A Crime Script Analysis of Child Sexual Exploitation Material Fora on the Darkweb

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107906322098106
Author(s):  
Madeleine van der Bruggen ◽  
Arjan Blokland
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Case File ◽  
Script Analysis ◽  
Child Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Crime Script ◽  
Crime Script Analysis

This study’s aim is to contribute to the knowledge on the steps involved in child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) crimes committed in Darkweb CSEM communities. Due to the anonymous and illegal nature of these communities, academic research is scarce. This study provides a crime script analysis of member communication data from four CSEM Darkweb fora obtained by law enforcement. For cross-validation, suspect interviews from a relevant case file were analyzed. A step-by-step description of the crime process, starting with the preparations necessary to access Darkweb CSEM fora and ending with the postactivity behaviors of exiting the crime scene and preventing detection, is given, focusing on the casts, activities, probs, and personal and contextual requirements at each stage. The findings highlight the scope of the CSEM problem, as well as the influence the Darkweb has on the way the crime is committed. Suitable targets for law enforcement intervention are discussed.

scholarly journals Deviating From the Cybercriminal Script: Exploring Tools of Anonymity (Mis)Used by Carders on Cryptomarkets

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 1244-1266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert Jan van Hardeveld ◽  
Craig Webber ◽  
Kieron O’Hara
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Payment Card ◽  
Script Analysis ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Crime Script ◽  
Crime Script Analysis

This work presents an overview of some of the tools that cybercriminals employ to trade securely. It will look at the weaknesses of these tools and how the behavior of cybercriminals will sometimes lead them to use tools in a nonoptimal manner, creating opportunities for law enforcement to identify and apprehend them. The criminal domain this article focuses on is carding, the online trade in stolen payment card details and the consequent criminal misuse of such data. However, these findings could be applied more broadly, as many of the analyzed tools are used across (cyber) criminal domains. This article is a continuation of earlier work, in which a crime script analysis of 25 carding tutorials presented the tools that cybercriminals use to cash-out stolen payment card details while remaining anonymous. We use these tutorials and an analysis of the literature to identify how they can be used incorrectly and create a typology of potential behavioral and technological pitfalls in these tools. Finally, we conclude that finding pitfalls in the usage of tools by cybercriminals has the potential to increase the efficiency of disruption, interception, and prevention approaches. However, in future work, interviews with law enforcement experts and convicted cybercriminals or still active users should be used to analyze the operational security of cybercriminals in more depth.

scholarly journals Using crime script analysis to elucidate the details of Amur tiger poaching in the Russian Far East

Crime Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Skidmore
Keyword(s):  
Russian Far East ◽  
Far East ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Wildlife Crime ◽  
Script Analysis ◽  
Forest Regions ◽  
Weak Points ◽  
Crime Script ◽  
Crime Script Analysis ◽  
The Russian Far East

AbstractPoaching is the most direct threat to the persistence of Amur tigers. However, little empirical evidence exists about the modus operandi of the offenders associated with this wildlife crime. Crime science can aid conservation efforts by identifying the patterns and opportunity structures that facilitate poaching. By employing semi-structured interviews and participants observation with those directly involved in the poaching and trafficking of Amur tigers in the Russian Far East (RFE), this article utilizes crime script analysis to break down this criminal event into a process of sequential acts. By using this framework, it is possible account for the decisions made and actions taken by offenders before, during and after a tiger poaching event, with the goal of identifying weak points in the chain of actions to develop targeted intervention strategies. Findings indicate poaching is facilitated by the ability to acquire a firearm, presence of roads that enable access to remote forest regions, availability of specific types of tools/equipment, including heat vision googles or a spotlight and a 4 × 4 car, and a culture that fosters corruption. This crime script analysis elucidates possible intervention points, which are discussed alongside each step in the poaching process.

Profiling Darkweb Child Sexual Exploitation Material Forum Members Using Longitudinal Posting History Data

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932199489
Author(s):  
Madeleine van der Bruggen ◽  
Arjan Blokland
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
English Language ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Communication Patterns ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
History Data ◽  
Trajectory Modeling ◽  
Child Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Observation Period

Darkweb fora dedicated to the illegal exchange of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) continue to thrive. Profiling forum members based on their communication patterns will increase our insights in the dynamics of online CSEM and may aid law enforcement to identify those members who are most influential and pose the highest risk. The current study uses data from a large English language Darkweb CSEM forum that was active between 2010 and 2014, containing over 400,000 posts. Posts were time stamped, categorized based on subforum topic, and linked to individual forum members by nickname. Group-based trajectory modeling was subsequently applied to derive forum member profiles based on members’ posting history. Analyses show that over the course of the observation period, overall activity levels—in terms of total number of posting members and the average number of posts per month per member—fluctuate substantially and that multiple developmental pathways—in terms of monthly patterns in the frequency of posts by individual members—can be distinguished. Theoretical and practical ramifications of these findings are discussed.

Porch pirates: examining unattended package theft through crime script analysis

2022 ◽  
pp. 106-122
Author(s):  
Ben Stickle ◽  
Melody Hicks ◽  
Amy Stickle ◽  
Zachary Hutchinson
Keyword(s):  
Script Analysis ◽  
Crime Script ◽  
Crime Script Analysis

scholarly journals Scripting the mechanics of the benchmark manipulation corporate scandals: The ‘guardian’ paradox

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Jordanoska ◽  
Nicholas Lord
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Criminological Theory ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Script Analysis ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
Crime Script ◽  
Global Banks ◽  
Crime Script Analysis

This article implements a crime script analysis to understand the procedural dynamics of corporate benchmark-rigging in the financial services industry. In 2012 several global banks were implicated in the manipulation of various trading benchmarks, portraying the industry as affected by serious, pervasive and ‘organized’ corporate crimes. Yet their dynamics have been relatively little studied by criminologists. To address this gap, we analyse official enforcement documentation, supplemented with data from interviews with key informants in the UK financial markets. We analyse the range of interactions between the relevant actors, their actions and the resources essential to the manipulations, and deconstruct the benchmark manipulations into four scenes (calculated positioning and identification of co-collaborators; recruitment; (ephemeral) manipulation; recompense and solicitation). The analysis reveals that regulatory and organizational systems play a paradoxical role of both ‘capable guardians’ and ‘facilitators of misconduct’; this has implications for criminological theory.

How Online Fraud Victims are Targeted in China: A Crime Script Analysis of Baidu Tieba C2C Fraud

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110298
Author(s):  
Claire Seungeun Lee
Keyword(s):  
The Internet ◽  
Online Identity ◽  
Identity Fraud ◽  
Online Fraud ◽  
Payment Methods ◽  
Online Marketplace ◽  
Script Analysis ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Crime Script ◽  
Crime Script Analysis

E-commerce is the practice of purchasing, selling, transferring, and exchanging goods, services, or information through the Internet, a computer, and/or other devices. With the development of e-commerce markets, fraud is increasingly reported. This study uses a crime script analysis to examine how customer-to-customer (C2C) fraud occurs on China’s online platforms with a particular focus on the online marketplace Baidu Tieba and Tencent QQ, a tool that allows customers to make contact and negotiate deals and payment methods. The findings demonstrate that C2C fraud develops through pre-operation, operation, finalization, and exit stages, sharing commonalities with other online identity fraud processes. Implications for policy and interventions are also discussed in regard to e-commerce fraud in China and elsewhere.

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