Publications

We are pleased to offer a number of interesting forensic investigation and crime related articles in an attempt to cater for a broad spectrum of interests. This section of our website will be updated approximately once a month. Most of the publications on this site have been downloaded from other websites or obtained through mutual business relationships and have been made available to raise debate and discussion, neither CCS or CSI necessarily agree with the contents and/or the arguments presented which are purely the opinions or deductions made by the relevant authors. We also do not accept copyright on any of the articles as their original authors and/or the original publisher has been referred to. These publications are provided in good faith and we are not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information they may contain.

A Model of Forensic Analysis Using Goal-Oriented Logging

Forensic analysis is the process of understanding, re-creating, and analyzing arbitrary events that have previously occurred. It seeks to answer such questions as how an intrusion occurred, what an attacker did during an intrusion, and what the effects of an attack were. Currently the field of computer forensics is largely ad hoc. Data is generally collected because applications log it for debugging purposes or because someone thought it to be important. Practical forensic analysis has traditionally traded off analyzability against the amount of data recorded. Recording less data puts a smaller burden both on computer systems and on the humans that analyze them. Not recording enough data leaves analysts drawing their conclusions based on inference, rather than deduction.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

The hospitality industry is acutely aware that security is a top concern for today’s travelling public. Risk management, loss recovery and fraud prevention are all by products of increased security that global businesses are focusing on today. Hotels and hospitality companies should be no exception.

A quantitative risk analysis model for private security managers

An easy-to-use risk analysis model is developed for the private security industry in South Africa, which can be used as a suitable analysing tool in the hands of the private security manager.

This model incorporate different concepts such as probability, impact, cost of risk, degree of correction and the newly established human factor concept, which cannot be seen in isolation. This latter concept plays a major part in the overall risk quantification process in establishing a most accurate risk score rating.

Bring to Book (Final) May06

Tackling the crisis in the investigation and prosecution of serious fraud.

ci-interrogation

Counterintelligence Interrogation, the general topic of interrogation is a vast one, opening into all fields of theoretical and applied psychology and leading at its distant limits in one direction to the wellsprings of human mature and in another to the roots of political power.

Capturing the Cali cartel

The Colombian National Police dismantled the Cali cartel through the development of a new style of intelligence, the assiduous use of informants, the employment of modern technology, and zero tolerance of corruption within the force. In the course of several months in 1995, the key members of the organization were arrested, including Jorge Elicier, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, and Jose Santacruz Londono. Good luck and US assistance also contributed to the success of overall operation.

CISA Handbook

This handbook provides all the information that you will need to register for the Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) examination, including eligibility requirements, code of ethics, examination policies, recertification criteria, examination content outline and applications. Be sure to keep the handbook after you take the examination, you may wish to refer to it later.

CONFRONTING THE PROCEEDS OF CRIME IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

A survey conducted at the beginning of 2002 revealed that, despite the existence of laws to criminalise it, money laundering was a little-understood phenomenon in many parts of Southern Africa. While it had been known for a long time that, in the words of a veteran Canadian undercover agent, “[people commit crimes to make money so that they can get power and so that they can buy stuff” (Mathers 2004), outside of the banking sector there was a low level of appreciation of the risks arising from the proceeds of crime.

Crime in Hotels

Crime data for 142 hotels/motels in the Central Florida area were collected from the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and those properties were mailed a questionnaire requesting information on their adoption and use of 34 crime prevention strategies. Of the 62 hotels/motels that responded (44%), the results revealed that out of the 34 crime prevention strategies studied, only 15 (44%) showed a statistically significant relationship between their prevalence and the incidence of crimes. The remaining 19 strategies did not show any significant relationship between their existence and the level of crimes.

Criminal Profiling real science or just wishful thinking

The subject of criminal profiling has caught the public’s imagination in recent times, with references to it appearing in all forms of media. The most well-known example of criminal profiling in the popular media is in the film Silence of the Lambs, based on the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. Several television shows have also recently been based around the premise of criminal profiling, including Millennium, Profiler, and even The X-Files.

Positive and Negative Predictive Values of Polygraphs

It is difficult to image a single process that could do more damage to American democracy and sense of fair play than the polygraph. Unfortunately, scientific truth rarely manifests itself as rational policy in federal government.

The Lie Behind the Lie Detector

We wrote this short book to call public attention to the dangers of polygraphy and to protect the innocent from polygraph abuse. Because of our government’s reliance on this pseudoscientific procedure, thousands of truthful persons have been falsely accused of deception and suffered serious adverse consequences. On the other hand, deceptive persons can easily defeat polygraph “tests” through countermeasures, as did convicted spy Aldrich H. Ames.

The Validity and Utility of Integrity Testing

Although not commonly used for selecting hospitality employees, integrity tests can help employers determine which of their prospective hires are likely to engage in unproductive, dangerous, or otherwise risky actions on the job. Candidates are surprisingly candid in answering test questions about their workplace theft or drug abuse, but the tests also have control questions intended to indicate when an applicant is attempting to game the test. Moreover, the tests do not violate U.S. employment laws since they neither create adverse impact on protected groups nor violate provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Although tests represent an additional expense in the hiring process, a study of a large hotel chain found that the savings in screening out potentially expensive employees more than made up for the costs of conducting the tests. Not only could the chain count on employees who were reasonably honest and drug-free, but it found a substantial reduction in costly workers’ compensation claims among the new hires. In the course of a year, the hotel chain administered an integrity test to just over 29,000 would-be employees, and hired just under 6,100 of those applicants.

THE ROLE OF DNA IN THE INVESTIGATION OF CRIME

The purpose of this paper is not about the scientific analyses of a DNA sample, but to determine the use of DNA as an investigation method, to establish the general knowledge about the method amongst investigators, to ascertain the success rate of DNA and to examine the reasons why in South Africa DNA is not used more often as an investigation tool by investigators.

Protecting whistle blowers in South Africa

Because of some confusion about the meaning of the term, whistle blowers have unfairly

acquired a bad reputation as being trouble makers, busy bodies and disloyal employees. A

major cause of this negative perception in South Africa is the unfair confusion of whistle

blowers with ‘impimpis’ — apartheid era informants who betrayed their comrades often with

devastating consequences.

Reading between the lines An evaluation of SCAN

Detectives often have to assess the extent to which an individual’s account of events is truthful or deceptive. Detecting deception is not a simple task and one technique that claims to aid investigators is the Scientific Content Analysis technique or SCAN. SCAN identifies issues contained within a written statement that may need to be examined in more depth in subsequent interviewing. It highlights instances where a suspect, witness or victim, may have tried to deceive the investigator.

Statement Analysis Field examination technique

From these early beginnings, statement analysis, the word-by-word examination of a statement, has evolved into a valuable investigative tool. When used in conjunction with other investigative techniques, it can assist greatly in the case-solving process.

The Role of Forensic Science in Fraud Investigation

Invisible witness – role of Forensic Science in Fraud Investigation by Dr Julia Elliott