Forensic Evidence and Criminal Investigations: The Impact of Ballistics Information on the Investigation of Violent Crime in Nine Cities,

Blockchain Use-Case in Ballistics and Crime Gun Tracing and Intelligence: Towards Overcoming Gun Violence

In the United States and around the world, gun violence has become a long-standing public safety concern and a security threat, due to violent gun-related crimes, injuries, and fatalities. While legislators and lawmakers have attempted to mitigate its threats through legislation, research on gun violence confirms the need for a comprehensive approach to gun violence prevention. This entails addressing the problem in as many ways as possible, such as through legislation, new technological advancements, re-engineering supply, and administrative protocols, and so on. The research focuses on the technological, supply, and administrative aspects, in which we propose a manner of managing gun-related data efficiently from the point of manufacture/sale, as well as at points of transfers between secondary sellers for the improvement of criminal investigation processes. Making data more readily available with greater integrity will facilitate successful investigations and prosecutions of gun crimes. Currently, there is no single and uniform platform for firearm manufacturers, dealers, and other stakeholders involved in firearm sales, dissemination, management, and investigation. With the help of Blockchain technology, gun registry, ownership, transfers, and, most importantly, investigations, when crimes occur, can all be managed efficiently, breaking the cycle of gun violence. The identification of guns, gun tracing, and identification of gun owners/possessors rely on accuracy, integrity, and consistency in related systems to influence gun crime investigation processes. Blockchain technology, which uses a consensus-based approach to improve processes and transactions, is demonstrated in this study as a way to enhance these procedures. This is the first study to explore and demonstrate the utility of Blockchain for gun-related criminal investigations using a design science approach.

Examining the impact of a crime gun intelligence center

With gun crime on the rise, efforts to curb this form of violence have captured the attention of government agencies and police departments alike. One form of such efforts is the proliferation of Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGICs) in police departments across the country. However, with only three non-peer-reviewed evaluations of these CGICs to date, our understanding of their effectiveness is limited. The present study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of the Phoenix Police Department's (PPD) CGIC on clearance rates and prosecutorial outcomes for gun crimes. The data for this study come from PPD's Records Management System (RMS), computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, impounded evidence, National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) lead data, and arrest data. Prosecutorial data were supplied by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office (MCAO). This study examined pretest and posttest differences that occurred over the study period. Difference-in-difference (DID) models were calculated to assess the impact of the CGIC on the outcome measures of interest. We found that from the year prior to the CGIC to 2 years post-CGIC, NIBIN inputs increased by 115%, NIBIN leads increased by 163%, timeliness of entry (of ballistics evidence) improved with 32% of processed items entered within 24-48 h in the second year of the CGIC compared with only 3% the year preceding the CGIC, and clearance rates for arrests increased significantly. These findings have implications for the continued adoption of CGIC, as well as the utility of NIBIN.

The forensic examination of structural fires in Victoria, Australia: Decision-making processes and impact on judicial outcomes

There is a body of published research that has evaluated the contribution of forensic science to the criminal justice system, but many disciplines of forensic science remain unexplored in this regard. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution that forensic fire examination services provide to criminal investigations and court processes in arson cases. Forensic fire examination services differ in a number of ways to the disciplines covered in previous research on the impact of forensic evidence on justice outcomes. Forensic fire examinations involve a combination of scene examination and laboratory analyses, and the results can provide critical evidence of whether an incident that has occurred is a criminal offence (i.e. whether a fire has occurred as the result of an act of arson). Forensic fire examination is also a discipline that has faced challenges and undergone development in recent decades regarding its scientific basis and the issue of contextual bias. In this study, data were collated for 273 structural fires that were examined by the forensic fire services in Victoria, Australia. In this jurisdiction, scene and laboratory forensic services are delivered within short time frames with a focus on providing impartial scientific and investigative services to assist criminal investigations conducted by police. The current dataset was highly skewed in terms of criminal justice outcomes and was not suitable for conducting the planned statistical analyses. Nonetheless, the pattern of findings obtained suggested that the inclusion of forensic evidence which supported the prosecution of arson may be associated with an increased likelihood of suspects being charged and defendants found guilty. Examination of the decision-making process of the forensic fire examiners has provided insight into the variety of evidence that is considered by forensic experts in reaching the important conclusion about the origin and cause of structural fires.

Interpol review of forensic firearm examination 2016-2019

This review paper covers the relevant literature on forensic firearm examination from 2016 to 2019 as a part of the 19th Interpol International Forensic Science Managers Symposium. The review papers are also available at the Interpol website at: https://www.interpol.int/content/download/14458/file/Interpol%20Review%20Papers%202019.pdf.