SECReT 2009 PhD projects
- The transfer, persistence and secondary transfer of gunshot residue (GSR): Implications for crime reconstruction and forensic protocol studied using Bayesian modelling
- To what extent can forensic evidence aid in the investigation and prosecution of internal child sex trafficking (ICST)?
- Complex systems approaches to issues in crime and security
- Developing tools for anticipating and mitigating the negative societal impact, while preserving the positive impact, of security technologies for use by the developers of these technologies upstream in the design process.
- How new ways of spatial analysis can improve the geographical understanding of illegal drug markets and the distribution of drug-related crime
- Computational cryptography
- Developing analytical Blood Pattern Analysis (BPA) techniques for environmentally altered bloodstains; and examining the range and influence of visualization methods available for BPA presentation in the context of jury decision making.
- Optimisation of illicit material detection using X-ray diffraction: Drug identification using Low Angle X-ray Scatter - DILAX III
- Improving the understanding of and responses to internal child sex trafficking in the UK: An empirical multi-method analysis
- Securing threat detection: Synergy of technological and neuropsychological factors
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Improving the understanding of and responses to internal child sex trafficking in the UK: An empirical multi-method analysis
7 March 2012
This multi-disciplinary doctoral research will draw on a range of empirical analytical techniques to model the structure and function of internal child sex trafficking (ICST) networks. Unlike the vast majority of child sex offences, ICST typically involves multiple perpetrators and victims. Consequently, a network-based approach to modelling the crime and its agents appears critical for effective crime reduction.
Access has been granted to sensitive police data from six major ICST investigations, involving hundreds of victims and offenders. These novel data will be analysed using social network analysis, empirical and statistical modelling and communications data analysis. In addition, original interviews with convicted ICST offenders will explore knowledge gaps around offending networks. Access to prisoners has been secured with the support of the Child Sexual Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).
The findings are expected to shape a nascent research literature and directly impact both strategic and tactical policing. By offering data provision and support at a time of major budgetary cuts, police and other agencies demonstrated their confidence in the value of this research. This unique project has already attracted considerable interest from major national and international organisations including DSTL (the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency), UKHTC (UK Human Trafficking Centre), the Home Office, CEOP, the Children’s Commissioner, the Dutch national rapporteur on trafficking, and numerous police forces, children’s services and third sector organisations. Early findings have been published in two academic articles, presented at several conferences, and discussed in the national media.
