and examines how perceptions of cyber violence and interventions of authoritative figures may influence adolescents' perception of cyber sex crimes as either systemic or individual issues. With females disproportionately affected, the findings underscore a gendered aspect of cyber violence. Furthermore, these insights suggest that perceiving cyber violence as a serious issue leads to viewing cyber sex crimes as systemic problems necessitating societal intervention. The study advocates for enhanced digital literacy education and systemic changes to protect adolescents from the widespread threats of cyber violence and sex crimes.

Assessing geospatial models to explain the occurrence of clandestine graves in Mexico.

We present an assessment of several geospatial layers proposed as models for detecting clandestine graves in Mexico. The analyses were based on adapting the classical ROC curves to geospatial data (gROC) using the fraction of the predicted area instead of the false positive rate. Grave locations were obtained for ten Mexican states that represent the most conflicting regions in Mexico, and 30 layers were computed to represent geospatial models for grave detection. The gROC analysis confirmed that the travel time from urban streets to grave locations was the most critical variable for detecting graves, followed by nighttime light brightness and population density, whereas, contrary to the rationale, a previously proposed visibility index is less correlated with grave locations. We were also able to deduce which variables are most relevant in each state and to determine optimal thresholds for the selected variables.

A review of the contributions of forensic archaeology and anthropology to the process of disaster victim identification.

Forensic archaeology and anthropology have developed significantly over past decades and now provide considerable assistance to the investigation process of disaster victim recovery and identification. In what are often chaotic death and crime scenes, the formal process of utilizing archaeological methods can bring control, order, and ensure systematic search. Procedures assist in defining scene extent, locating victims and evidence, rule out areas for consideration, and provide standardized recording and quality assurance through dedicated use of standardized forms (pro formas). Combined archaeological and anthropological search methods maximize opportunities to recovery the missing through identifying remains, mapping distributions, and providing accounting of victims at the scene. Anthropological assistance in examinations contributes to individual assessment, resolving commingling and fragmentation issues, and utilizing DNA sampling methods and matching data to reassociate and account for the missing. Utilization of archaeology, anthropology, and DNA matching data provides scope to review crime scene recovery and determine requirements and potential for further survey and retrieval. Adopting the most suitable methods for a particular context can maximize recovery, efficiency, and resource use. Case studies demonstrate the utility of archaeological methods in a range of scenarios. They exemplify the success of multidisciplinary analysis in providing evidence of the sequence of events, the timing of events, the impact of taphonomic processes, the location and accounting of victims, and the demonstration of systematic scene search. The considerations provided in this article, utilizing archaeology and anthropology processes, may assist investigators in planning and implementing responses to mass fatalities.

Reduced Violence-Related Burden and Mortality at Higher Altitudes: Examining the Association between High Altitude Living and Homicide Rates in Ecuador.

Esteban Ortiz-Prado, Juan Sebastian Izquierdo-Condoy, María G. Dávila-Rosero, Jorge Vásconez-González, Ana M. Diaz, Carla E. Moyano, Vanessa Arcos-Valle, Ginés Viscor, and Joshua H. West. Reduced Violence-Related Burden and Mortality at Higher Altitudes: Examining the Association between High Altitude Living and Homicide Rates in Ecuador. High Alt Med Biol. 00:000-000, 0000. Background: Homicides are a major public health concern and a leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. The relationship between altitude and homicides remains unclear, and evidence of the possible effects of living at high altitudes on homicide rates is limited. This research aimed to investigate the mortality rates resulting from various types of aggression that culminated in homicides in Ecuador and to explore potential differences associated with altitude. Methods: An ecological analysis of homicide rates in Ecuador was conducted from 2001 to 2022. Homicide cases and the population at risk were categorized based on their place of residence according to two altitude classifications: a binary classification of low (<2,500 m) and high altitude (>2,500 m), and a detailed classification according to criteria by the International Society for Mountain Medicine, which includes low (<1,500 m), moderate (1,500-2,500 m), high (2,500-3,500 m), and very high altitude (3,500-5,500 m) categories. Both crude and directly age-sex standardized mortality rates were calculated for each altitude category. Results: We analyzed a total of 40,708 deaths attributed to aggressions (ICD-10 codes X85-Y09). The total homicide rate for men was 21.29 per 100,000 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.55-32.37), whereas for women, it was 2.46 per 100,000 (95% CI: 1.44-3.27). Average rates across the 22 analyzed years were higher at low altitudes (men: 13.2/100,000 and women: 1.33/100,000) as compared with high altitudes (men: 5.79/100,000 and women: 1.05/100,000). Notably, the male-to-female rate difference was more pronounced at low altitudes (898%) than at high altitudes (451%). Conclusions: Our study revealed a higher prevalence of homicides in certain provinces and significant disparities in mortality rates between men and women. Although we cannot establish a direct relationship between altitude and homicide rates, further research is needed to explore potential confounding factors and a better understanding of the underlying causes for these variations.

Understanding sexual homicide in Korea using machine learning algorithms.

The current study was conducted to confirm the characteristics in sexual homicide and to explore variables that effectively differentiate sexual homicide and nonsexual homicide. Further, newer methods that have received attention in criminology, such as the machine learning method, were used to explore the ideal algorithm for classifying sexual homicide and patterns for sexual homicide in Korea. To do this, 542 homicide cases were analyzed utilizing eight algorithms, and the classification performance of each algorithm was analyzed along with the importance of variables. The results of the analysis revealed that the Naive Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbors, and RF algorithms demonstrate good classification accuracy, and generally, factors such as relationships, marriage, planning, personal weapons, and overkill were identified as crucial variables that distinguish sexual homicide in Korea. In addition, the crime scene information of the crime occurring in the dark (at night) and body disposal were found to have high importance. The current study proposes ways to enhance the efficacy of crime investigation and advance the research on sexual homicides in Korea through a more scientific understanding of sexual homicide that has not been thoroughly explored domestically.

Same-Sex Relationships and Criminal Behavior: A Total Population Study in The Netherlands.

Sexual minority groups experience elevated risk across a range of adverse outcomes. Previous studies from the USA showed that these risks include contact with the criminal justice system for sexual minority females but not for males. This study examined whether this relationship between sexual minority status and criminal behavior was also found in a more secular country like the Netherlands with more progressive attitudes toward sexual minorities. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine whether this relationship applied to various types of crime and could be explained by unmeasured familial factors. Longitudinal data from the Dutch national population, including 75,362 individuals in a same-sex relationship and 3,464,906 individuals in opposite-sex relationships, were used to compare the risk of crime among males and females in same-sex and opposite-sex unions. Discordant sibling models were included to increase control over possible sources of confounding from shared familial factors. Analyses were repeated for six types of crime, including property offenses, violence, vandalism, and public order offenses, traffic offenses, drugs offenses, and other offenses. The results showed that the direction of the associations between same-sex relationships and offending differed for men and women. In general, men in same-sex relationships were less likely to be a suspect of crime compared to those in opposite-sex relationships [odds ratio (OR) = 0.685; p < .001]. Women in same-sex relationships exhibited higher risk than those in opposite-sex unions (OR = 1.560; p < .001). Similar patterns emerged for most crime types and the discordant sibling models yielded conclusions that were substantively similar to those among the total population.

Impact of summer programmes on the outcomes of disadvantaged or 'at risk' young people: A systematic review.

Review Rationale and Context: Many intervention studies of summer programmes examine their impact on employment and education outcomes, however there is growing interest in their effect on young people's offending outcomes. Evidence on summer employment programmes shows promise on this but has not yet been synthesised. This report fills this evidence gap through a systematic review and meta-analysis, covering summer education and summer employment programmes as their contexts and mechanisms are often similar. Research Objective: The objective is to provide evidence on the extent to which summer programmes impact the outcomes of disadvantaged or 'at risk' young people. Methods: The review employs mixed methods: we synthesise quantitative information estimating the impact of summer programme allocation/participation across the outcome domains through meta-analysis using the random-effects model; and we synthesise qualitative information relating to contexts, features, mechanisms and implementation issues through thematic synthesis. Literature searches were largely conducted in January 2023. Databases searched include: Scopus; PsychInfo; ERIC; the YFF-EGM; EEF's and TASO's toolkits; RAND's summer programmes evidence review; key academic journals; and Google Scholar. The review employed PICOSS eligibility criteria: the population was disadvantaged or 'at risk' young people aged 10-25; interventions were either summer education or employment programmes; a valid comparison group that did not experience a summer programme was required; studies had to estimate the summer programme's impact on violence and offending, education, employment, socio-emotional and/or health outcomes; eligible study designs were experimental and quasi-experimental; eligible settings were high-income countries. Other eligibility criteria included publication in English, between 2012 and 2022. Process/qualitative evaluations associated with eligible impact studies or of UK-based interventions were also included; the latter given the interests of the sponsors. We used standard methodological procedures expected by The Campbell Collaboration. The search identified 68 eligible studies; with 41 eligible for meta-analysis. Forty-nine studies evaluated 36 summer education programmes, and 19 studies evaluated six summer employment programmes. The number of participants within these studies ranged from less than 100 to nearly 300,000. The PICOSS criteria affects the external applicability of the body of evidence - allowances made regarding study design to prioritise evidence on UK-based interventions limits our ability to assess impact for some interventions. The risk of bias assessment categorised approximately 75% of the impact evaluations as low quality, due to attrition, losses to follow up, interventions having low take-up rates, or where allocation might introduce selection bias. As such, intention-to-treat analyses are prioritised. The quality assessment rated 93% of qualitative studies as low quality often due to not employing rigorous qualitative methodologies. These results highlight the need to improve the evidence. Results and Conclusions: Quantitative synthesis The quantitative synthesis examined impact estimates across 34 outcomes, through meta-analysis (22) or in narrative form (12). We summarise below the findings where meta-analysis was possible, along with the researchers' judgement of the security of the findings (high, moderate or low). This was based on the number and study-design quality of studies evaluating the outcome; the consistency of findings; the similarity in specific outcome measures used; and any other specific issues which might affect our confidence in the summary findings.Below we summarise the findings from the meta-analyses conducted to assess the impact of allocation to/participation in summer education and employment programmes (findings in relation to other outcomes are also discussed in the main body, but due to the low number of studies evaluating these, meta-analysis was not performed). We only cover the pooled results for the two programme types where there are not clear differences in findings between summer education and summer employment programmes, so as to avoid potentially attributing any impact to both summer programme types when this is not the case. We list the outcome measure, the average effect size type (i.e., whether a standardised mean difference (SMD) or log odds ratio), which programme type the finding is in relation to and then the average effect size along with its 95% confidence interval and the interpretation of the finding, that is, whether there appears to be a significant impact and in which direction (positive or negative, clarifying instances where a negative impact is beneficial). In some instances there may be a discrepancy between the 95% confidence interval and whether we determine there to be a significant impact, which will be due to the specifics of the process for constructing the effect sizes used in the meta-analysis. We then list the I 2 statistic and the p-value from the homogeneity test as indications of the presence of heterogeneity. As the sample size used in the analysis are often small and the homogeneity test is known to be under-powered with small sample sizes, it may not detect statistically significant heterogeneity when it is in fact present. As such, a 90% confidence level threshold should generally be used when interpreting this with regard to the meta-analyses below. The presence of effect size heterogeneity affects the extent to which the average effects size is applicable to all interventions of that summer programme type. We also provide an assessment of the relative confidence we have in the generalisability of the overall finding (low, moderate or high) - some of the overall findings are based on a small sample of studies, the studies evaluating the outcome may be of low quality, there may be wide variation in findings among the studies evaluating the outcome, or there may be specific aspects of the impact estimates included or the effect sizes constructed that affect the generalisability of the headline finding. These issues are detailed in full in the main body of the review. -Engagement with/participation in/enjoyment of education (SMD):∘Summer education programmes: +0.12 (+0.03, +0.20); positive impact; I 2 = 48.76%, p = 0.10; moderate confidence.-Secondary education attendance (SMD):∘Summer education programmes: +0.26 (+0.08, +0.44); positive impact; I 2 = N/A; p = N/A; low confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: +0.02 (-0.03, +0.07); no impact; I 2 = 69.98%; p = 0.03; low confidence.-Passing tests (log OR):∘Summer education programmes: +0.41 (-0.13, +0.96); no impact; I 2 = 95.05%; p = 0.00; low confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: +0.02 (+0.00, +0.04); positive impact; I 2 = 0.01%; p = 0.33; low confidence.-Reading test scores (SMD):∘Summer education programmes: +0.01 (-0.04, +0.05); no impact; I 2 = 0.40%; p = 0.48; high confidence.-English test scores (SMD):∘Summer education programmes: +0.07 (+0.00, +0.13); positive impact; I 2 = 27.17%; p = 0.33; moderate confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: -0.03 (-0.05, -0.01); negative impact; I 2 = 0.00%; p = 0.76; low confidence.-Mathematics test scores (SMD):∘All summer programmes: +0.09 (-0.06, +0.25); no impact; I 2 = 94.53%; p = 0.00; high confidence.∘Summer education programmes: +0.14 (-0.09, +0.36); no impact; I 2 = 94.15%; p = 0.00; moderate confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: +0.00 (-0.04, +0.05); no impact; I 2 = 0.04%; p = 0.92; moderate confidence.-Overall test scores (SMD):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.01 (-0.08, +0.05); no impact; I 2 = 32.39%; p = 0.20; high confidence.-All test scores (SMD):∘Summer education programmes: +0.14 (+0.00, +0.27); positive impact; I 2 = 91.07%; p = 0.00; moderate confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: -0.01 (-0.04, +0.01); no impact; I 2 = 0.06%; p = 0.73; high confidence.-Negative behavioural outcomes (log OR):∘Summer education programmes: -1.55 (-3.14, +0.03); negative impact; I 2 = N/A; p = N/A; low confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: -0.07 (-0.33, +0.18); no impact; I 2 = 88.17%; p = 0.00; moderate confidence.-Progression to HE (log OR):∘All summer programmes: +0.24 (-0.04, +0.52); no impact; I 2 = 97.37%; p = 0.00; low confidence.∘Summer education programmes: +0.32 (-0.12, +0.76); no impact; I 2 = 96.58%; p = 0.00; low confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: +0.10 (-0.07, +0.26); no impact; I 2 = 76.61%; p = 0.02; moderate confidence.-Complete HE (log OR):∘Summer education programmes: +0.38 (+0.15, +0.62); positive impact; I 2 = 52.52%; p = 0.06; high confidence.∘Summer employment programmes: +0.07 (-0.19, +0.33); no impact; I 2 = 70.54%; p = 0.07; moderate confidence.-Entry to employment, short-term (log OR):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.19 (-0.45, +0.08); no impact; I 2 = 87.81%; p = 0.00; low confidence.∘Entry to employment, full period (log OR)∘Summer employment programmes: -0.15 (-0.35, +0.05); no impact; I 2 = 78.88%; p = 0.00; low confidence.-Likelihood of having a criminal justice outcome (log OR):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.05 (-0.15, +0.05); no impact; I 2 = 0.00%; p = 0.76; low confidence.-Likelihood of having a drug-related criminal justice outcome (log OR):∘Summer employment programmes: +0.16 (-0.57, +0.89); no impact; I 2 = 65.97%; p = 0.09; low confidence.-Likelihood of having a violence-related criminal justice outcome (log OR):∘Summer employment programmes: +0.03 (-0.02, +0.08); no impact; I 2 = 0.00%; p = 0.22; moderate confidence.-Likelihood of having a property-related criminal justice outcome (logOR):∘Summer employment programmes: +0.09 (-0.17, +0.34); no impact; I 2 = 45.01%; p = 0.18; low confidence.-Number of criminal justice outcomes, during programme (SMD):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.01 (-0.03, +0.00); no impact; I 2 = 2.17%; p = 0.31; low confidence.-Number of criminal justice outcomes, post-programme (SMD):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.01 (-0.03, +0.00); no impact; I 2 = 23.57%; p = 0.37; low confidence.-Number of drug-related criminal justice outcomes, post-programme (SMD):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.01 (-0.06, +0.06); no impact; I 2 = 55.19%; p = 0.14; moderate confidence.-Number of violence-related criminal justice outcomes, post-programme (SMD):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.02 (-0.08, +0.03); no impact; I 2 = 44.48%; p = 0.18; low confidence.-Number of property-related criminal justice outcomes, post-programme (SMD):∘Summer employment programmes: -0.02 (-0.10, +0.05); no impact; I 2 = 64.93%; p = 0.09; low confidence. We re-express instances of significant impact by programme type where we have moderate or high confidence in the security of findings by translating this to a form used by one of the studies, to aid understanding of the findings. Allocation to a summer education programme results in approximately 60% of individuals moving from never reading for fun to doing so once or twice a month (engagement in/participation in/enjoyment of education), and an increase in the English Grade Point Average of 0.08. Participation in a summer education programme results in an increase in overall Grade Point Average of 0.14 and increases the likelihood of completing higher education by 1.5 times. Signs are positive for the effectiveness of summer education programmes in achieving some of the education outcomes considered (particularly on test scores (when pooled across types), completion of higher education and STEM-related higher education outcomes), but the evidence on which overall findings are based is often weak. Summer employment programmes appear to have a limited impact on employment outcomes, if anything, a negative impact on the likelihood of entering employment outside of employment related to the programme. The evidence base for impacts of summer employment programmes on young people's violence and offending type outcomes is currently limited - where impact is detected this largely results in substantial reductions in criminal justice outcomes, but the variation in findings across and within studies affects our ability to make any overarching assertions with confidence. In understanding the effectiveness of summer programmes, the order of outcomes also requires consideration - entries into education from a summer employment programme might be beneficial if this leads towards better quality employment in the future and a reduced propensity of criminal justice outcomes. Qualitative Synthesis: Various shared features among different summer education programmes emerged from the review, allowing us to cluster specific types of these interventions which then aided the structuring of the thematic synthesis. The three distinct clusters for summer education programmes were: catch-up programmes addressing attainment gaps, raising aspirations programmes inspiring young people to pursue the next stage of their education or career, and transition support programmes facilitating smooth transitions between educational levels. Depending on their aim, summer education programme tend to provide a combination of: additional instruction on core subjects (e.g., English, mathematics); academic classes including to enhance specialist subject knowledge (e.g., STEM-related); homework help; coaching and mentoring; arts and recreation electives; and social and enrichment activities. Summer employment programmes provide paid work placements or subsidised jobs typically in entry-level roles mostly in the third and public sectors, with some summer employment programmes also providing placements in the private sector. They usually include components of pre-work training and employability skills, coaching and mentoring. There are a number of mechanisms which act as facilitators or barriers to engagement in summer programmes. These include tailoring the summer programme to each young person and individualised attention; the presence of well-prepared staff who provide effective academic/workplace and socio-emotional support; incentives of a monetary (e.g., stipends and wages) or non-monetary (e.g., free transport and meals) nature; recruitment strategies, which are effective at identifying, targeting and engaging participants who can most benefit from the intervention; partnerships, with key actors who can help facilitate referrals and recruitment, such as schools, community action and workforce development agencies; format, including providing social activities and opportunities to support the formation of connections with peers; integration into the workplace, through pre-placement engagement, such as through orientation days, pre-work skills training, job fairs, and interactions with employers ahead of the beginning of the summer programme; and skill acquisition, such as improvements in social skills. In terms of the causal processes which lead from engagement in a summer programme to outcomes, these include: skill acquisition, including academic, social, emotional, and life skills; positive relationships with peers, including with older students as mentors in summer education programmes; personalised and positive relationships with staff; location, including accessibility and creating familiar environments; creating connections between the summer education programme and the students' learning at home to maintain continuity and reinforce learning; and providing purposeful and meaningful work through summer employment programmes (potentially facilitated through the provision of financial and/or non-financial incentives), which makes participants more likely to see the importance of education in achieving their life goals and this leads to raised aspirations. It is important to note that no single element of a summer programme can be identified as generating the causal process for impact, and impact results rather from a combination of elements. Finally, we investigated strengths and weaknesses in summer programmes at both the design and implementation stages. In summer education programmes, design strengths include interactive and alternative learning modes; iterative and progressive content building; incorporating confidence building activities; careful lesson planning; and teacher support which is tailored to each student. Design weaknesses include insufficient funding or poor funding governance (e.g., delays to funding); limited reach of the target population; and inadequate allocation of teacher and pupil groups (i.e., misalignment between the education stage of the pupils and the content taught by staff). Implementation strengths include clear programme delivery guidance and good governance; high quality academic instruction; mentoring support; and strong partnerships. Implementation weaknesses include insufficient planning and lead in time; recruitment challenges; and variability in teaching quality. In summer employment programmes, design strengths include use of employer orientation materials and supervisor handbooks; careful consideration of programme staff roles; a wide range of job opportunities; and building a network of engaged employers. Design weaknesses are uncertainty over funding and budget agreements; variation in delivery and quality of training between providers; challenges in recruitment of employers; and caseload size and management. Implementation strengths include effective job matching; supportive relationships with supervisors; pre-work training; and mitigating attrition (e.g., striving to increase take up of the intervention among the treatment group). Implementation weaknesses are insufficient monitors for the number of participants, and challenges around employer availability.

Brute forcing on secured shell servers emphasising the role of cyber forensics - a quali-quantitative study.

BACKGROUND: Increasing numbers of cyber attacks threaten us personally and professionally. Cyber crimes include obtaining sensitive information (medical or financial) but may extend to organising heinous crimes including murders and aggravated sexual assaults. A major vector of cyber crimes is brute force attacks on secured shell servers. AIM OF STUDY: This research highlights the prevalence of the intensity of brute force attacks on secured shell servers via quali-quantitative analysis of cyber attacks. METHODOLOGY: The brute force attacks were recorded over a period of 20 days with the help of logs taken from five dedicated servers installed in a production environment. RESULTS: There were a minimum of 6470 and maximum of 22,715 attacks on a server per day. The total number of attacks on all the servers during the study period was 1,065,920. The brute force attacks were mainly targeted at the service network accounts. CONCLUSION: Growth of the field of cyber forensics is the optimal solution to prevent the malicious use of internet services and the commissioning of crimes by this means.

The Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence Technology for the Differentiation of Fresh Human Blood Cells From Other Species' Blood in the Investigation of Crime Scenes.

OBJECTIVES: The current study used the deep machine learning approach to differentiate human blood specimens from cow, goat, and chicken blood stains based on cell morphology. METHODS: A total of 1,955 known Giemsa-stained digitized images were acquired from the blood of humans, cows, goats, and chickens. To train the deep learning models, the well-known VGG16, Resnet18, and Resnet34 algorithms were used. Based on the image analysis, confusion matrices were generated. RESULTS: Findings showed that the F1 score for the chicken, cow, goat, and human classes were all equal to 1.0 for each of the three algorithms. The Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) was 1 for chickens, cows, and humans in all three algorithms, while the MCC score was 0.989 for goats by ResNet18, and it was 0.994 for both ResNet34 and VGG16 algorithms. The three algorithms showed 100% sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for the human, cow, and chicken cells. For the goat cells, the data showed 100% sensitivity and negative predictive values with specificity and positive predictive values ranging from 98.5% to 99.6%. CONCLUSION: These data showed the importance of deep learning as a potential tool for the differentiation of the species of origin of fresh crime scene blood stains.

Protocol: Reducing community violence: A systematic meta-review of what works.

This is the protocol for a Campbell Collaboration systematic review. Our objective is to synthesize what is known about the effectiveness of strategies for reducing community violence, focusing on those strategies that have been subjected to a systematic review. We aim to answer the following questions in this review: what strategies to reduce community violence have been rigorously evaluated through systematic reviews; which have sufficient evidence of effectiveness, which seem promising, and which appear ineffective; and what implications for practice and policy can be drawn from this large body of research? We anticipate categorizing the results of our review similarly to the original review by Abt and Winship (2016). That is, categorizing reviews by people-based approaches, place-based approaches, and behavior-based approaches. However, given that this is an updated review and we will be incorporating additional studies, we may find that an alternative or additional categorization is warranted and update our categorization accordingly. Implications for policy and practice as they relate to these categories will be discussed.

Detrimental effects of scene manipulations on temperature-based time since death estimation.

In forensic casework, time since death (TSD) estimations may play a crucial role to establish chains of events as well as for alibi assessment in homicide cases. Classical TSD estimation relies on reasonably stable ambient temperatures and a correct documentation of ambient and rectal temperatures. This constancy is in some cases disturbed by post-discovery alterations of the crime scene, e.g. opening a window. In order to develop a better understanding of this alteration-based detrimental impact on TSD estimation as well as to identify feasible recommendations for casework, the present pilot study examined ambient temperature effects of different window opening scenarios regarding various time intervals (5 to 360 min) in a furnished 10 m2 apartment during winter. In this context, in addition to the ambient temperature and thus the cooling rate of the room, re-approximation to initial room temperature, potential influences on a nomogram-based time since death estimation using a fictitious case, and the impact of the measurement height above the ground were investigated. Our data indicate a significant reduction of the mean temperature decrease rate after 15 min regardless of the remaining opening time and a correlation with the size of the respective opening surfaces. Re-approximation to initial room temperatures was observed with up to three times longer than the initial opening time. There was no evidence of a substantial advantage of temperature measurements above the level of the corpse (> 0.1 m). The limitations of the study and its applicability for forensic casework are critically reviewed.

Crime-scene and offender characteristics in conventional and nonconventional stranger homicides committed by male offenders in Sweden.

In Sweden, from 1990 to 2013, most homicides occurred between family members, friends or acquaintances: the annual rate of incidents between unacquainted offenders and victims ranged between 8% and 13%. In the majority of these "stranger homicides," three common motives, as defined by the precipitating event, could be identified: homicides resulting from a spontaneous altercation; homicides committed in the context of a robbery or burglary; and homicides committed in the context of a gangland conflict. The remaining minority-with uncommon or indiscernible motives-could, nonetheless, be categorized according to their nonconventional distinguishing feature: homicides characterized by the offender's ostensibly mentally aberrant behavior; homicides committed in the context of a hate offense or politically motivated offense; homicides committed in the context of a sexual offense; and homicides committed in the context of a mass killing or series of homicides. In this registry-based study of 224 incidents, "conventional" stranger homicides, defined by their commonplace motive, were compared with "nonconventional" stranger homicides, defined by their lack of such motive. The former were more often committed with an accomplice, against a male victim, whereas the latter were more often committed in a public place, after contact initiated by the offender. In the latter, offenders were less often intoxicated at the time of the offense and more often adjudged to suffer from a severe mental disorder. The subcategory of nonconventional stranger homicides characterized by the offender's ostensibly mentally aberrant behavior corresponded largely to both the archetypal stranger-homicide construct and the popular notion "act of madness."

Detection dogs fighting transnational narcotraffic: performance and challenges under real customs scenario in Brazil.

Narcotic Detection Dogs (NDDs) are essential tools in the fight against drug trafficking, acting with high precision and improving efficiency at border posts. When trained efficiently, these dogs can detect a great variety of compounds, such as cocaine, marijuana and its derivatives, and synthetic drugs, among others. Most of the knowledge on canine detection processes and efficiency has been determined in experimentally controlled conditions, but narcotic seizures detected by dogs in realistic anti-drug operations have not yet been critically determined in a Country with continental dimensions such as Brazil. This study aimed to evaluate the data set concerning the performance, operations, efficiency, and success rate of NDDs used by the Brazilian Customs Authority (Aduana) in the fight against drug trafficking. Narcotic seizure rates increased in luggage and packages detected by NDDs working at border crossings from 2010 to 2020, with an estimated value of over US$ 2 billion in losses to the cocaine drug trafficking business. NDD units also increased most narcotic groups seized in the same period. The number of NDDs and anti-drug operations, and Customs Border Post (CBP) influenced the rates of drugs seized. NDDs provided an increase of 3,157 kg/animal of drugs seized for every new dog introduced into the inspection systems.