CGCP Media & Technology

People
Paul McFarlane, Bennett Kleinberg

Project Summary 
This project aims to test whether social media has been an accelerant in the escalation of recent gang-related violence in London. Specifically, the research will use machine learning tools to look at the content of gang-related 'drill music' music videos and their associated comments on YouTube to determine whether there is an increased activity or change in the language before, and after, incidents of gang violence (e.g. homicides and stabbings). To do so, the research will employe advanced statistical modelling techniques, linguistic temporal trajectory and forecasting analyses to test whether increased engagement with content on YouTube (e.g. increased number of comments) and changes in hte language (e.g. the sentiment in the videos and comments) are related to gang-violence incidents in the past 12 months in London. The findings could be significant for policing policy.

Planned Output & Impact
Planned outputs include academic papers, conference papers, knowledge exchange activities and public engagement.

Funder
IGCP 

Duration
Open-ended

People
Ben Bradford, Kari Davies

Project Summary 
Almost any crime that is committed today gives rise to evidence in digital forms. Such evidence frequently includes communications - via a wide array of social media platforms and messaging applications - between or among suspects, witnesses, and victims. The nature, volume, and complexity of 'social media evidence' pose multiple challenges but also new opportunities for the investigative and prosecution process. These challenges and opportunities will be explored through a research project which will combine a review of policy and procedure with close examination of how, in practice, social media evidence has been utilised in the investigation and prosecution of serious sexual and violent offences. The overall aims of the project are to produce greater understanding of how best to manage social media evidence and thereby to support fairer and more effective law enforcement.

Partner Organisations
The Institute for Criminal Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London; The Birkbeck Institute for Data Analytics at Birkbeck, University of London; Perpetuity Research

Planned Output & Impact
Planned outputs include academic papers, conference papers, and knowledge exchange activities with relevant law enforcement agencies.

Funder
The Dawes Trust

Duration
September 2019 - August 2021

People
Zoe Hobson

Project Summary 
This project explores how people react to the idea of machine-aided decision-making in policing. Focusing on operational police decisions made using either algorithmic tools or human judgement, this work aims to examine the impact on public opinion. Using two  scenarios that focus either on an individual/localised or area-based situation will allow us to draw distinctions between public perceptions of trust in the police, police legitimacy and distributive justice when new technology is adopted by the police. 

Partner Organisations
MOPAC

Planned Output & Impact
Project report for MOPAC and others, academic papers, conference presentations.

Funder
IGCP/MOPAC

Duration
Summer 2020 - Winter 2020

People
Julian Laufs (PhD Thesis)

Project Summary 
This research aims to identify how new smart city technologies may be used for crime prevention and identify possible obstacles to their implementation. This includes, amongst other factors, organisational, ethical, and practical constraints. Special emphasis will be placed on how different technologies are perceived and with what level of public support their are met. 

Planned Output & Impact
Planned outputs include a tool for assessing the viability of implementing smart crime prevention technologies and pre-empting potential obstacles.

Duration
2018-2021

Links to Outputs / Deliverables

• Laufs, J., Bowers, K., Birks, D. & Johnson, S.D., 2020. Understanding the concept of ‘demand’ in policing: a scoping review and resulting implications for demand management. Policing and Society, 1-24.
• Laufs, J., Borrion, H., & Bradford, B. (2020). Security and the smart city: A systematic review. Sustainable cities and society, 55, 102023. doi:hdps://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102023

People
Aolan Zhang (PhD Thesis)

Project Summary 
This thesis aims to investigate the practical issues of mobile phone evidence used in the whole forensic process.  The research combined with quantitative and qualitative studies. For the quantitative section, it employed web scrapping to collect thousands of online court cases and text mining to quantify key features of each case file. With following qualitative studies, specific context of evidence uses and the formation of police experience and knowledge will be analysed.  In this way, this research contributes to explore knowledge needed to deal with the expansion of digital traces in the investigation, and identifypotential uncertainties and challenges may hinder the efficiency of using mobile phone evidence.

Planned Output & Impact
Planned outputs include academic papers, conference papers.

Duration
2019 - 2023

Links to Outputs / Deliverables