Legal Studies Commons^™

Why Do Victims Not Report?: The Influence Of Police And Criminal Justice Cynicism On The Dark Figure Of Crime, Seokhee Yoon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Criminologists have considered reporting as an important aspect in the criminal justice process and most studies focus on micro characteristics that influence reporting, such as victim, offender and crime characteristics. The few studies that have explored macro social characteristics dealt mostly with social ties, socioeconomic status and perception of police competency. Scholars have suggested legal cynicism, a cultural frame that views the law and law enforcement agents as illegitimate, unresponsive and ill equipped to ensure public safety (Kirk & Papachristos, 2011), as an important and necessary in victim reporting research (Baumer, 2002; Xie & Lauritsen, 2011). To expand our understanding …

Apple Picking: The Rise Of Electronic Device Thefts In Boston Subways, Kendra Gentry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As mobile technology advances and the demand for WiFi and phone coverage increases, electronic device theft is becoming an international problem in metropolitan public transportation systems. Using transit police reports, this dissertation applies crime opportunity theories to understand which factors increased electronic device theft in Boston subway stations from 2003-2011.

This approach addresses previous studies regarding crime on public transportation, robbery and larceny on subways and electronic device theft - as none have focused on this problem as the theft of a "hot product" within a "hot environment." Negative binomial regression, crime script analysis, sign tests and temporal pattern identification …

Negotiating Limits: Boundary Management In The Bondage/Discipline/Sadomasochism (Bdsm) Community, Karen Marie Holt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study sought to gain insight into the attitudes, beliefs, and values that shape Bondage/Discipline/Sadomasochism (BDSM) activities and how participants negotiate and maintain boundaries in order to engage in mutually satisfying BDSM activities. Additionally, this study explored the degree and consequences of unintended or non-negotiated harms, including physical, emotional, and sexual coercion. A qualitative approach consisting of semi-structured interviews and ethnography was used in order to develop an in depth exploration of the lived experiences of participants. Grounded theory was employed to reveal common themes which all supported a symbolic interactionist / dramaturgical understanding of the protective and predatory processes …

Psychosocial Sequelae Of Homicide Among Murder Victims' Family Members: An Appraisal Of Depression, Grief, And Posttraumatic Stress, Sarah Kopelovich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current investigation explored what is known regarding the psychological sequelae of the post-homicide experience for murder victims' family members and friends (MVFM). Participants were also asked about whether they felt they had attained closure, a term which populates anecdotal and theoretical accounts of MVFM's experience. Previous literature guided a theoretical definition of closure as a dimensional construct that represents adaptive functioning following a murder, and includes (1) absence of disabling symptomatology, (2) absence of ruminations about the event or murder victim, and (3) subjective return to baseline functioning. This quasi-experiment consisted of a between-subjects cross-sectional design. The dependent variable …

Tracking Criminals On Facebook: A Case Study From A Digital Forensics Reu Program, Daniel Weiss, Gary Warner

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The 2014 Digital Forensics Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) focused its summer efforts on tracking criminal forums and Facebook groups. The UAB-REU Facebook team was provided with a list of about 60 known criminal groups on Facebook, with a goal to track illegal information posted in these groups and ultimately store the information in a searchable database for use by digital forensic analysts. Over the course of about eight weeks, the UAB-REU Facebook team created a database with over 400 Facebook groups conducting criminal activity along with over 100,000 unique users …

Towards A Digital Forensics Competency-Based Program: Making Assessment Count, Rose Shumba

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes an approach that UMUC has initiated to revise its graduate programs to a Competency-Based Education (CBE) curriculum. The approach, which is Learning Demonstration (LD) centric, includes the identification of learning goals and competences, identification and description of the LDs, mapping of the LDs to the competences, scripting the LDs, placing the LDs into the respective courses, validating the developed materials, and the development of the open learning resources. Programs in the Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Department, including the Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigations program, are being revised. An LD centric approach to curriculum development helps align programs …

Phishing Intelligence Using The Simple Set Comparison Tool, Jason Britt, Alan Sprague, Gary Warner

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Phishing websites, phish, attempt to deceive users into exposing their passwords, user IDs, and other sensitive information by imitating legitimate websites, such as banks, product vendors, and service providers. Phishing investigators need fast automated tools to analyze the volume of phishing attacks seen today. In this paper, we present the Simple Set Comparison tool. The Simple Set Comparison tool is a fast automated tool that groups phish by imitated brand allowing phishing investigators to quickly identify and focus on phish targeting a particular brand. The Simple Set Comparison tool is evaluated against a traditional clustering algorithm over a month's worth …

Identifying Common Characteristics Of Malicious Insiders, Nan Liang, David Biros

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Malicious insiders account for large proportion of security breaches or other kinds of loss for organizations and have drawn attention of both academics and practitioners. Although methods and mechanism have been developed to monitor potential insider via electronic data monitoring, few studies focus on predicting potential malicious insiders. Based on the theory of planned behavior, certain cues should be observed or expressed when an individual performs as a malicious insider. Using text mining to analyze various media content of existing insider cases, we strive to develop a method to identify crucial and common indicators that an individual might be a …

Continuous Monitoring System Based On Systems' Environment, Eli Weintraub, Yuval Cohen

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

We present a new framework (and its mechanisms) of a Continuous Monitoring System (CMS) having new improved capabilities, and discuss its requirements and implications. The CMS is based on the real-time actual configuration of the system and the environment rather than a theoretic or assumed configuration. Moreover, the CMS predicts organizational damages taking into account chains of impacts among systems' components generated by messaging among software components. In addition, the CMS takes into account all organizational effects of an attack. Its risk measurement takes into account the consequences of a threat, as defines in risk analysis standards. Loss prediction is …

Html5 Zero Configuration Covert Channels: Security Risks And Challenges, Jason Farina, Mark Scanlon, Stephen Kohlmann, Nhien-An Le-Khac, Tahar Kechadi

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In recent months there has been an increase in the popularity and public awareness of secure, cloudless file transfer systems. The aim of these services is to facilitate the secure transfer of files in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion over the Internet without the need for centralized authentication or storage. These services can take the form of client installed applications or entirely web browser based interfaces. Due to the P2P nature, there is generally no limit to the file sizes involved or to the volume of data transmitted - and where these limitations do exist they will be purely reliant on …

Measuring Hacking Ability Using A Conceptual Expertise Task, Justin S. Giboney, Jeffrey G. Proudfoot, Sanjay Goel, Joseph S. Valacich

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hackers pose a continuous and unrelenting threat to organizations. Industry and academic researchers alike can benefit from a greater understanding of how hackers engage in criminal behavior. A limiting factor of hacker research is the inability to verify that self-proclaimed hackers participating in research actually possess their purported knowledge and skills. This paper presents current work in developing and validating a conceptual-expertise based tool that can be used to discriminate between novice and expert hackers. The implications of this work are promising since behavioral information systems researchers operating in the information security space will directly benefit from the validation of …

Invited Paper - A Profile Of Prolonged, Persistent Ssh Attack On A Kippo Based Honeynet, Craig Valli, Priya Rabadia, Andrew Woodard

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper is an investigation focusing on activities detected by SSH honeypots that utilised kippo honeypot software. The honeypots were located across a variety of geographical locations and operational platforms. The honeynet has suffered prolonged, persistent and attack from a /24 network which appears to be of Chinese geographical origin. In addition to these attacks, other attackers have been successful in compromising real hosts in a wide range of other countries that were subsequently involved in attacking the honeypot machines in the honeynet.

Keywords: Cyber Security, SSH, Secure Shell, Honeypots, Kippo

Inivited Paper - Potential Changes To Ediscovery Rules In Federal Court: A Discussion Of The Process, Substantive Changes And Their Applicability And Impact On Virginia Practice, Joseph J. Schwerha, Susan L. Mitchell, John W. Bagby

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) are subject to a unique process also once used in revising the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE). Today, this process is followed in revisions of the FRCP, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Federal Bankruptcy Rules. This unique rulemaking process differs significantly from traditional notice and comment rulemaking required for a majority of federal regulatory agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).1 Most notably, rule-making for the federal courts’ procedural matters remain unaffected by the invalidation of legislative veto. It is still widely, but wrongly believed, that the legislative veto was …

On The Network Performance Of Digital Evidence Acquisition Of Small Scale Devices Over Public Networks, Irvin Homem, Spyridon Dosis

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

While cybercrime proliferates – becoming more complex and surreptitious on the Internet – the tools and techniques used in performing digital investigations are still largely lagging behind, effectively slowing down law enforcement agencies at large. Real-time remote acquisition of digital evidence over the Internet is still an elusive ideal in the combat against cybercrime. In this paper we briefly describe the architecture of a comprehensive proactive digital investigation system that is termed as the Live Evidence Information Aggregator (LEIA). This system aims at collecting digital evidence from potentially any device in real time over the Internet. Particular focus is made …

A Review Of Recent Case Law Related To Digital Forensics: The Current Issues, Kelly A. Cole, Shruti Gupta, Dheeraj Gurugubelli, Marcus K. Rogers

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics is a new field without established models of investigation. This study uses thematic analysis to explore the different issues seen in the prosecution of digital forensic investigations. The study looks at 100 cases from different federal appellate courts to analyze the cause of the appeal. The issues are categorized into one of four categories, ‘search and seizure’, ‘data analysis’, ‘presentation’ and ‘legal issues’. The majority of the cases reviewed related to the search and seizure activity.

Keywords: Computer Investigation, Case Law, Digital Forensics, Legal Issues, and Courts

A New Cyber Forensic Philosophy For Digital Watermarks In The Context Of Copyright Laws, Vinod P. Bhattathiripad, Sneha Sudhakaran, Roshna K. Thalayaniyil

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The objective of this paper is to propose a new cyber forensic philosophy for watermark in the context of copyright laws for the benefit of the forensic community and the judiciary worldwide. The paper first briefly introduces various types of watermarks, and then situates watermarks in the context of the ideaexpression dichotomy and the copyright laws. It then explains the forensic importance of watermarks and proposes a forensic philosophy for them in the context of copyright laws. Finally, the paper stresses the vital need to incorporate watermarks in the forensic tests to establish software copyright infringement and also urges the …

A Survey Of Software-Based String Matching Algorithms For Forensic Analysis, Yi-Ching Liao

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Employing a fast string matching algorithm is essential for minimizing the overhead of extracting structured files from a raw disk image. In this paper, we summarize the concept, implementation, and main features of ten software-based string matching algorithms, and evaluate their applicability for forensic analysis. We provide comparisons between the selected software-based string matching algorithms from the perspective of forensic analysis by conducting their performance evaluation for file carving. According to the experimental results, the Shift-Or algorithm (R. Baeza-Yates & Gonnet, 1992) and the Karp-Rabin algorithm (Karp & Rabin, 1987) have the minimized search time for identifying the locations of …

Investigating Forensics Values Of Windows Jump Lists Data, Ahmad Ghafarian

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Starting with Windows 7, Microsoft introduced a new feature to the Windows Operating Systems called Jump Lists. Jump Lists stores information about user activities on the host machine. These activities may include links to the recently visited web pages, applications executed, or files processed. Computer forensics investigators may find traces of misuse in Jump Lists auto saved files. In this research, we investigate the forensics values of Jump Lists data. Specifically, we use several tools to view Jump Lists data on a virtual machine. We show that each tool reveal certain types of information about user’s activity on the host …

An Empirical Comparison Of Widely Adopted Hash Functions In Digital Forensics: Does The Programming Language And Operating System Make A Difference?, Satyendra Gurjar, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger, Alice Fischer

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hash functions are widespread in computer sciences and have a wide range of applications such as ensuring integrity in cryptographic protocols, structuring database entries (hash tables) or identifying known files in forensic investigations. Besides their cryptographic requirements, a fundamental property of hash functions is efficient and easy computation which is especially important in digital forensics due to the large amount of data that needs to be processed when working on cases. In this paper, we correlate the runtime efficiency of common hashing algorithms (MD5, SHA-family) and their implementation. Our empirical comparison focuses on C-OpenSSL, Python, Ruby, Java on Windows and …

Two Challenges Of Stealthy Hypervisors Detection: Time Cheating And Data Fluctuations, Igor Korkin

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hardware virtualization technologies play a significant role in cyber security. On the one hand these technologies enhance security levels, by designing a trusted operating system. On the other hand these technologies can be taken up into modern malware which is rather hard to detect. None of the existing methods is able to efficiently detect a hypervisor in the face of countermeasures such as time cheating, temporary self-uninstalling, memory hiding etc. New hypervisor detection methods which will be described in this paper can detect a hypervisor under these countermeasures and even count several nested ones. These novel approaches rely on the …

Corrections Reform In Kosovo: A Qualitative Study Of Canadian Corrections Advisers’ Experiences In A Post-Conflict Environment, Danielle Murdoch

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

This case study of corrections reform in Kosovo contributes to the growing academic literature on corrections reform during peacebuilding missions in post-conflict environments. Fourteen Canadian corrections advisers who were deployed to Kosovo between 1999 and 2006 were interviewed about the dynamics and challenges they experienced abroad. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed using NVivo10. Five key themes emerged from the data: the importance of understanding the local context; the prevalence of corruption; the lack of attention and resources devoted to corrections reform in post-conflict Kosovo; the challenges of providing safe and secure confinement for prisoners detained in facilities staffed by …

Institutionalized Racism And The Death Penalty, Ashleigh Ellis

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Overtime, support for capital punishment has evolved. Compared to previous decades, support has changed amongst different variables such as: age, race, gender, and political perspective; therefore, today, these variables have changed the amount of support for it. For example, as of today, 6 states have repealed the death penalty with New Jersey being the first in 2007 to do so in 40 years. As memories of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era have faded due to generational replacement, American society today still has this racial gap, however it is due to this racial resentment or symbolic resentment that the …

Indigenous Land Rights Of The Khoi In South Africa, Chelsea Wilkins

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Upon discussions in classes at James Madison University, I became aware of the Khoi people. I became interested in their way of life, as well as the implications of globalization and industrialization worldwide. After researching the topic, I decided I wanted to not only write my thesis on this topic, but I wanted to travel to South Africa to learn more. I wanted to know how a refreshment station at the Cape for the Dutch East India Company transformed into a fight for land that ultimately led to the extreme disenfranchisement of the Khoi people and their way of life. …

Trending@Rwu Law: Swapna Yeluri's Post: Baltimore: Ignoring Problems No Longer An Option, Swapna Yeluri

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Guilty By Reason Of Insanity: Unforeseen Consequences Of California's Deinstitutionalization Policy, Jen Rushforth

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Beginning with the passage of the Lanterman-Petris- Short Act in 1969, deinstitutionalization in California has had a devastating effect on the mentally ill. Instead of affording the mentally ill with more rights and protections, the process of shutting down state psychiatric hospitals and impeding psychiatric care for those in need caused a cascade effect leading to an increase of homelessness and incarceration. Over the past four decades, prisons and jails in California have become the de facto state mental hospitals, with severely mentally ill individuals having nearly a four-to-one chance of ending up in jail or prison over a psychiatric …

The Surveillance State: Do License Plate Readers Impinge Upon Americans' Civil Liberties?, Jourdin Hermann

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The boundaries that delineate public from private sphere have challenged our political system’s foundations since its origination. License plate readers (LPRs), a tool used by law enforcement and private businesses, cause citizens and their government to question the criteria separating public and private information. While police and repossession agencies contend that license plate readers aid their work, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that surveillance equipment interferes with an individual’s right to privacy. Addressing such privacy concerns requires the public to hold its government accountable by petitioning for limits on LPR use and data retention. LPRs also pose unique …

Justice Reform: Who's Got The Power, Yevgeniy Mayba

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

As the US prison population continues to rise despite the significant decrease in crime rates, scholars and social activists are demanding comprehensive reforms to the penal system that disproportionately affects minorities and the poor and has become a significant burden on the taxpayers. This paper examines some of the processes that contributed to the rise of the modern day carceral state, such as the determinate sentencing reform and the proliferation of mandatory minimum sentencing. It also explores the unintended consequences of these penal developments and traces the reaction and subsequent resistance to these sentencing schemes from the judiciary, as well …

There Goes The Neighborhood: Exposing The Relationship Between Gentrification And Incarceration, Casey Kellogg

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper seeks to demonstrate that there is a deliberate and intentional link between residential housing patterns and crime and mass incarceration, and that government plays a strong role in allowing and formalizing this link. Using historical examples, this paper attempts to document the role of government and policy in furthering residential segregation through the processes of gentrification and disinvestment. By contributing to the destruction of low-income communities and the invasion of gentry through covert partnerships with the private sector to develop land and design cities, government has prioritized commercial interests over the needs of the community at all income …

The Use Of Criminal Profilers In The Prosecution Of Serial Killers, Chelsea Van Aken

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of criminal profiling in terms of serial killers in the United States. The research provided in this paper was found using the most recent research available on the topic. The FBI’s Behavioral Unit, or National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC), is the current leading law enforcement agency that investigates these types of crimes. They utilize definitions, typographies, and motives to create a criminal profile to investigate serial killings. Ultimately, these profiles are inadequate because they are inconclusive and exclude multiple suspects that are potentially dangerous. Therefore, criminal …

Diagnosis Of Cyber And Nonphysical Bullying Victimization: A Routine Activities Approach To Constructing Effective Preventive Measures, Kevin J. Earl

Master’s Theses and Projects

Youths can experience bullying victimization through many sources. Technology and social networking sites have provided another source in which youths can experience bullying victimization, commonly called "cyber-bullying" (Hinduja and Patchin, 2009). The purpose of this study is to apply Routine Activities Theory (Cohen and Felson, 1979) as a main theoretical framework to examine cyber and nonphysical bullying victimization. Nonphysical bullying victimization refers to having been made fun of, called names, having had rumors spread, been threatened, pushed/shoved/tripped, etc., forced to do unwanted things, excluded, or having had property destroyed. Data were derived from the 2013 school crime supplement of NCVS, …