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Revision about minors trafficked for exploitation in criminal activities. Forensic Science Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “‘Little Rascals’ or Not-So-
Ideal Victims: Dealing with minors trafficked for exploitation in criminal activities in the Netherlands”, by Breuil, B. O. (2021), in which the author revises the problem of minor trafficked in criminal activities in the Netherlands’ context.

We know that one of the great scourges in our society that still exists today is human trafficking. The best known is trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, which drags millions and millions of people to cruel destinations, from which it is very difficult to get out.

However, there is also trafficking for criminal purposes, where the majority of victims are, once
again, the most vulnerable people: children and teenagers.

In the Netherlands, the context of this study, the defended idea is that the interests of minors should
be guaranteed in these types of cases, and that victims of trafficking should not be held responsible
or punished for the crimes they were forced to commit. However, society often regards these
punishments as deserved and fair.

So are front-line actors (police and authority figures) prepared to identify and deal with these cases?

This topic is discussed in the research carried out by the author in 2015 and 2016, about children
and young people exploited in criminal activities in the Netherlands.

At the time it was carried out, only five cases had been successfully tried in court. And although the
visibility of the phenomenon has increased in recent years, it is unfortunately a form of trafficking
that remains under-researched, in the Netherlands but also in the rest of the world.

The objective of the article is, therefore, to contribute to filling this gap, providing ideas that may be
relevant to public institutions for child protection.

The research revolves around two questions: first, what knowledge exists about the phenomenon, its
definition, characteristics, the profiles of the perpetrators and victims, and so on. On the other hand,
some cases were investigated in order to explore the different manifestations of the phenomenon.

One of the problems posed by this criminal typology is the reduced amount of literature on it. Based
on the limited data that exist, the most common crimes in this context would be: pickpocketing,
forced begging, robbery, shoplifting, illegal street vending or drug trafficking. Regarding the first four activities, there is a strong emphasis on research on Roma children, from Central and Eastern Europe, as the main victims of this exploitation.

However, the author mentions that we need to be skeptical about the “ethnitization” of the
phenomenon. The most important thing in the victimization of minors for these crimes are the
socioeconomic disadvantages of their families, living in segregated, impoverished and crime-prone
neighborhoods, with sick, unemployed parents, that sometimes can be alcohol or drug users. There
is no reason for children of other ethnic groups living in similar circumstances to not be victimized:
it is not about race, but about disadvantaged living conditions. This also has negative consequences on parents and the Roma culture, who are perceived as perpetrators.

A very interesting aspect that should be considered is that the assumptions about how the victims
should be, dissuade the authorities from granting the status of victim to minors who do not fit this
ideal, since there is a belief that these minors arrived with their families to the host country to enjoy
its social benefits, being this an assumption that can impair their ability to see them as victims.
In other words, although they may be identified as victims of trafficking for criminal purposes, this
does not guarantee that they are actually recognized as such, due to the stigmatization they suffer.

There is also a cognitive bias that makes it easier to consider women victims than men. Some of the
authority figures interviewed for the author’s study observed that the possibility of girls being
trafficked is more obvious.

On the other hand, it is difficult for cases of exploitation of minors for criminal activities to reach
the courts. According to the investigation, it is because at some point in the investigation of the
crime, the idea is lost, it is no longer considered trafficking.

Sometimes it happens because professionals prefer not to label the case as human trafficking in an
official way, in order to be as objective as possible and interpret the facts from a neutral role.

At other times, it is considered that labeling a case as human trafficking might not be in the best
interest and well-being of the child. This follows the argument that, in some cases, legally qualifying facts as a consequence of trafficking avoids addressing the structural causes (political, economic and social), to the benefit of punitive criminal justice reactions.

In other words, prosecuting and imprisoning parents for trafficking their children can have serious
consequences for children and worsen their living conditions. An intervention aimed at protecting
them, supporting parents in raising children, improving their living conditions, would produce
better results.

These combined efforts could pave the way for better identification of the trafficking of minors for
exploitation in criminal activities, and ensure that children’s rights are respected, including the right
to not be punished for crimes they were forced to commit. It would also be necessary to address
economic, social, cultural and gender inequalities, while keeping the best interests of children in the
spotlight.

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Criminology

Aggressive defiant behavior in adults with intellectual disabilities: are there any factors influencing its development? Forensic Science Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Blog, this week we present the paper “Aggressive challenging behavior in adults with intellectual disability: An electronic register-based cohort study of clinical outcome and service use”, by Smith, J.; Baksh, R. A.; Hassiotis, A.; Sheehan, R.; Ke, C.; Wong, T. L. B.; Strydom, A. and PETAL investigators (2022), in which authors compiled information about patients with intellectual disability to know better how aggressive defiant behavior is presented in this population.

 Intellectual disability is a lifelong condition, characterized by impaired cognition, language and social skills, affecting approximately 1% of the world’s population.

Challenging behavior, which includes self-injury, aggression, threats, physical violence, and sexually aggressive behavior, among others, is estimated to have a prevalence of approximately 10% among adults with intellectual disability, and tends to persist over time, with a rate of approximately 25% at 2 years. 

Aggressive challenging behavior is a common reason for referral of adults with intellectual disabilities to health services, and can have serious consequences, from family and caregiver stress to contact of the person with the disability with the criminal justice system.

Some previous studies that have explored factors associated with aggressive challenging behavior in adults with intellectual disabilities have shown that male gender, some comorbid autism spectrum disorder, communication problems, and disability aggravation are associated with higher levels of aggression. 

The authors’ aim in this study was to update the available information on factors associated with aggressive challenging behavior in adults with intellectual disabilities.

To this end, data from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom were considered. SLaM is one of the largest providers of mental health care in the European area. 

Data from patients older than 18 years old were considered. These had to have had an episode of outpatient care that included direct contact with a team specializing in mental health, more specifically, intellectual disability, all between January 2014 and December 2018. There were a total of 1,225 patient records analyzed.

Some of the most interesting insights the study yielded was that episodes with high frequency of aggression were of longer duration than those episodes with lower frequency (over 2 years vs. approximately 4 months). 

Younger adults, mean age approximately 31 years, had a higher frequency of episodes of aggression. 

Mood instability, irritability, and agitation were strongly associated with a higher occurrence of aggressive defiant behaviors. 

Nearly 60% of the patients had at some point a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder.

Authors found that aggressive challenging behavior occurs in the majority of clinical care episodes requiring the involvement of a specialized intellectual disability health care team.

It appears that, as discussed above, being younger, having a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder, and mood instability and irritability all play a role and are risk factors. 

Other risk factors included the presence of a common mental disorder, personality disorders, and agitation during aggressive episodes. 

The amount of social and health care provided, although very important for families, did not really prove to be a risk factor.

A very important point made by the authors, is that mental illness or mental health problems are often not diagnosed in people with disabilities because of atypical behavioral manifestations that already exist. That is, some behaviors that may inform a mental disorder are taken to be consequences of intellectual disability. Therefore, there is a high level of diagnostic uncertainty. 

In a recent study based on a group of 142 people with intellectual disabilities, it was shown that almost one third of the participants had some type of undiagnosed mental health problem, with major depressive and anxiety disorders being the most common. 

Authors point out the importance of devoting efforts and resources to research on people with intellectual disabilities, first, to understand the health condition with which they live and, second, to help bring their quality of life as close as possible to that of those with typical intellectual development. 

In addition, understanding why aggressive behaviors arise would help not only these individuals but also their environment and interpersonal relationships, which would gain stability and quality.

It is important to consider aggressive challenging behavior as a public health problem that needs more research and clinical investment, as well as more effective forms of individualized intervention and support.

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Criminology

Dark Triad, self-control and antisocial behavior: how do they interact? Forensic Science Club

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Dark Triad Personalities, Self-Control, and antisocial/criminal outcomes in Youth” by Pechorro, P.; DeLisi, M.; Gonçalves, R. A.; Braga, T. and Maroco, J. (2021), in which authors carry out a study to examine whether self-control mediates the relations between the Dark Triad and some aspects such as crime or mental disorders.

Research in criminology and various areas of psychology, such as developmental psychopathology or personality, consistently points out to the existence of dark personality characteristics and comments that these are associated with various behavioral problems.

Within these traits would appear self-control, and also the famous Dark Triad composed of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

Narcissism is characterized by being selfish, self-centered, having low empathy, and a high need to be admired by others.

When a person is Machiavellian, he is cunning, intriguing and unscrupulous in his behavior, in addition, he tends to exploit others for his own benefit.

Finally, psychopathy shares many features with antisocial personality disorder and describes a person with little empathy, very little emotional connection with others, impulsive, and a tendency to engage in reckless behavior, which sometimes leads them to commit crimes.

Although the Dark Triad and self-control are different ideas, they have common points. Both embody an individual who has very poor emotional regulation and behavior, is self-centered and pursues self-interest without taking others into account; in addition, that person would be a lying and manipulative person, prone to behavioral problems.

To date, there are several meta-analytic studies indicating that the Dark Triad and self-control are significantly related to a variety of antisocial outcomes and personality pathologies.

It is important to note that, although self-control and the Dark Triad are consistently associated, there is little research that has examined these two concepts together: only 5% of the studies found by Miller in his 2019 meta-analysis (cited in Article).

Larson carried out an analysis in 2015 in which it was seen that almost 60% of the participants had a low level of narcissism and a high level of self-control and, therefore, exhibited a normative functioning of their personality; however, 6.4% of the sample presented high narcissism and very low self-control.

This part of the sample had a psychiatric risk profile, more likely to abuse substances and experience violence. In addition, they were also more at risk of committing crimes such as intimate partner violence, cruelty to animals, theft, sexual assault…

The study thus showed that there is apparently a tendency to crime when the characteristics of narcissism (which is one of the characteristics of the Dark Triad) and low self-control are present.

In this study, the authors investigate whether self-control mediates the relationships between the Dark Triad and some behavioral disorders in a sample of Portuguese youth. In doing so, the Dark Triad’s links to self-control and criminality were examined.

The sample consisted of 567 young people between 14 and 18 years old. A series of tests and scales validated by the scientific community were used to examine self-control, delinquency, behavioral disorders, among others.

Analyzes showed that psychopathy had the greatest impact in terms of links to low self-control and juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder, and crime severity.

This is consistent with psychopathy’s reputation as one of the most important drivers of crime.

The findings also indicated that low self-control partially mediated the association between psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

On the other hand, narcissism had little or no direct significant effect on the results, and even had negative associations with low self-control. This is consistent with previous studies.

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Criminology

Invest in improving the first episode of psychosis attention services could prevent aggressive behavior and violent crimes? Forensic Science Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Could Expanding and Investing in First-Episode Psychosis Services Prevent Aggressive Behaviour and Violent Crime?” by Hodgins, S. (2022), in which the author carries out a revision about previous literature about the treatments that people with schizophrenia have received to improve their aggressive behavior. 

Schizophrenia is a very complex and difficult to treat mental illness, which causes suffering to those who suffer it in the first person, but also their loved ones.

Some people who develop or present it, engage in aggressive and sometimes criminal behavior.

Most of these individuals suffer a first episode of psychosis that marks a before and after, but before this episode they usually show behaviors with a certain level of aggressiveness.

However, the needed services to treat the first episodes of psychosis have improved the care of these people, by their early interventions in the course of the illness. This would also help with violent behavior, since some people with schizophrenia have a history of violent behavior and even antisocial behavior since childhood, so they will need urgent treatment. 

Even so, the reality is that many care services for the first episode of psychosis do not treat or evaluate aggressive behavior, so patients manifest them inside and outside psychiatric services.

On many occasions, when this aggressive behavior explodes and someone gets hurt, the perpetrator is charged with a violent crime. Some of these people are judged not criminally responsible due to the mental disorder they suffer, and are sent to forensic psychiatric hospitals. Others are found guilty and sentenced to prison in a conventional center.

In other words, the human costs of the inability to identify and treat these patients when they first come to clinical services are enormous.

Existing literature indicates that first episode psychotic care services have the potential to prevent many manifestations of these aggressive behaviors and, therefore, violent crimes by people with schizophrenia.

This would reduce the human suffering of patients and victims, as well as the costs of police, courts, prisons and other social care resources, also helping to reduce the stigma against people with mental illnesses.

There is evidence that confirms that people with schizophrenia are more likely than their peers of the same age and gender to engage in aggressive behavior (which, in turn, can lead to criminal prosecution). They are at higher risk of being convicted of non-violent and violent crimes, and especially of being convicted of homicide. However, mental health services for people with schizophrenia do not assess or treat aggressive behaviors.

A meta-analysis found that 35% of people who contacted care services for their first episode of psychosis had previously suffered at least one aggression.

For example, a study with more than 200 people treated by these services, carried out in the United Kingdom, found that a third of men and 10% of women were convicted or found not guilty for mental illness in at least one violent crime . That is, it appears that most patients with schizophrenia who display aggressive behavior are indeed at increased risk of offending.

In general, among the people that present a first episode of psychosis and suffer from schizophrenia, there are two groups: one of them are people who have a long history of violent behavior problems that have sometimes ended up turning into crimes, and on the other hand, there are the people who recently manifest this type of aggressive behavior.

Another significant piece of information is provided by a study carried out in Canada, which reports that the majority of people declared not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder, between 2000 and 2005, were men with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who had committed a violent crime.

A meta-analysis showed that 29-38% of the patients seen in first-episode psychosis clinics used cannabis regularly. Another meta-analysis found that, among people with severe mental illness, the risk of violent attitudes increased between two and five times with cannabis use. This suggests that these people may also suffer from an addiction disorder.

On the other hand, adults with schizophrenia show higher levels of victimization than their neighbors, even after being aware of their own criminality, and are also more at risk of being victims of homicide.

It has been shown that when treatment is applied to these patients, which in addition to being focused on schizophrenia also focuses on violent behavior, their mental health improves and aggressive episodes are reduced.

Therefore, all the available evidence suggests that identifying and treating this behavior, in addition to psychosis, would reduce the suffering of patients, and the secondary human and economic costs. In addition, it would promote the safety of patients and their loved ones and help them with their independence and autonomy.

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The U.S. education system is one of the most prestigious in the world, ensuring quality education and international recognition. Start today from just $208 a month and become a specialist in criminology!

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Criminal profiling

Comparison between homicides committed by women and homicides committed by men in Spain. Forensic Sciences Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Sciences Club, this week we present the paper “Does she kill like he kills? Comparison of homicides committed by women with homicides committed by men in Spain” by Santos-Hermoso, J.; Quintana-Touza, J. M.; Medina-Bueno, Z. and Gómez-Colino, M. R. (2021), in which authors make an analysis of the differences between how women kill and how men kill.

Criminal behavior studies have shown that most crimes, especially violent crimes, are committed by men.

In the Spanish context, the average rate of crime committed by men between 2010 and 2018 was five times higher than the ones committed by women.

Despite the differences reflected in this data, over the past 20 years there has been a steady increasement of the number of women convicted because of violent crimes. And not only in Spain; in fact, Finland found an increasement in homicides committed by women between 1995 and 2004.

Although the study of women as victims of homicide has been widely studied, the same does not happen if we think of them as victimizers. This is so, mainly, due to the low level of prevalence of female murderers. And within the group of investigations on homicidal women, there are even fewer that analyze the homicides committed by them outside the family sphere.

But what do we know so far? Well, one of the main conclusions drawn from these comparative studies is that women kill mainly members of their family, while men tend to kill acquaintances and/or strangers.

Regarding the gender of the victims, most studies show that both men and women prefer the latter.

On the other hand, it seems that young victims tend to be associated with women, mainly because of the involvement of them in filicide cases.

Regarding the characteristics of the aggressors, literature speaks about the fact that women tend to be married or in a relationship and live with other people, while men tend to be single and live alone. Another fact would be that men tend to have more criminal records than women do.

When it comes about the consumption of alcohol and drugs, it is also more likely that men have consumed some substance at the moment of the incident, while, regarding mental illnesses, it is more likely that women are the ones with a previous diagnosis.

Men kill in public settings and outdoors, while women kill in closed spaces, such as homes. Men, in addition, use firearms to a greater extent, and women tend to use suffocation or knives.

With these data from previous works, authors carry out a study with the intention of delving into the differences between one type of homicide and the other, but not limited to a specific area such as couple cases or filicides.

To do this, they analyze cases corresponding to 577 homicides resolved by the Spanish Civil Guard between 2013 and 2018 (95.5% of the total cases registered in those years).

What were the results obtained?

In the first place, it should be noted that female perpetrators constituted a 9.8% of the total perpetrators analyzed. Of this percentage, 3 out of 4 were homicides committed by women in the family environment, highlighting the cases of filicide.

Regarding the gender of the victims, it was surprisingly observed that women predominantly kill men, and not women as it was believed; while in men, the opposite occurs. Women would also prefer young people, so in those cases where the victim is a young man, the homicide is more likely to have been committed by a woman.

Regarding the psychosocial profile, women kill victims who can be considered vulnerable, either because of what we have just mentioned about youth, or because these victims may exhibit some type of mental illness or difficulty to a greater extent than the victims of men.

Regarding the perpetrators, the information provided by the authors’ study is that women are, on average, somewhat older than men, but the difference is not significant.

An important finding that confirms conclusions from previous research is that, to a greater extent than men, women tend to present or be diagnosed with mental disorders at the time of the incident. On the other hand, men are more frequently under the influence of substances.

An interesting finding is that women tend to commit homicides during the afternoon. They are not usually carried out in the presence of witnesses, probably because, as we have already seen, they prefer closed spaces.

Also, as other research suggested, it appears that women tend to displace bodies. This can be explained because most of their victims are relatives and they may choose to displace the body as a method of disengagement; on the other hand, given that underage victims are associated with women, their bodies are easier to move.

There seems to be a consensus that firearms are used primarily by men and suffocation methods by women. Of the 100 cases in the study in which firearms were used, only 1 involved a female aggressor.

In terms of post-homicide behaviors of perpetrators, studies suggest that women remain on the scene and tend to confess more frequently than men.

This study provides an interesting basis on which to further investigate the differences between homicides by men and those by women. Although an existing limitation could be that, we know that women mainly commit homicides in the family environment, but are there differences between family homicides committed by women and men?

On the other hand, it is still necessary to develop studies that include the analysis of other variables, such as whether or not there is a prior relationship between victim and perpetrator. The authors talk about this point as an idea from which future research could start.

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Psychology

Ex-juvenile offenders think about what made them commit murders. Forensic Science Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Juvenile Homicide Offenders Look Back 35 years later: Reasons They Were Involved In Murder” by Heide, K. M. (2020), in which the author carries out a series of interviews with people that, in their youth, served time for committing murders, to investigate which are the causes that made them commit them, according to their own opinion.

 The homicide committed by young people and the subsequent treatment of justice with them, has been a controversial issue and to which experts have paid attention especially since the last century.

When young people engage in violent crime, especially murder, society questions why, and what should be done about them.

In the context of the United States there are two periods in which the murders committed by minors increased. The first occurred between 1960 and 1975, when juvenile arrests for murder and homicide increased by 200%. The second stage occurred between 1984 and 1993, when arrests of minors went from 1,004 to 3,284. In addition, of these arrests, the percentage of homicides went from 7.3% to 16.2%.

This significant increase in the involvement of minors in murders also occurred at a time when the youth population was declining.

Experts warned the nation to expect a wave of young predators and predicted there would be a continued escalation in child murders in the coming years.

In response to this phenomenon, a series of laws were passed in the United States in the late 1980s and 1990s that facilitated the transfer of juveniles involved in serious crimes such as murder to adult court.

Juveniles convicted in the adult criminal justice system during that period, like them, were subject to the death penalty, life in prison without parole, and long prison terms.

In the 21st century, the courts of the United States recognized that minors have a different development from that of adults. Because their brains are not fully developed, they are less equipped to critically assess situations and tend to be more impulsive. They are also more vulnerable to peer pressure and have limited ability to extricate themselves from unfavorable environments in their homes or neighbourhoods.

Some experts investigate what happened to these young people once a few years had passed since the crime was committed. Those who had been released from prison, had they reoffended? Those who had not been released, had they reoffended in prison?

Vries and Liem followed 137 young people convicted of homicide who were admitted to juvenile facilities in the Netherlands. The follow-up was carried out for a period between 1 and 16 years. 59% were sentenced again for other crimes, including more murders.

These authors consider that age at first arrest, age at time of homicide, number of prior crimes, and relationships with criminal friends were significant predictors of crime.

To analyze recidivism, impressions regarding their crimes, and other factors, the author conducted a series of interviews with people who were part of the sample of one of Heide’s studies.

Heide conducted five follow-up studies of a group of young men convicted of murder, attempted murder, or homicide. These young people had been tried in adult courts with the consequent penalties.

At the time of writing this article, these young people were already a little over 50 years old, because 35 had passed since the first study. They were given semi-structured interviews with open and closed questions about their experiences in prison, their post-release experiences, recidivism, and were asked preferably what the reasons were for getting into trouble.

One factor stands out as the most important reason. 70% of the participants identified peer pressure as the most influential factor in their criminal involvement. More than 50% said that the most important factors were drug addiction, in addition to living with daily crime in their neighborhoods.

This is consistent with subcultural theory and social disorganization theory.

Only a third of those interviewed said they acted impulsively. We must remember that impulsiveness is a very significant feature of psychopathy and a major factor in the self-control theory of crime, which is sometimes also called the general theory of crime.

Within the limitations of the study, the author points out that the follow-up period should be reduced, since some subjects who participated in the original study had already died when these interviews were conducted.

She proposes dissuading rehabilitated youth from returning to their old neighborhoods, particularly if their homes were in communities where crime was common. It is also recommended that they do not associate with their old friends if they still live in this environment.

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Victimology

Is lack of language skills related to an increased tendency to offend? Forensic Science Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Psycholinguistic and socioemotional characteristics of young offenders: do language abilities and gender matter?”, by Winstanley, M.; Webb, R. T. and Conti-Ramsden, G. (2022), in which authors carry out a study to know how the lack of language skills may be related to an increase in the tendency of offend in young people. 

 Juvenile delinquency is a serious and costly problem for society, which also generates fear in citizens. For this reason, careful consideration of the issue and an understanding of the factors that are related to the tendency to offend, including the psycholinguistic and socioemotional characteristics of young people who become involved in delinquency, are necessary.

Language in particular, provides a focus for identifying distressed groups in youth offender profiles, whether or not they are diagnosed with developmental language disorders. 

This knowledge can inform both policy and practice in rehabilitation planning and strategies.

Developmental language disorder refers to significant and persistent problems in understanding and/or using spoken language. These problems won’t be associated with other difficulties, such as a hearing impairment or autism spectrum disorder.

Recent evidence has highlighted an association between delinquency and language development disorder that persists even after controlling for possible confounding factors such as socioeconomic status and/or years of schooling. 

In the scarce previous literature on the subject, the deficits shown by juvenile delinquents in language-based tasks have been assessed from different points of view: form, content, or language use from the word to the sentence and discourse level have been taken into account. As a result, it has been shown that approximately 50% of juvenile delinquents have language deficits that would justify a diagnosis of developmental language disorder, without having been previously recognized. 

Authors suggest that young people with a history of delinquency may be more likely to exhibit a developmental language disorder due to reduced effectiveness of the rehabilitation methods used. 

In this study, the authors determine the language skills of a group of first-time offenders, also examining nonverbal skills. 

On the other hand, it is interesting to note that difficulties with reading have been linked to behavioral problems in childhood, having to do with both behavioral dominance and hyperactivity. 

A 2000 study found that the young offenders surveyed had a reading level 11.3 years below their chronological age. In addition, reading comprehension has been noted as a predictor of recidivism in groups of youth between the ages of 16 and 19, as low alphabetization may limit a person’s ability to access formal justice documentation.

On the other hand, behavioral problems in childhood have been associated with adult delinquency. 

In addition, the literature related to the prevalence of developmental language disorder in children exhibiting conduct problems, raises concerns regarding the referral of children to rehabilitation services that pay little attention to language skills. 

The authors felt it appropriate to include the variable of gender in their study, since, as a general rule, there are fewer young females than males in the justice system, and experts tended to conduct analyses with both groups together. 

The sample included 145 young people, 112 males and 33 females. Participants were assessed in 1 or 2 1-hour sessions in which parents and staff were encouraged to participate. Psycholinguistic, socioemotional, and contextual measures were obtained through scientifically valid tests and scales. 

87 of the juvenile offenders who participated in the study met the criteria for the diagnosis of a developmental language disorder. It was equally frequent in males (58%) as in females (67%). 

The majority of participants with developmental language disorder, regardless of gender, showed severe language difficulties, and only 2 reported having previously accessed services related to speech therapy. This lack of identification of language needs is a cause for concern, especially when considering potential opportunities for its treatment to function as a protective factor against delinquency.

There were also no significant gender differences in the psycholinguistic and socioemotional profiles of male and female juvenile offenders, except for higher levels of general emotional difficulty in females. 

It should be noted that most of the participants commented that they found it very difficult to read, and in fact, 19 of them abandoned the reading comprehension tasks because they could not answer correctly. 

What these data reveal to us is, in short, that young offenders with developmental language disorder are at a greater disadvantage than those without. 

Authors point out the need for language assessment and the identification of language developmental disorder as a crucial part of criminal justice services and a potential priority that may be useful in intervention with juvenile offenders. 

If you want to know more about the criminal mind, criminal profiling, and forensic science, don’t miss our Master of Science in Criminal Profiling or our Master of Science in Anti-Fraud Behavioral Analysis

If you’ve always dreamed of understanding criminal minds and applying your knowledge to solving crimes, you can now make that a reality. The Master in Criminal Profiling prepares you to work in the fascinating world of forensic science. Study 100% online from anywhere in the world and earn a degree from Evidentia University, a licensed university in the United States.

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Criminology

Is it possible to improve the techniques used in forensic analysis? Club de Ciencias Forenses

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Unlocking the potential of forensic traces: Analytical approaches to generate investigative leads”, by Varela-Morillas, A.; Suhling, K. and Frascione, N. (2022), in which authors carry out a revision of previous literature about forensic and criminalistic research methods, to explore new horizons that appear with the idea of improving methodology and technique. 

The objective of forensic analysis is to gather information from the traces found at the crime scene through an objective examination. It is a process that provides supporting information for the criminal investigation, and even in many occasions, decisive information. 

Currently, there are many lines of investigation that are trying to accelerate (and some are already doing so effectively) the way in which the information obtained from the analysis of biomaterials is collected and connected. It is also important to mention that the technology used for this is increasingly portable, allowing for rapid, on-site analysis of samples. 

However, recent research in the field of forensic analysis has shown that this represents only a fraction of all the information that could potentially be gathered from such data. 

Driven by this need, experts decided to investigate what else can be obtained from forensic biological traces and how to meet the new needs of the field by looking beyond common analytical approaches such as physical and microscopic examination.

In particular, data that can help reconstruct the chain of events, elucidate crime scene dynamics, and discover more about the actual nature of the trace and the identity of the donor, who, in this case, is the individual who left a particular trace. 

The purpose of the review conducted by the experts, which can be viewed in full in the original article, is to evaluate how research has approached the acquisition of investigative information from some of the most common types of biological traces found at crime scenes: bodily fluids, finger marks, hair…. 

Authors specify that special attention is given to analytical techniques that can be used in scenarios where traditional analysis is not possible, where both the environment and the samples allow for non-destructivity. 

They mention several types of samples, but lets’s focus on biological fluids to explore the main idea of the article.

In the initial stage of a crime scene investigation, stains of possible bodily fluids are sometimes encountered. A well-known technique for this task is the use of alternative light sources to enhance the viewing of latent stains. 

Once the stain is found, its nature must be determined. The idea is to discriminate between a body fluid stain, such as blood, from a visually similar substance, such as wine; which is valuable information in suspected violent crime scenes. 

In addition, there are cases where further discrimination is required, such as determining whether a bloodstain is peripheral or menstrual, which can also play a very relevant role in cases of suspected sexual assault. 

Most standard methods employ reagents that, when exposed to a body fluid, produce a characteristic signal output, for example, a color change, indicating the type of body fluid present. Although useful, they can give false positives.  In addition, it may be the case that a limited amount of dye is available.

Due to the limitations shown by current techniques, efforts have been devoted to the development of more robust methods to identify these types of fluids. 

One study demonstrated the possibility of extracting RNA from samples that had been stored for long periods of time. This information could be of great value in criminal investigation, especially in cases of suspected sexual assault, where the true nature of the crime is still unclear. 

Standard practices in the examination of biological fingerprints, strands of hair, lifted fingerprints…, over the past several decades, primarily involved visual examination of the print to identify unique physical characteristics or chemical reactions indicating a particular composition. These methods have proven to be not as reliable as one would like, as they can sometimes fall into subjectivity and unspecificity, as they can be cross-referenced with other substances. 

One field that has proven valuable in solving this type of problem is forensic genetics. Through the study of DNA, it has been possible to collect much data from minute biological fingerprints. 

Authors propose, throughout the original article, some novel methods that have been explored before and reflect on the need for more research in the forensic field to design methods that adjust to the changes in crime as society advances. 

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Crime

Effects of cyberterrorism on public political opinion. Forensic Science Club

By 4 Mins Read
Hacker in mask and hood, account hacking

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Cyber terrorism and public support for retaliation – a multi-country survey experiment”, by Shandler, R.; Gross, M. L.; Backhaus, S. and Canetti, D. (2021), in which authors carry out a study in different countries to know how the people’s political opinion changes when they are informed about cyberterrorist attacks, compared to conventional terrorism. 

Those engaged in cybersecurity have been warning us some time ago of the growing threat posed by cyberterrorism.

In recent years, after some reports of next-generation cyberattacks causing palpable destruction around the world, it seems that we are finally getting serious about it.

In fact, terrorism experts already use the term “kinetic cyber”, which would be the ability to use cyberattacks to achieve kinetic effects.

There are those who question the importance of cyberterrorism, alleging that its effects are hyperbolized; however, there is increasing evidence that terrorist organizations use IT tools to launch attacks that become more sophisticated over time. This causes the public to feel increasingly insecure about the destructive capacity of cyberterrorism.

Furthermore, it raises significant new questions for political science, which are likely to become increasingly relevant. For example: how does exposure to cyberattacks affect the political preferences of the population? By what mechanism does exposure to cyberattacks produce changes in these preferences? And how does this differ from changes resulting from conventional terrorism?

One idea is that cyberterrorism may elicit a weaker political response, due to its lack of history of fatal consequences. This is part of what this study addresses, but first, let’s delve a little deeper into these issues.

During decades of research, attempts have been made to thoroughly identify how exposure to political violence in general, and to terrorism in particular, determines the political preferences and behavior of the population.

Exposure to conventional terrorism undermines people’s sense of security and heightens feelings of vulnerability, fosters a threatening worldview and increases support for tough policies, as well as leading to increased demands on governments to undertake strong actions against terrorist groups.

All of these behaviors are reflected in the tendency to develop negative external sentiments and right-leaning political behavior.

One difference between cyberterrorism and conventional terrorism is that the former has not, so far, threatened the physical safety of civilians, and perceived lethality is critical to understanding the impact of the terrorist attack.

On the other hand, a recent study mentions that, in a 2019 survey, the participants who expressed anger after the terrorist attack were the most in favor of taking active retaliation against terrorists, such as drone attacks.

To explore these questions, a large survey was conducted, with more than 1,800 participants from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. A series of videos were shown to them, from different categories: cyberterrorism with deadly consequences, conventional terrorism with deadly consequences, non-fatal cyberterrorism and non-fatal conventional terrorism.

It appears that civilians respond politically to cyberterrorism with the same intensity as to conventional terrorism only when it has deadly consequences. The distinction between fatal and non-fatal attacks would be what would define the political impact on the population.

On the other hand, cyberattacks and conventional terrorism would operate through a similar psychological mechanism, where anger would be a mediating element.

While some empirical research has already begun to examine how political preferences are formed when the perpetrator of cyberattacks is unknown, authors encourage further research focused on this topic.

In addition, recent research indicates that public speeches by leaders can have a significant effect on public levels of anger, so authors recommend digging into that as well.

A final revelation of the data was the country-specific effects. US respondents showed very little variation in the intensity of anger and retaliatory attitudes between one type of terrorism and another, while in the UK and Israel sentiments are somewhat more polarised.

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Cybercrime

Brief analysis of cybercrime in social networks. Forensic Science Club

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Analysis of Cybercrime on Social Media Platforms and Its Challenges”, by Almansoori, A.; Abdallah, S.; Alshamsi, M. and Salloum, S. A. (2021), in which authors carry out an analysis of crimes that have been committed in the last few years and that are closely related to the development of technologies, internet and social networks.  

Cyberspace has reached every part of the planet, and is like a universe accessible from every corner of the globe. 

Advances in cybersecurity, technology and methods to protect software, networks and data associated with computers, have managed to prevent millions of attacks from malicious individuals and, in general, cybercriminals. 

Shockingly, the greatest cybersecurity efforts do not completely prevent cyberattacks, and so the need to remain vigilant and protect against these activities has become increasingly important in recent years.

This may seem simple, but a factor that makes this task extremely difficult comes into play, which, moreover, is an unprecedented phenomenon: social networks. 

We can define them as a group of Internet applications that allow the creation and exchange of content generated by different users. LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat… help to build social relationships and online communities that can become very strong, which is considered a valuable asset for many purposes. 

They provide many novel opportunities for socializing and interacting with users that have redefined the previously known approach to information sharing: from publicly expressing opinions, to news circulation, to online business or advertising. All of this, due to the global presence of the Internet, allows content to reach as many parts of the world as possible. 

And, as good as this is, it has a dark and dangerous side: people become easy and obvious targets for cybercriminals through social networks. 

To safeguard the integrity and security of individuals, organizations are constantly increasing technology and security budgets so that these social networks can be protected in a way that seals the information available from them. 

This research aimed to understand the characteristics of the crimes being committed through the Internet and social networks, and to identify what kind of efforts the police should make to control them. What types of attacks and crimes are occurring? What are the demographics of the majority of offenders? 

Authors conducted an analysis of different social networking platforms focusing on threats and offenses, arriving at 574 observations. Each of these observations was identified with a person suspected of having committed any form of cybercrime on these social networks. Cases were counted from 2014 to 2018. 

Most crimes occurred in 2018, with 28.1% of the total; then 2015 with 20.1%. According to the data, there were 300 cases of fraud, 100 cases approximately of child pornography, and other statistically less relevant crimes, such as stalking or grooming. 

Most of the offenders were found to have prior criminal records. About 70% had a prior record for some crime, while 30% did not. 

As for the educational background of the suspects, they had little formal education, about 70% had only basic education, and 30% had graduated from some form of higher education. 

About 61% of the offenders came from very poor backgrounds, while those from middle and upper class constituted the remaining 39%. 

On the other hand, most offenders were between 20 and 25 years old, with a significant peak at 22 years old. 

Online social networking sites must identify the core aspects of human and social connectivity through accurate and robust methodologies that ensure privacy, protection and build trust between the platform and the user at all times. 

Governments, along with intelligence services, must be trained to adopt and frame the technologies. The amount of data flowing in social networks must be analyzed in a very rigorous way. 

Another important point is the awareness of the individual, as people must be responsible with the content they share and the social networks they use. 

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Forensic Science Club