Legal Studies Commons^™

From The Editor-In-Chief, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Welcome to JDFSL’s second issue for 2015! First, I would like to thank our editorial board, reviewers, and the JDFSL team for bringing this issue to life. In this issue, we continue our multidisciplinary tradition. The first paper, Two challenges of stealthy hypervisors detection: time cheating and data fluctuations, showcases an important contribution to the computing discipline. The use of virtualization has dramatically increased given our strong reliance on cloud services both private and public. Even though hypervisors enhance security, they can also be exploited by malware. Therefore, this paper is of importance given that it introduces a novel method …

From The Editor-In-Chief, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Welcome to JDFSL’s first issue for 2015! First, I would like to thank our editorial board, reviewers, and the JDFSL team for bringing this issue to life. It has been a big year for JDFSL as the journal continues to progress. We are continuing our indexing efforts for the journal and we are getting closer with some of the major databases.

Fear In The World Of Social Media, Jamie E. Hildreth

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

Many researchers believe that perception of crime is formed by how crime is presented or framed by news media. News media has previously been society's only gateway to the rest of the world. "Violent crimes are prominent and presented as the norm in news media and commercial television programs, thus providing millions of people with a daily diet of rape, murder and drug abuse" (Greer, 2005). Emergence of social media may be removing many of the controls news media had in place with instantaneous, supposedly unbiased, unfiltered information. Social media may also be exacerbating the effects of news media by …

School Interventions And Criminality: An Analysis Into The Types Of School Interventions And Criminality, Holton Silas Hemby

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

The study focuses on the types of school interventions used in the educational system in order to understand a correlation with criminality. The participants consist of 105 individuals that were sentenced to probation in Parker County, Texas, from January 1, 2015 to February 28, 2015. The research displays gender, race, education, school interventions, juvenile criminality, and adult criminality from the participants of Parker County Community Supervision and Corrections Department. The variables of the participants were then analyzed through a cross tabulation and logistical regression. According to the results, there is no significant association with school interventions and adult criminality. In …

Gang Activity: A Deeper Analysis Into The Types Of Crime Committed By Gang Members, Zane Lehman Nash

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the different types of gang-related crime. The arrests of 410 gang members in Arlington, Texas from 2010-2014 are the subjects of analysis. These records display the date of arrest, age, committed offense, and gang affiliation of each gang member arrested by the Arlilngton Police Department's gang unit during this time span. Characteristics of gang members, such as age and gang type, were compared to attributes of gang-related offenses. Gang members were broken down into different age groups and gang classifications, while criminal offenses were categorized as being violent, …

Efficacy Of Property Marking As A Situational Crime Prevention Strategy, David J. Brooks, Michael Coole, Chauncey Johnson, Jeff Corkill, Malcolm Jenkinson

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Burglary and stealing are crimes that have a significant impact and cost on its victims and society. To mitigate such crimes, property marking is a situational crime prevention strategy that attempts to prevent through dissuasion. There are many forms of property marking, yet there is limited research of its efficacy. Where there have been such studies, there has been some indications of success. Therefore, the study assessed the efficacy of property marking to reduce burglary and stealing crimes. The study undertook a quantitate approach using non-equivalent control groups to assess the geo-spatial impact of property marking when applied at a …

Tragic Choices In Ideological Battles: Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom, Anthony Walsh

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

A major domestic issue in the United States today is the battle between gay rights and religious liberty. It is an issue often framed as a zero-sum battle where one side must lose and be faced with a tragic choice. Thus far, it has only been religious individuals who believe marriage is only supposed to be between men and women, and who act on this belief who have been made to make this choice. Religious believers connected to the wedding industry who refuse to facilitate gay weddings have been faced with the tragic choice of either abandoning their faith or …

Police Opinions Of Digital Evidence Response Handling In The State Of Georgia: An Examination From The Viewpoint Of Local Agencies’ Patrol Officers, Tanya Macneil

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This research examined opinions of local law enforcement agencies’ patrol officers in the State of Georgia regarding preparedness and expectations for handling of digital evidence. The increased criminal use of technology requires that patrol officers be prepared to handle digital evidence in many different situations. The researcher’s goal was to gain insight into how patrol officers view their preparedness to handle digital evidence as well as their opinions on management expectations regarding patrol officers’ abilities to handle digital evidence. The research focused on identifying whether a gap existed between patrol officers’ opinions of digital evidence and the patrol officers’ views …

Creating An Operational Security Management Structure For Inimical Environments: Papua New Guinea As A Case Study, William J. Bailey

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Security is a necessary cost for businesses wishing to operate in the developing economy of Papua New Guinea. The country continues to face levels of crime and violence out of proportion to other East Asian countries; which deters many would be investors. However, the potential in PNG is vast and eagerly sought after despite the high costs required to operate without harm, therefore, it is necessary manage the security situation. Experience from similar countries has shown by using optimal security management systems and structures it is possible to work safely, securely and effectively, but this requires a comprehensive security, threat …

Cctv Surveillance: The Differing Aims And Functions Of Cctv Within The Corporate Stratum, Johan Malmenbratt, David J. Brooks

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems are found in a variety of environments and used for a multitude of purposes, leading to differing views of CCTV within an organisation. In accordance to management theory, organisations contain a stratum of work where each level requires specific skills set. In accordance with this work stratum, the study’s methodology used semi-structured interviews with different levels of security personnel in a Casino complex to extract and undertake a thematic analysis. The study extracted 10 CCTV surveillance features across two themes, being its aims and functions. CCTV features included creating a safe environment, protection, legal compliance …

Network And Device Forensic Analysis Of Android Social-Messaging Applications, Daniel Walnycky, Ibrahim Baggili, Andrew Marrington, Jason Moore, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this research we forensically acquire and analyze the device-stored data and network traffic of 20 popular instant messaging applications for Android. We were able to reconstruct some or the entire message content from 16 of the 20 applications tested, which reflects poorly on the security and privacy measures employed by these applications but may be construed positively for evidence collection purposes by digital forensic practitioners. This work shows which features of these instant messaging applications leave evidentiary traces allowing for suspect data to be reconstructed or partially reconstructed, and whether network forensics or device forensics permits the reconstruction of …

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 E. Fischer

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

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 …

Perceptions Of Search Consent Voluntariness As A Function Of Race, Rebecca M. Gold

Scripps Senior Theses

The United States Constitution provides its citizens protection from unreasonable searches and seizures from government officials, including police officers, through the Fourth Amendment. This Amendment applies to searches that violate a reasonable expectation of privacy. However, the Fourth Amendment does not protect citizens when they consent to a search voluntarily. It is necessary to determine whether or not a search is voluntary by looking at a variety of factors. Although an infinite number of factors can be considered to make this determination, race of both the police officer and of the person being searched should be considered, due to societal …

University Student Beliefs About Sexual Violence In Prison: Rape Myth Acceptance, Punitiveness, And Empathy, Laura L. King, Kathleen J. Hanrahan

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although prison rape has been recognised for years, it began to receive increased attention in the USA following the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). In addition to prevalence and victimisation estimates, several researchers have examined the attitudes of correctional personnel towards prison rape. However, few have surveyed the opinions of those not currently working in the criminal justice system. Drawing from the body of research on rape myths, our goal was to examine prison rape myth acceptance among a university student sample to describe these beliefs, as well as examine attitudinal correlates. The findings indicated that prison …

Organized Crime In Insurance Fraud: An Empirical Analysis Of Staged Automobile Accident Rings, Chris Longino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing trend of insurance fraud continues to cost US consumers billions of dollars a year through increased premiums. In 2015, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimated the cost of insurance fraud as being at least $80 billion dollars a year. Even though an increasing number of criminals are drawn to the low risk, high reward of insurance fraud, little criminological literature has explored this topic and the public remains relatively unaware of the extent of the problem.

One alarming aspect of insurance fraud is the involvement of organized criminal groups. These organized criminal enterprises are formed for the sole …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Fear Of Retaliation In A Cooperation Model, Jordan Papp

Wayne State University Theses

Past qualitative research has shown that fear of retaliation influences an individual's willingness to cooperate with the police. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the influence that fear of retaliation has on a citizen's willingness to cooperate with the police. This study also examined both normative and instrumental motivations for cooperating with the police to understand which motivations are more salient at explaining willingness to cooperate with the police. Data for this study were collected from 408 Detroit homes in 2009 from three different neighborhoods where homes were selected randomly from those neighborhoods. Results indicate that the …

Immigration And Family Violence At The Household Level Of Analysis: Examining The Effects Of Immigrant Culture And Neighborhood Structure, Jorge Luis Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study concerns the relationship between immigration and family violence at the household level of analysis. Previous studies have suggested that immigrant status - particularly first generation immigrant status - is not associated with crime. However, the same cannot be said about their descendants the second and third generations; as they are not as insulated from crime as their forefathers. This study measures the following variables which are relevant to the immigration and family violence relationship; immigrant generational status, acculturation levels, patriarchy, family oriented values, collective efficacy, surveillance, and measures of informal social control. This study finds that there is …

Technology And Legal Research: What Is Taught And What Is Used In The Practice Of Law, Rebecca Sewanee Trammell

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Law schools are criticized for graduating students who lack the skills necessary to practice law. Legal research is a foundational ability necessary to support lawyering competency. The American Bar Association (ABA) establishes standards for legal education that include a requirement that each law student receive substantial instruction in legal skills, including legal research. Despite the recognized importance of legal research in legal education, there is no consensus of what to teach as part of a legal research course or even how to teach such a course.

Legal educators struggle to address these issues. The practicing bar and judiciary have expressed …

Addressing Barriers To Cultural Sensibility Learning: Lessons From Social Cognition Theory, Andrea A. Curcio

Faculty Publications By Year

Understanding subconscious biases, their pervasiveness, and their impact on perceptions, interactions, and analyses, helps prepare lawyers to represent people from cultural and racial backgrounds different from their own, and to address both individual and institutional injustice. Two law student surveys suggest many students believe lawyers are less susceptible than clients to having, or acting upon, stereotypes or biases. The survey results also indicate that many students suffer from bias blind spot – i.e. they believe that while others cannot recognize when they are acting based upon stereotypical beliefs and biases, the students know when they are doing so. The survey …

Reducing Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Jails: Recommendations For Local Practice, Jessica M. Eaglin, Danyelle Solomon

Articles by Maurer Faculty

People of color are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. One in three African American men born today will be incarcerated in his lifetime. In some cities, African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested when stopped by police. With the national debate national focused on race, crime, and punishment, criminal justice experts are examining how to reduce racial disparities in our prisons and jails, which often serve as initial entry points for those who become entangled in the criminal justice system.

This report, which relies on input from 25 criminal justice leaders, pinpoints the drivers of racial …