Two Policy & Practice Briefing Papers from ICPR’s Digital Forensics And Social Media Project Published

ICPR, in conjunction with University College London (UCL) and Perpetuity Research are pleased to release the first two policy and practice briefing papers from their Digital Forensics and Social Media (DFSM) project, funded by the Dawes Trust. The overall aims of the research are to examine how social media evidence is handled in the investigation and prosecution of serious violent and sexual offences, and to support more effective law enforcement by identifying how the associated challenges and opportunities can best be met.

The first of the two papers considers the legal and policy framework in which digital evidence is used and provides a resource that practitioners can refer to who when they have to handle digital evidence. This resource covers all processes from initially obtaining and reviewing of potential digital evidence, through to disclosure and presentation in court.

The second of the two papers looks at the technique of sentiment analysis and how this could potentially assist investigators with processing and analysing large amounts of digital information from mobile devices and social media platforms during criminal investigations. In particular, it can highlight “events of interest” in exchanges between individuals, thereby allowing resources to concentrate on these for more detailed attention.

Further papers will be released from this project later in the year.

To view a copy of these two papers, please click here