Forensic analysis of Telegram Messenger for Windows Phone

This article presents a forensic analysis methodology for obtaining the digital evidence generated by one of today's many instant messaging applications, namely “Telegram Messenger” for “Windows Phone”, paying particular attention to the digital forensic artifacts produced. The paper provides an overview of this forensic analysis, while focusing particularly on how the information is structured and the user, chat and conversation data generated by the application are organised, with the goal of extracting related data from the information. The application has several other features (e.g. games, bots, stickers) besides those of an instant messaging application (e.g. messages, images, videos, files). It is therefore necessary to decode and interpret the information, which may relate to criminal offences, and establish the relation of different types of user, chat and conversation.     

Legal,Psychological, and Behavioral Outcomes

States have responded to the public's outrage at rising juvenile crime by revising their transfer statutes to make it easier to transfer juvenile offenders for trial and sentencing in criminal court and possible incarceration in adult prisons. These changing trends in juvenile justice raise three questions about what actually happens to juveniles once they are in the adult criminal justice system. To what extent does trial in adult court and/or incarceration in adult prisons promote or retard community protection, juvenile offenders' accountability, and the development of competencies in juvenile offenders? This article discusses state transfer laws and the legal consequences of criminal court prosecution, and analyzes current research on deterrence effects of transfer laws, conviction and sentencing in juvenile versus criminal court, recidivism rates in juvenile versus criminal court, and conditions and programming in juvenile versus adult correctional facilities. The research findings have two important implications for juvenile justice policy: the number of juvenile cases transferred to criminal court should be minimized, and imprisonment of juveniles in adult facilities should be avoided whenever possible. These implications are discussed, and directions for future research are identified.     

手机物证检验及其在刑事侦查中的应用

随着移动通信技术的迅速发展和广泛应用,手机内部包含的信息已经成为犯罪侦查重要的线索和证据来源。采用专门的符合物证鉴定原理要求的技术方法检验手机的SIM卡存储器、主板存储器和闪存卡,可以获得大量的手机使用者个人信息、通信内容信息、通信发生信息、使用者写入存储信息和手机设置信息等大量信息资料。手机检验结果给出的这些信息具有非常高的侦查和证据价值的,手机也因此成为物证鉴定领域内一个新的检验对象。     

Crime,public opinion and trial courts: An analysis of sentencing policy

Much recent research on public opinion and trial courts demonstrates a link between local attitudes and sentencing in highly visible criminal cases. However, such crimes are not typical of most trial court work. Our research examines relationships between public opinion, crime rates, and sentencing in routine cases, including armed and unarmed robbery, burglary, larceny, and possession of narcotics. The research includes over 6000 cases and measures public opinion in all twenty of Florida's trial court circuits. Except for possession of narcotics, no significant correlations were discovered between public opinion and sentencing, but high crime rates generally produced lenient sentences. The research questions the impact of public opinion on most litigation and suggests that judicial elites usually act without concern for local public opinion.     

An Android Communication App Forensic Taxonomy

Due to the popularity of Android devices and applications (apps), Android forensics is one of the most studied topics within mobile forensics. Communication apps, such as instant messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP), are one popular app category used by mobile device users, including criminals. Therefore, a taxonomy outlining artifacts of forensic interest involving the use of Android communication apps will facilitate the timely collection and analysis of evidentiary materials from such apps. In this paper, 30 popular Android communication apps were examined, where a logical extraction of the Android phone images was collected using XRY, a widely used mobile forensic tool. Various information of forensic interest, such as contact lists and chronology of messages, was recovered. Based on the findings, a two‐dimensional taxonomy of the forensic artifacts of the communication apps is proposed, with the app categories in one dimension and the classes of artifacts in the other dimension. Finally, the artifacts identified in the study of the 30 communication apps are summarized using the taxonomy. It is expected that the proposed taxonomy and the forensic findings in this paper will assist forensic investigations involving Android communication apps.     

刑事影像技术新体系

目的阐述刑事影像领域内影像技术及应用的现状和发展。方法从理论方面研究国内外刑事影像技术文献。结果提出了刑事影像影像技术新的框架体系。结论刑事影像技术三个主要组成部分是影像成像检验、影像分析检验和影像合成演示。     

论内地与香港特区间刑事诉讼转移制度的构建

针对同一起跨境犯罪,内地与香港特区在双方根据各自刑事法律均享有刑事管辖权,且均已启动刑事诉讼程序时,可进行区际刑事诉讼转移,即就该案件刑事管辖权的实际行使达成共识,由一方来行使刑事管辖权,对犯罪予以追究,他方承认实际管辖方所做出的刑事判决。在"一国两制"原则的指导下,中国内地与香港特区间开展刑事诉讼转移的刑事司法合作活动,须遵循"双重犯罪原则"、"有限的犯罪地管辖原则"和"一事不二审原则"。内地与香港特区刑事诉讼转移制度的构建,可以从包括原则、条件、程序和刑事诉讼转移的拒绝4个方面入手予以考虑。     

DigLA – A Digsby log analysis tool to identify forensic artifacts

Since the inception of Web 2.0, instant messaging, e-mailing, and social networking have emerged as cheap and efficient means of communication over the Web. As a result, a number of communication platforms like Digsby have been developed by various research groups to facilitate access to multiple e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking sites using a single credential. Although such platforms are advantageous for end-users, they present new challenges to digital forensic examiners because of their illegitimate use by anti-social elements. To identify digital artifacts from Digsby log data, an examiner is assumed to have knowledge of the whereabouts of Digsby traces before starting an investigation process. This paper proposes a design for a user-friendly GUI-based forensic tool, DigLA, which provides a unified platform for analyzing Digsby log data at different levels of granularity. DigLA is also equipped with password decryption methods for both machine-specific and portable installation versions of Digsby. By considering Windows registry and Digsby log files as dynamic sources of evidence, specifically when Digsby has been used to commit a cyber crime, this paper presents a systematic approach to analyzing Digsby log data. It also presents an approach to analyzing RAM and swap files to collect relevant traces, specifically the login credentials of Digsby and IM users. An expected insider attack from a server security perspective is also studied and discussed in this paper.     

Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan,No. 231-V of July 4, 2014 (with amendments and additions as of November 24, 2015)

This issue contains translation of Chapters 44–51 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, dealing with the judicial investigation, pleadings, and sentencing in the criminal trial, trial in cases of private prosecution, appellate proceedings, and execution of court decisions in criminal cases.     

微量细胞DNA分型的法医学应用研究进展

微量细胞DNA分型已成为目前法医学研究的热点之一。如果能够从犯罪现场遗留的微量疑难生物检材中提取到细胞,并获得DNA分型,这无疑将会大大拓宽检材的范围。同时可以为刑事案件的侦查提供线索、为法庭量刑提供有力的证据。本文从微量细胞的捕获、DNA模板的制备、扩增和检测及应用前景几个方面综述了微量细胞DNA分型在法医学中的研究进展。     

物证时间信息检验

物证鉴定是犯罪侦查和法庭诉讼重建犯罪事实的重要手段,物证鉴定提供的时间信息是事实重建的核心要素。本文概述了现代物证时间信息检验的技术方法和结果应用,阐述了以“时点、时长和时序”为时间参数的物证时间信息检验技术和应用理论框架。     

Predicting sentencing outcomes and time served for juveniles transferred to criminal court in a rural northwestern state

In the past few decades, the focus of the juvenile justice system shifted from the best interests of the child to the best interests of society. One component of the shift was an increase in the waiver of juveniles to adult criminal court. Prior research suggested juveniles were typically sentenced to short prison sentences or probation in the adult criminal court. On the other hand, more recent evidence suggested sentencing outcomes had varied by offense type. In the present study, the author examined what occurred in a primarily rural northwestern state. Additionally, multivariate analyses were used to examine which factors aided in predicting sentencing outcomes and time served for this population.     

The nature of forensic science opinion--a possible framework to guide thinking and practice in investigations and in court proceedings.

The questions that are asked of forensic scientists during the course of a criminal investigation, and during subsequent court proceedings, are of varied form. This paper attempts to place these questions into broad generic types and explores the difference in the inferential process that a scientist may employ when forming opinions that help answer these questions. From this model, a working definition of different roles and attributes for forensic scientists is described which may offer greater clarity for both practitioners and users of forensic science.     

VARIATION IN TRIAL PENALTIES AMONG SERIOUS VIOLENT OFFENSES*

We examine the differences in the sentencing of those who plead guilty and those convicted by jury trial among defendants convicted of serious violent offenses. Drawing from a focal concerns and court communities perspective on court decision making, we develop several hypotheses about jury trial penalties for serious violent offenders, and how such penalties may vary by offense characteristics, defendant characteristics, and court contexts. Our hierarchical models using Pennsylvania sentencing data from 1997 to 2000 reveal that defendants are substantially penalized if they exercise their right to a jury trial and then lose. Furthermore, this jury trial penalty is not evenly assessed, but depends on the seriousness and type of offense, defendant criminal history, and court contextual characteristics such as caseload, court community size, local violent crime rates, and the size of local black populations.     

THE JUVENILE PENALTY: A COMPARISON OF JUVENILE AND YOUNG ADULT SENTENCING OUTCOMES IN CRIMINAL COURT*

This study uses criminal court data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS) to investigate the sentencing of juvenile offenders processed in adult criminal court by comparing their sentencing outcomes to those of young adult offenders in similar situations. Because the expanded juvenile exclusion and transfer policies of the 1990s have led to an increase in the number of juveniles convicted in adult courts, we argue that it is critical to better understand the judicial decision making processes involved. We introduce competitive hypotheses on the relative leniency or severity of sentencing outcomes for transferred juveniles and interpret our results with the focal concerns theoretical perspective on sentencing. Our findings indicate that juvenile offenders in adult court are sentenced more severely than their young adult counterparts. Moreover, findings suggest that juvenile status interacts with and conditions the effects of other important sentencing factors including offense type, offense severity and prior criminal record. We discuss these results as they relate to immediate outcomes for transferred juveniles, criminal court processes in general and the broader social implications for juvenile justice policy concerning the transfer of juveniles to criminal court.     

Mental disorder as the cause of a crime

An offender's punishment can be reduced when a court decides that his mental disorder reduces his responsibility for what he did. Courts have sought to establish whether a mentally disordered offender's responsibility is reduced by asking whether his disorder caused the crime. Acceptance of this “causation by mental disorder” criterion has fluctuated, however. This may be because causal explanations are not the types of explanations we are accustomed to offering for the kinds of acts that bring defendants, and psychiatric witnesses, to court. More often, we offer what philosophers have called “possibility” explanations for these acts. The application of psychiatry to possibility explanations has not been widely explored. It offers the potential for the improved use of psychiatric evidence in criminal proceedings.     

“State ineffectiveness in deterring organized crime style homicide in Mexico: a vicious cycle”

Institutional weaknesses in the criminal justice system (limited court capacity and the increasingly sophisticated armament of splintering drug trafficking organizations) limit the effectivity of Mexican states to deter organized crime style homicide. Court capacity, expressed by increasing sentencing rates in states where the oral court system was institutionalized, remains insufficient against the post-2006 organized crime related homicide epidemic. The illegal arms market, combined with long-standing deficits in firepower between organized crime and municipal police forces, limit the state’s capacity to alter the arms balance toward policing forces. Taken together, limited court capacity and the tactical imbalance of weapons held by drug trafficking organizations create a vicious cycle which continually perpetuates state ineffectiveness to deter and punish organized crime style homicide.

     

THE MULTILEVEL CONTEXT OF CRIMINAL SENTENCING: INTEGRATING JUDGE‐ AND COUNTY‐LEVEL INFLUENCES*

This study extends recent inquiries of contextual effects in sentencing by jointly examining the influence of judge and courtroom social contexts. It combines two recent years of individual sentencing data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS) with data on judicial background characteristics and county court social contexts. Three‐level hierarchical models are estimated to investigate the influence of judge and county contexts on individual variations in sentencing. Results indicate that nontrivial sentencing variations are associated with both individual judge characteristics and county court contexts. Judicial background factors also condition the influence of individual offender characteristics in important ways. These and other findings are discussed in relation to contemporary theoretical perspectives on courtroom decision making that highlight the importance of both judge and court contexts in sentencing. The study concludes with suggestions for future research on contextual disparities in criminal sentencing.